Category: Animation

Remember Snake? A staple of Nokia phones in the 90s, it might be the earliest example of mobile gaming; certainly the most popular. The mobile gaming scene today couldn’t be more different. It’s a behemoth that exploded thanks to the iPhone and other smart devices. It eclipses traditional console and PC gaming in both player base and revenue.

It’s a market that refuses to slow down, and given some people’s predictions it isn’t going to any time soon. But where else can it go? Is there a ceiling it will eventually hit? And has it changed the games industry for good?

Titans of the industry

By the end of 2018, the mobile games industry is expected to make $70.3 billion, more than double what consoles will ($34.6 billion). It accounts for 51% of sales within the gaming industry. By 2021, it could reach a revenue of over $100 billion.

Its fatal flaw though is its high levels of saturation. There are well over 800,000 games available on Apple’s App Store as of now. The majority of the revenue goes towards the prestige titles; everybody knows them, even your mum, your dad, and your dog.

The biggest earner at the moment is tween favourite Fortnite, which makes over $2 million a day for Epic Games. This is followed by the king of the market, King’s Candy Crush Saga, a six-year-old game that still manages to pull in over $1 million a day. It would be impossible for mobile games to not influence the wider gaming market, although it’s debatable who has the bigger impact on the other.

The name of the game

The top 50 highest grossing mobile games are all free-to-play (F2P). The majority of them make their money through in-app purchases that manifest in various ways. It’s a divisive tactic, with some lamenting it as the death of gaming or refusing to even touch such a game.

Others though prefer the low level of entry and are more than happy with playing their allotted time. Most people will only play for an average of 23 minutes a day. With no upfront cost commitment, more people are encouraged to download, which is why they remain the most popular games on the market.

Eyes on me

So how does one game separate itself from the pack? With something like Fortnite, it already has an established fandom, but other games, like Candy Crush Saga or Clash of Clans, built theirs up from seemingly nothing. As we mentioned, with 800,000 games on the market, and with an audience with limited time, breaking your way into even the top 1% is a challenge.

It’s no surprise then that those that dominate the charts are the same ones who release trailers to build up interest. And it rarely stops at just one; an ongoing series of trailers keeps audiences engaged over a longer period of time, keeping them in the game’s ‘ecosystem’ if you will. Despite being one of the most popular games in the world, Fortnite still sees the value in using trailers.

Since their gameplay isn’t the most scintillating, many mobile games have taken to creating pre-rendered trailers. Candy Crush Saga’s TV advert has 1.5 million views on YouTube. Clash of Clans? Their most popular trailer has 99 million views.

It begs the question of whether it works or not, but given the ongoing success of the games (Clash of Clans is currently the sixth highest-grossing mobile game) and the sheer number of viewers their trailers pull in, you’d struggle to argue that they don’t. They sometimes even star celebrities like Liam Neeson, Kate Upton and Ryan Reynolds.

It could be said that trailers are a ‘reward’ for being a long-term, loyal fan, with Clash of Clans in particular having a sense of internal continuity across its trailers that turns the concept of a simple mobile game into one with character and lore.

In-app advertisements for other games are becoming more prevalent, as many developers turn to trailers to differentiate themselves amongst their competitors. Though their grasp of what makes a truly engaging trailer might not always hit the mark.

It’s hard to imagine a future where mobile games don’t exist. Their continuation is probably tied to smartphones, so as long as they’re around, so are the games. 47% of smartphone owners in the UK use them to play games, and that number will no doubt continue to rise.

It can be challenging to stand out amongst the crowd in the mobile gaming market, but an effective trailer goes a long way in increasing your chances of hitting the mark. Here at RealtimeUK, we create cinematics that enchant an audience. If you would like to talk about your upcoming game with us, get in touch with me on [email protected] or call +44 (0)161 711 0260

 

Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles opened its doors to the world on 2^nd October for the Mondial de l’Automobile 2018. We’ll have to wait for the statistics but mutterings of absent brands and a quieter show overall were cast aside at the very least by the home brands who were out in force with plenty to show:

A huge presence and an utterly packed-to-the-rafters press conference were clear signs of Renault’s aims for the show. The EZ Ultimo concept ‘Robo-Vehicle’ was revealed; an autonomous, luxury, capsule-like design using only the finest materials inside and out for privacy-seeking connoisseurs. All this contrasted very sweetly with one or two stars from the brand’s 120-year history being celebrated at the show, including this really rather lovely Renault 5.

