Motion captured animation made us suspect witchcraft
Mo-cap has been around for ages, with varying degrees of success. One of the first games to use it was Prince of Persia. No, not the recent remake The Sands of Time, but rather the original, 2D dungeon platformer. When that was released, it was a revelation.
At the time, the movement of the main character was so fluid, it was like there was a little man running around in our TV sets. This YouTube video, collected from several small videos released to promote the remake, shows how it was done.
But now, the fluidity has gone. Where before our eyes drew in the missing frames, our spoiled brains can't help but see the joins in animation sequences or the occasional duff frame of movement. Or the way that Jaffar always puts the same foot forward when he walks towards the princess.
What impressed us even more was Flashback by Delphine Software. Sure, Another World took the animation technique one step further than PoP, but it was Flashback that made it all look incredible.
It's actually aged remarkably well, but the thing that we laugh at now is how amazing we thought the intro sequence and in-game cutscenes were. They look like slow, low-detail cartoons now, but at the time, years before the video-happy Mega CD and then the DVD playback of PS2, there was nothing like it. Feel free to scroll on past the long wait at the title screen after the intro.
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