Behind the Frames of Where Cards Fall
By the time Where Cards Fall was ready to launch in September 2019, it had come a long way from the student project that it started as 9 years prior.
The concept for the game evolved from paper prototypes into decks of animated cards that would still need to maintain a sense of tactility on screen. In addition to mastering the right feel for the controls, there was also a coming of age story that had to be told through the visual and audio elements of the game in hopes that it would offer players a moment to reflect on their own narratives.
As part of our ongoing Behind The Game series, we’ll be shining a light on the people and processes that made this happen.
We got behind the frames with lead animator Cedric Adams to find out more about how he and his team helped bring life to the world of Where Cards Fall.
In your Pocketgamer interview, you mention that you started out in mostly commercial animation work before getting pulled into games. What’s the story there?
My first job was for a commercial VFX studio in Knoxville, TN. When that job ended, I used all of the impressive pieces to make a post-college showreel. That reel steered my freelance career in a very different direction than working in games. I volunteered to work for a few indie game studios looking to hit their Kickstarter goals and slowly built a reel from those game assets.
My freelance game reel was removed from Vimeo though and I lost all that content to show. I eventually took a contract film job and met the animator that would recommend me to work for The Game Band.
Which tools do you use to animate and what do you recommend for someone starting out?
I generally animate in Maya. Starting out, I recommend learning Maya or Blender as the free alternative.
I thought about the tone of movement someone would have while listening to Radiohead’s song House of Cards.
What are the main methods for animation in games and which were used in the making of Where Cards Fall?
There are two primary ways of animating in games. There’s hand key animation and then motion capture animation. Where Cards Fall was done with hand key animation, which just means that my animators and I had to make every action from scratch.
What inspired your approach to animating the characters in the game?
When I started animating for Where Cards Fall, I thought about the tone of movement someone would have while listening to Radiohead’s song House of Cards. House of Cards is a very chill, melodic song and it was a big reference for Sam, the Creative Director of The Game Band.
I get a calm and gentle feeling from all the subtleties in that song so I tried to make all my animations calm, precise, and subtle. Beyond that, I animated what I thought looked best.
What’s something a lot of people may not realize about the animation of Where Cards Fall?
One weird little quirk about Where Cards Fall’s animation is that almost all of the character movement and facial animations were done separately. Around 99% of my team’s work was done on faceless characters.
Unclear direction usually leads to confusion and varied results so it pays to do your research and be clear on what you want.
Do your creative endeavours outside this role lend themselves to your work and process as an animator?
My biggest creative endeavour outside of work is making music as Foxførd. I love producing music and singing. I’ve learned so many valuable lessons in music production that I have applied to my job as a lead animator. There are too many lessons to list off but an important one is to be knowledgable and concise about what you want to see (or hear).
I’ve made plenty of mistakes not clearly telling Music Engineers what I’d like done and it has only cost more time and money. Unclear direction usually leads to confusion and varied results so it pays to do your research and be clear on what you want.
As you progress through the game and follow the experiences of the main character, the nuances of the animation work by Cedric and his team help express the ups and downs of growing up in a way words sometimes can’t. It’s clear that a lot of care went into the animations of Where Cards Fall and we can’t wait to see what the talented team will come up with next!
You can keep up with Cedric on Twitter at @skinnyfoxford
Follow us on social media at @wherecardsfall and stay tuned for more from our Behind The Game series.
