Jonathan Cooper is an award-winning video game animator that has been bringing virtual characters to life since 2000, leading teams on large projects such as the Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect series with a focus on memorable stories and characters, and cutting-edge video game animation. He has since been focussing on interactive cinematics in the latest chapters of the DICE and Annie award-winning series Uncharted and The Last of Us. Jonathan has presented at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco and at other conferences across Canada and the UK, and holds a Bachelor of Design degree in animation.

Chapter 1: The Video Game AnimatorChapter 2: The Game Development Environment .Chapter 3: The 12 Animation PrinciplesChapter 4: The Five Fundamentals of Game AnimationChapter 5: What You Need to KnowChapter 6: The Game Animation Workflow .Chapter 7: Our Project: Preproduction .Chapter 8: Our Project: Technical AnimationChapter 9: Our Project: Gameplay AnimationChapter 10: Our Project: Cinematics & FacialChapter 11: Our Project: Motion CaptureChapter 12: Our Project: Animation Team Management .Chapter 13: Our Project: Polish & DebugChapter 14: The Future

What makes the difference between great video game animation and the purely functional, and how does this relatively new medium of non-linear animation creation differ from the more traditional fields of film and television? This book de-mystifies the animation side of game development, explaining every step of the process while providing valuable insights and work philosophies for creating the best game animation for beginners and professionals alike. Taking readers through a complete game production, this book provides a clear understanding of expectations of the game animator at every stage, featuring game animation fundamentals and how they fit within an overall project to offer a holistic approach to the field of game animation. Key Features Accumulated knowledge based on nearly two decades of insightful experience in all areas of video game animation. Establishes the fundamentals of creating great video game animation, and how to achieve them. A step-by-step explanation of every stage of a game production from the animator's perspective. Readers should come away with an understanding of the expectations of a video game animator.