Kia was cementing its mainstream presence in the European market with the reveal of the new and very sleek Proceed. To my mind rightly described as a shooting brake rather than the more prosaic ‘estate’. The right stance, balanced proportions and genuine desirability are all present and correct. This was complemented by the launch of the Niro EV, a neatly-styled entrant to the burgeoning EV market. Full marks to Kia for the simplest and most impressive of stunts to prove the Niro’s 485km range; simply place the car 485km away (in the Auvergne region of France) and then have someone drive it to the show to meet up with its twin on the stand already. I’m sold!

I mentioned in my preview that Skoda’s Kodiaq RS would be a very intriguing prospect. It seems that many, many members of the motoring press felt the same way. I’m sure this one will be amongst the very best-driving of the latest crop of SUVs if previous experience of Skoda’s skill in setting cars up is anything to go by.

Global reveal of the small executive benchmark BMW 3-Series (G20) was for me the production car of the show. Very solid effort from Munich, beautifully resolved. No-one needs any more than a 320d in their life do they? Do they? Okay, perhaps a 330d then…

Immediately opposite BMW in Hall 4 is Jaguar. A chance to see the new i-Pace in the flesh but arguably the bigger story is the XJ-50, built to celebrate 50 years of the XJ model line and sharing a stand with the one that started it all; the Series One XJ6, launched at the very same show in 1968. Eight generations of Jaguar XJ made the trip from Jaguar HQ to the show but it was just these two models, at either end of the car’s timeline that made the cut for the show display.

A competitor to the i-Pace and Mercedes Benz’s new EQ electric vehicle, on the Audi stand it was the first chance to see the new E-Tron in Europe. Typically solid Audi design and technically convincing, this will surely become an increasingly common sight on our roads in the near future.

Great to see the all-new Suzuki Jimny too, up-to-the-minute and yet reassuringly familiar at the same time, this looks to be a very capable vehicle to carry on the tradition of its predecessors.

Finally and for me the highlight of the entire event, the Peugeot e-Legende. An autonomous coupe with stunning petrol blue velvet interior, boasting driving controls and instrument panel that slip smoothly into the bulkhead when driving autonomously. This was, to be honest, most striking not for its undeniable technology offer and vision of the future but for its pure, stop-me-in-my-tracks beauty and utterly triumphant Frenchness. Fabuleux les gars! 

Forget the naysayers ladies and gentlemen, this is a strong show. Absolutely worth the trip!

Pete -our awesome Outsource Manager– has recently been on a podcast with Allan McKay, chatting on his renowned and self titled, ‘The Allan McKay Podcast’: a creative and career related podcast focused on artists in Design, Film, Visual Effects and Video Games, which typically ranks amongst the top 50 in the career section of iTunes!

Episode 151 of the podcast titled ‘Insights into Hiring with RealtimeUK’ sees Pete and Allan chat about a range of recruitment topics; discussing the debate of being a ‘generalist’ over being a ‘specialist’, the working culture at RealtimeUK, and what can really help a candidate stand out to a recruiter.

“I often find that [it takes] 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.  A lot of people just need to work through that and realise that to get that first good piece, you need to make 20 pieces before you really hit it. Every time you do it, at any level, you will take a few steps forward. It’s a constant push and a commitment to learning. Which is more of a mindset.”

 

You can catch the podcast in full through this link: https://www.allanmckay.com/151/

[11:10] Allan: Thanks for taking the time to chat! Do you want to introduce yourself?

Pete: Sure, my name is Pete Leonard. I’m the guy who manages all the Human Resources here at Realtime UK. I’m in charge of brining in our permanent staff and managing our contractors and freelancers; basically anything that has to do with resources. That’s what I do?

[11:43] Allan: Do you want to talk about Realtime UK (just for anyone who’s been living under a rock)?

Pete: Yeah, absolutely! Realtime UK is a medium size studio here in the not-so-sunny England. We’ve been going for almost 22 years, doing effects and animation. Most of our work has been in game cinematics and commercials; but we’ve also done on realtime cinematics, VR. We’ve also had some work happening in tv.

[12:26] Allan: In terms of all the different media, is VR something you’ve been covering?

Pete: Yeah, there’s been a number of events. There is a lot we can’t talk about. The company has been doing investigation into RnD for a while. At the moment, we’re doing VR demonstrations where we’re pushing it as far as we can. We are doing it different industries. That’s probably as much as I can say about it (which is a little bit frustrating). The one thing I will say is we’ve been able to get results in VR. We’ve been happy with the quality, but it’s been a lot of work. For a medium size company, the quality of the artists is really high here. Our specialists in each area are really good and there are high level generalists.

[14:05] Allan: I want to dive back to this whole “Generalist vs. Specialist” thing. To talk about the studio, how big of teams do you have there?

