The best art and animation talks of GDC

gamedeveloper.com:

GDC 2023 was ripe for in-depth talks on art, animation and related visual disciplines. While the Game Developer staff wasn't able to attend every art/animation talk (unfortunately, that's impossible, and we'll be looking on vault for the rest of the year), here are a few highlights from our coverage. We've included deep dives on the cinematics of Horizon Zero Dawn and Gotham Nights, the overall aesthetic of Supermassive Game's horror projects, interview notes from IGF-nominated-and winning projects such as NORCO, Afterglitch and RPG Time: The Legend of Wright and much more.

The cinematic director for Guerrilla Games' open-world post-apocalyptic game describes their approach to adding epic flair.

"Before we get into defining these tools and having examples, I want to use the visual metaphor of a theme park," said Auray after he presented the two gameplay clips. "In a massive open-world game with cinematics, there are sometimes the main quests that will feel like a roller coaster, where it's a high-quality, exciting ride with bespoke cameras and animation."

Continuing with his metaphor, he explained that Horizon Zero Dawn was a combination of roller coasters and "spinning teacups" (the more relaxed ride), which worked for main quests and smaller events, respectively. He stated this was necessary on the original, as the first game's cinematics were produced around leveraging solid voice-over talent rather than having extensive mo-cap performances with the actors.

NORCO takes players to a futuristic vision of Norco, Louisiana, digging deep into the look, sound, and feel of the place as it tells a story of a missing sibling.

"A lot of the visuals were informed directly by the landscapes of suburban New Orleans, having spent