Animating believable, personable characters in a game is a daunting task for any designer.

But it's especially challenging for the developers of Electronic Arts' UFC fighting games, which are sold on the promise of offering players the opportunity to control near-perfect simulacra of real people competing to beat the snot out of each other.

As part of the popular GDC 2015 Animation Bootcamp, EA's Geoff Harrower and Lee Dowsett deconstructed the complex animation systems that underlie the visceral combat of the latest EA Sports UFC game. They walked through their unique production pipeline, showed clips of how individual fighters' moves were motion-captured, and shared their lessons learned from the process of shipping the latest UFC game.

Their talk offered a rare look at what it takes to produce a AAA combat sports game, and if you missed it in person you can now watch the whole thing for free over on the official GDC 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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