Designing and animating believable, affecting creatures for your game is tricky business, especially if you have to bridage the uncanny valley between the look of your game's fauna and the actual real-life animals they're based on.

As part of the Animation Bootcamp at GDC 2013, experienced film and game animator Amy Drobeck took the stage to walk attendees through her process for breathing believable life into virtual creatures -- from the skeleton up.

At the time Drobeck cited her recent experience creating creatures for WB Games' The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and spoke of her time spent observing real-life animals like bears, horses and eagles to hone the movements and personalities of their fantastical in-game counterparts. 

Her talk offers a too-rare glimpse into the process of creature animation in the game industry, and it's absolutely worth watching. If you missed it in person, you can now do so for free over on the offical GDC Vault YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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