"Criticism Of The Facial Animation In 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' May Have Been Misdirected" Article Review

The article "Criticism Of The Facial Animation In 'Mass Effect: Andromeda' May Have Been Misdirected" by Kevin Murnane discusses how many people have negative opinions on Mass Effect: Andromeda's facial animations. The article first summarizes people's reactions, and then explains why the facial animations are so bad.

Murnane believes that criticisms towards the game should have been directed at Electronic Arts, the game's publishing company, rather than the animators who may have been rushed to get the game ready for release. The author states that "people at either Bioware or Electronic Arts, the game's publisher, that insisted the game be released before it was ready." (Kevin Murnane). Murnane talked with Jonathan Cooper, a lead animator on previous Mass Effect games. Cooper said that "In RPGs like Mass Effect, the player chooses among dialogue options which lead to different paths through a conversation. Rather than a single, scripted dialogue sequence there are any number of possible dialogue paths. Facial animations must be created for all of these paths" (Jonathan Cooper).

The article does a really nice job at defending the animators at Bioware, and informing people of the reasons as to why the game's facial animations are so low quality. However, Murnane compares Mass Effect: Andromeda to several other games, such as Uncharted and The Witcher 3. Mass Effect: Andromeda is a different game made by a different company, and while it's easy to compare, it's unfair since Bioware is a smaller company.

Overall, I agree with Murnane. Bioware's animators were likely not at fault here, and may have been rushed to finish the game so it could be released quickly. Bioware has been known to rush games, and were criticized for reusing assets from Dragon Age: Origins in Dragon Age 2 so it isn't rare to see this kind of criticism direct at Bioware's development team.

What is Graphic Design

Graphic Design is used in almost everything we do. It's used for advertisement, media, menus, brochures, comics, and so much more. Most people can find some relation to Graphic Design in everyday life.

Game Posters:

Monument Valley

One of my favorite things to do is play mobile games on my phone. Monument Valley's poster is a good example of a really great design to get people interested in a game. It's simplistic, has colors that look nice together, and a character with very little detail to them. The small amount of detail might get people curious and make them want to play the game to find out more.

What drew me to this game?

I thought the poster for this game was fascinating. It's simplistic, has colors that look nice together, and a character with very little detail to them. The small amount of detail on this character intrigued me since I've always been attached to minimalist-type objects.

Counting by 7s
by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Book Covers:

Books are another great example of graphic design's presence in every day life. Many people choose to pick up a book based simply on it's cover, which is a valid response since well design covers are one of the many things that draw people to a book.

Why did I read Counting by 7s?

As I said before, I'm attached to simple objects. The cover of this book really only consists of three colors: white, teal, and red. While the cover is very simple, the red pops out somewhat, which really made me notice it at the library.

Why does this matter?

As said before, people are drawn to what they find pretty. A well designed poster or cover can make people more likely to use your product. People try to find something they can relate to: whether it be colors they like, shapes, animals, certain settings, or maybe even just words.