Episode Details

Carlos Mendieta is an animator in the video game industry. He is most well known for his tenure at Retro Studios where he worked on Metroid Prime 2 & 3 as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. He is now creating his own comic book and creating a kickstarter, visit the website to support.

WEBSITE https://www.carlosmendieta.com/?fbclid=IwAR0GNIfo-tVcBGw3y_BchCaR-lTPTdxrVbYuigJIJJ4E3UW7nz9QDZbvnvA

#metroidprime2 #donkeykong #retrostudios

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

01:10 - Differences Between Animating And Drawing/Team Collaboration

02:44 - Getting All The Animators To Establish The Same Style For A Game

04:01 - Animators Comraderie/Animators Work Structure On Metroid Prime 2/3 

06:05 - Metroid Prime 2 Animators Were Never Under Huge Pressure/Prime 2 Cutscenes

07:01 - Carlos First Bit Of Work Was The Space Pirates

07:50 - Carlos Loved The Original Metroid Prime

08:32 - Complexity Of Prime 3 Cutscenes Compared To Prime 2

09:47 - How The Structure Of The Cutscenes Were For Prime 2 And Prime 3

11:00 - Cutscenes Storyboards

12:24 - Carlos Was Told Prime 3 Wouldn’t Have As Many Cutscenes As Prime 2 Initially/Sammy Hall

13:37 - Adjusting Animation Style From Metroid To Donkey Kong

14:45 - Donkey Kong Playing DS Animation

15:30 - SD To HD Doesn’t Change Animating Much/New Skeletons Were Created Between DKCR & DKCTF

16:37 - Donkey Kongs Fur Was Handled By Engineers Not Animators

17:09 - Animating The Bosses Of Both Donkey Kong Games/Owl Boss

18:15 - Cutscenes For Donkey Kong Vs Metroid Prime/Facial Animation

20:46 - Duration Of Making One Cutscene In Donkey Kong

21:45 - Having A Plan Before Animating Is Critical

22:42 - Compressing Animation/Framerate

24:01 - Acting Out To Get Animation References Right/Keyframe MP

26:30 - Carlos Animated Himself For The Walrus Butt Hit Reaction In Tropical Freeze

27:30 - Samus Was Animated As A Badass Where As Donkey Kong Animation Was Exaggerated

28:38 - Carlos Animated The Samus Thumbs Up In Prime 3 And It Was A Big Cutscene To Animate

30:46 - Retro Studios Animation Team Continued To Get Better/Carlos Went To Artschool With A Lot Of Retro Animators

31:40 - How Carlos Ended Up At Retro Studios/Being Excited To Work On Metroid

33:37 - Working On Metroid Prime 2 & 3 Wasn’t Stressful Due To The Team

34:58 - Crunch For Prime 2 Was 3 Months And Was Only Cutscenes/Polish At The End Of Prime 2 Development

36:25 - Metroid Prime Franchise Is The Only Franchise Where Cutscenes Were Done At The End

37:30 - Story Was Changed Part Way Through Prime 3 Which Made A Ghor Cutscene Change

38:30 - How A Small Tweak  Can Dramatically Change Production

39:30 - Nintendo Cares About Quality

40:30 - Nintendo Gets QA Testers On A Game From Early Development

42:23 - Carlos Loved Working At Retro Studios/

43:54 - Most Of The Metroid Prime 2/3 Animation Team Is Still At Retro

44:40 - Why Carlos Left Retro Studios & Moved To New Orleans

44:45 - New Orleans Inspires Carlos

47:07 - Carlos Is Kickstarting A Comic

47:43 - Carlos Shows Off Artwork For His Comic/Idea Of The Comic

48:52 - It Takes 8-12 Hours To Do One Drawing

49:38 - Carlos’ Thinks Metroid Dreads Cutscenes Are Awesome

50:35 - Carlos’ Loves The Animation Of Cupped/

52:00 - Carlos Theorises How They Animated Cuphead

52:45 - Environments On Metroid & DK Were Handkeyed

53:50 - Destructive Terrain Of Tropical Freeze/Frantic Fields Trees Were Animated 3 Times

55:20 - Carlos Favourite Cutscenes He Worked On

56:15 - Timelessness Of Retros Games

57:10 - Carlos Didn’t Lea