by "RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
Published 11/30/2017 at 09:05
by "RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
Published 11/30/2017 at 09:05
Tags: shitposting
STARS: 1
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"random001" (random001)
11/30/2017 at 09:17, STARS: 3
Honestly, I expected Dickbutt...
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
11/30/2017 at 09:21, STARS: 3
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"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
11/30/2017 at 09:25, STARS: 1
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
11/30/2017 at 09:35, STARS: 0
Dafuq is dat?
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
11/30/2017 at 10:04, STARS: 2
Storytime! Okay, dating back to ages and ages ago, when Half-Life 2 came out, it was built on a new videogame engine that Valve Software pioneered a number of things with. It featured possibly the easiest system for managing character animations ever, and enabled facial expressions to be managed - which further enables animation for lip-sync. The main point was to make it easier for licensors of the Source engine for other games to have an easy time of things, but shortly thereafter, someone in the modding community created “Garry’s Mod”. A mod tool which was basically a way to enter a game environment, grab skeletal points on creatures and things, and tweak or anchor them at will. Effectively, a godsend for stop-motion animation with videogame assets...
Garry’s Mod animating became a huge cottage industry, even with people who weren’t interested in videogame modding - to the point that Valve more or less officially recognized Garry’s Mod and eventually released their own tool for doing animations with game models: Source Film Maker.
Obviously, the ability to animate things jerkily (or in some cases just video-capture ragdoll animation being dragged around) led to lots of use for memes and amusement. One of the early GMod breakout hits was a dramatic reading of a(n incredibly bad) Half-Life fan fiction:
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At the same time, the assets available to people doing Source animations grew and grew and grew. 3d models from other games that weren’t built in Source were imported and modified, and people created entirely new assets. This was boosted by the advent of Team Fortress 2 in the Source engine, a multiplayer shooter which had highly stylized character designs with inherent personality - much as the style sheets from the golden age of animation.
There immediately became a whole group of people animating TF2 characters, and TF2 only. At the best of times, reaching nearly Tex Avery levels of humor and fluidity with what had been borrowed, but very often being deliberately anarchic, Dada, and incomprehensibly full of references and in-jokes.
Take this: a Source Film Maker animated bit with an overlay from an episode of Duck Tales:
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Some memes escaped TF2 and other Garry’s Mod/SFM animation into the wild, such as “Nope.Avi”:
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Nope.avi is a short video clip featuring a BLU Engineer character from Team Fortress 2 saying “nope.” Because of its abrupt nature, the video is most often used humorously as a negative response or a curt dismissal in discussion forums and comment threads.
Nope.avi is the source of portraying TF2 “Engineer”s with a long neck for seemingly no reason. Hence today’s clip, which is animated in Source Film Maker and a typical intersection of a reference to other media, TF2 character focus, a TF2 meme, nonsensical interspersing of game character quotes (“I... am a GOD!”, “Need to put a dispenser here!”, etc.), and finally, an in-joke.
The character appearing at the end is a TF2-style model of Gabe Newell, the head of Valve. He is routinely mocked for being allegedly greedy and moneygrubbing, mocked for his weight and distinctive appearance, and so on and so on. Making the “making lots of money” quote rather sharp. But an in-joke.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
11/30/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 1
It’s good to mess with people’s expectations.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
11/30/2017 at 10:29, STARS: 1
Well, that is very possibly the longest and most informative reply to any comment I have ever made. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on that stuff. I have never been a gamer, so I don’t know a thing about how it’s all done, but I was able to follow (mostly) your explanation. Thanks!
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
11/30/2017 at 10:37, STARS: 0
the longest and most informative reply
It’s probably time to admit I have a problem. Anyway, I find it a fascinating topic, because it’s a form of outsider art which is using a publicly available tool to reach nearly a professional level of CG animation via a back door of sorts... and in manner very often touches on what made Termite Terrace great back in the ‘30s. Minimal if any oversight, people taking a character and doing things with it that makes them laugh.
There are actually annual awards for excellence in categories with these animations, if you can believe it.
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
11/30/2017 at 10:56, STARS: 0
There are actually annual awards for excellence in categories with these animations, if you can believe it.
I can certainly believe it. I’d rather have my boys learn how to do something like this and be creative than just run around and kill people.