Character Outfitting - USA Today Article
"Character detail is being taken to extremes in Modern Warfare 2. (A topic mentioned in today's cover story on the game here.)
During our visit to Infinity Ward last month, lead character artist Joel Emslie joined president and chief creative officer Jason West, CEO Vince Zampella, community manager Robert Bowling and Activision public relations gurus Mike Mantarro and John Rafacz in the studio's theater to show off a showcase gallery of characters. Among them: a ragtag militia squad member, Navy SEAL swimming in a tank, snow troopers and riot shield-bearing soldiers.
"Every single piece of gear on these dudes is based on some real steel, something that exists in the real world, and we put on there as tastefully as possible trying to get the look and feel that an operator would put together," Emslie says. "They use a lot of duct tape and grip tape. They customize their gear, their flak vest. A lot will wear neck wraps so they don't get chafing around their necks. We put that into our characters."
West chimes in that "what is exciting to me with our stuff is we talk to actual soldiers in the actual field. There's the textbook version of what they wear -- they wear the Arc 27 (radio) and it goes here -- and in the field it's like, 'No we actually put our food in that and we put it (the radio) in our boot. Then we store this over here and we tie that ..."
"... and that thing's a piece of s---, as soon it gets sand in it, it breaks," Zampella says.
Says Emslie, "we've had them come in and look at our holster that we are using and they say, 'We call that the death holster.' And we ask why. 'Because no one can get the gun out fast enough to shoot anybody before they get shot. Then we say, 'We got to get rid of that. What's the good one?'"
To personalize each character's arsenal, each weapon has a piece of flair, something that a real-world soldier might add. He points out a weapon used by a Navy Seal that has a shortened stock and an EOTech holographic sight. "It' all about trying to make it look dynamic," he says.
Next, Emslie then starts firing at the riot squad trooper to show how gunfire ricochets off. "It's like puzzle-solving with bullets," he says, which cracks everyone up. "That should be the new company logo," West says.
"You are trying to read these guys tactically and figure them out," Emslie continues, "so if I see a guy with a riot shield I've got to do something (to) break him out of his cover."
Then to explain the extremes that the animators go to, Zampella points out the underneath of the boots on a character that has succumbed to Emslie's shooting. "Every single character, the bottom of their feet are all independently textured and unique," he says.
"Yeah, look at one of their heels," West says. "This is just nonsense. You talk about ultra-real and hyper-real. This is too real."
"It's not wasted," Emslie says. "You could go prone in multiplayer and the feet are always showing up on camera."
"Or that guy could kick you in the face," Zampella says.
By Mike Snider
Image courtesy of Infinity Ward"
