Proof in the Pudding: Source-made Videos

On the last episode of dragonball-Z, I showed a couple examples of current game trailers and explained how hardware and software rendering are starting to become indistinguishable. Well, enough talk! Let's see some examples here of what can be done without weighty software rendering:



Click here for Valve's repository of videos made with source

A couple of the videos I would like to highlight. First being the trailer for their project titled "Left 4 Dead", a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game.



And next is "Meet the Sniper" and introductory video for one of the characters for their project titled "Team Fortress 2". Valve has heavily documented TF2's creation process, so I will be discussing it in far greater detail in later posts. But for now, simply take a look at a non-photo-real style animation:



This latter example is what I will be most interested in. My personal preference is for movies that learn towards stylistic design as opposed to realistic design. I feel that NPR stories allow filmmakers to focus more on story and less on avoiding uncanny valley. This is merely a matter of personal preference. But a quick look at this years oscar nominations (and winners) shows that great animations can be made without striving for ultra-realism.

And now I will step off my NPR soapbox and show a third video, one of the most recent (and longest) videos made with the Source Engine, introducing another character from TF2. Watch and enjoy now, in the next post I will point out a few things that you may not have noticed about these videos, and why they're so nifty.