Pete: It varies. Are are about 40-50 people but we can increase up to 10-15% depending on project needs. And as you can imagine, in project based industry, that can fluctuate quite a lot. But it tends to be between 10-15% increases.

[14:54] Allan: What kind of environment do you have at the studio in terms of having a fun culture to work in — and what kind of personalities you tend to attract?

Pete: In terms of personalities, we’re absolutely open. We are not set on the idea of what type of person that should be, or their background. They should be somewhat sociable. It’s not a huge studio and people get along quite well. But people come from different backgrounds: from graduates of top schools to people who’ve switched industries. It’s really important that people are committed to what they do, to learning, to improving themselves. But in terms of what they’re interested in, we’re open to that. We have people who are into mountain biking, we have some gamers, people who are into cars. It’s really all walks of life there. It’s really important they’re committed to what they do and are prepared to ingratiate themselves into a medium size studio.

[16:52] Allan: I think that’s critical to have: you want people to function in the same room and want to grab a beer after a stressful day. In a creative industry, you’re going to have different personalities.

Zoe Matthews (Marketing Manager): The notation we have, we have artists who want to jump from studios and want to push themselves. We have such a great family here.

Pete: Some of the core people have been here 10-20 years, 3-4 have been here for as long as the company has been going. What may not be known is that do have two studio locations. We have one in Manchester. We try to accommodate on both sides.

What is SIGGRAPH?

SIGGRAPH 2018 is a five-day celebration of the latest innovations in CG, Animation, VR, Games, Digital Art, Mixed Reality and Emerging Technologies. It’s set to run from the 12^th to the 16^th of August at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

How are RealtimeUK getting involved?

After Stu’s brilliant speech at FMX earlier on in the year, we have been kindly asked again by the guys at Chaos Group to take part in their #VRayDay.

Sounds fun! But what is #VRayDay?

#VRayDay is Chaos Group’s celebration of their VRay technology; they’ll be showcasing the diverse uses and capabilities of the software through interactive exhibits and a collection of informative talks. At SIGGRAPH this year they’ll be hosting talks from; Method Studios, FuseFX, Digital Domain and ILM amongst some other fabulous studios.

All the V-Ray Day sessions are free to attend and will be held in Meeting Room 8 in the East Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre!

What is Stu going to be talking about?

Stu’s talk is again titled ‘Cinematic Worlds: A holistic overview of creating games trailers’. He’ll discuss the overall process of creating cinematic trailers, and the key influential aspects that effect production from an internal and an external perspective.

Although this time, Stu is hoping to expand the conversation by talking through some of our most recent projects as illustrative worked examples, highlighting the different challenges that come up when working within a different pipeline (Sea of Thieves) or when working with a gigantic IP (Jurassic World).

How can I get a ticket?

You can get tickets from SIGGRAPH’s website. There are lots of different ticketing options so that you can really make your SIGGRAPH experience your own, from ‘Full Conference’ tickets, to simpler ‘Exhibits Only’ options.

Prices start at $50 for a basic visitor pass and can reach up to $1550 for the full conference experience! But if you are a student you can get the larger priced tickets at a more affordable discounted price ($500 for a full conference pass).

Where Will I Be Able To Find RealtimeUK?

Sadly, we won’t have a static location that you’d be able to find us at, but we will be updating our Twitter feed as we’re adventuring around the event, so if you spot us then please come and say hello!

What Else Can I Get Up To At SIGGRAPH?

SIGGRAPH seems to be a festival of creative information, and the organisers have rounded everything that you can expect into five main categories; Learn, Create, Discover, Share and Bond.

It seems that visitors aren’t only there to learn, but the event seems to be set up for a community like atmosphere, to help any level of artist grow into their artistic shoes.

 

Stu’s talk kicks off Wednesday’s day of events at 10am in Meeting Room 8, East Building on the 15^th of August!

Chris Scubli our awesome Senior Generalist has yet another Top Tip. This week he’s got some advice to help make rendering complex scenes a little easier.

When rendering complex scenes, you want as much control and freedom as possible, to allow for faster iterations. I find that one of the best tricks for achieving fast iterations is to render objects separately from their environment and then to put everything back together in the compositing stage.

Take this example:

To render the teapot separately from the surrounding environment; right click the teapot, go to Object Properties and then tick off the Visible to Camera option. We are not simply hiding the object, but we’re telling the camera not to see it instead. As a result, the teapot is still casting the correct shadows, GI and reflections on its environment.

 

 

Then we render the teapot on its own, with the environment set to be invisible to camera, or a matte object if there are any elements occluding the teapot. Now we can adjust the teapot or make render tweaks to desired assets only, without redoing the entire scene. This also gives more freedom to effects integration and when trying to avoid alpha fringe artefacts.