Preparing Character Animations for DOOM: The Dark Ages

Introduction

I started my animation foundations in 2014-2017 at Singapore Polytechnic, and served the military for two years between 2017-2019. During that time, I also worked on a side gig where I animated for an animatronic performance for a short film called "The Mysterious Lai Teck" that was shown at a few international film festivals.

I then studied at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) from 2019 to 2020 before taking a one-year hiatus during the COVID pandemic, where I worked as a Junior Animator for Tiny Island Productions. During this time, I got to animate for episodic TV shows such as DreamWorks's "Gabby's Dollhouse" and "Doug Unplugs". My experiences here really taught me how to animate fast due to the quick turnover rate we had to pump those animations out for our client.

I then continued my studies with SCAD in 2021 and was accepted into a Summer Apprenticeship with XBOX Game Studios in 2022, where I interned at 343 Industries (now known as Halo Studios). While working on Halo Infinite, I learned more about motion capture and the requirements of high-quality AAA animations.

I completed my studies in 2023 and rejoined 343 Industries as a contractor for a year for Halo Infinite's Multiplayer content. I learned a lot about creating high-quality AAA game animations, and more about game engines as I familiarized myself with State Machines, Animation Blueprints, and comparison research of animating within Unreal Engine.

I then carried forward all the skills I learned before over to id Software in 2024, where I joined full-time as a Gameplay Animator for DOOM: The Dark Ages.

Favorite Animation

When choosing my favorite animation among all the others I've done for DOOM: The Dark Ages, I think of what animation would be the most memorable or have the hardest impact on the players (audience) upon first viewing it. Which is why the Revenant Leader Glory Kill/Execute is my favorite animation from DOOM.

When creating any glory kill/execute animations, it usually starts with the enemy being in a dazed state for a few seconds. This grants players the opportunity to play a unique kill animation for enemies, rewarding them with that dopamine hit of a striking animation (this was how I viewed it as a fan of DOOM before joining the company in 2024). I wanted to recreate this same feeling for other players and fans, anytime I create a new animation, and hopefully inspire other animators and artists alike, as others have done before for me.

That being said, I was inspired by one of the glory kills on the Arch-vile from DOOM Eternal, where it tried to attack the Doom Slayer in one final attempt, only to get stopped in its tracks and have the attack reversed. This moment inspired me, and I just had to recreate something similar for DOOM: The Dark Ages as an homage. More on that will be shared later!

Animating

I have been a fan of DOOM since the revival of the franchise with Doom 2016. At the time, I was still studying animation, and I realized I had a niche for creating hard, impactful animations, and DOOM was the perfect project for me to execute my work on.

In 2024, I was very interested in learning how to create first-person animations, and my animation lead, Peter, took note of this during our interview. Despite being in the early phase of my career in the industry, he gave me the opportunities to take responsibilities on animations for the Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher, and the DOOM series's iconic BFC (Ballistic Force Crossbow), and a few Glory Kills and various other animations, including third-person and expanding into cinematic animations due to my experience working in TV animations.

In the process of creating a glory kill/execute, key "pictures" and clear silhouettes were what Hugo Martin (our Game Director) and Peter Ashamalla (my Gameplay Animation Lead) always emphasized on as we wanted dark, yet beautiful moments for players to remember. We created quick block-out poses using Autodesk Maya to iterate and get feedback on.

Once we've decided on the key poses/beats, we will proceed to create the in-betweens of each pose. The idea was that players could pause at almost any moment, and it would be a pretty "picture". Some extremely useful tools I used in this animation were animBot, Pose2Shelf, and the Overlapper tool.

In the Revenant Leader Glory Kill/Execute animation, there are a few "picture" beats, the first was the Revenant Leader striking the Doom Slayer blocking with his Shield Saw. Then the next was the Doom Slayer parrying and knocking the sickle out of the Revenant Leader's hand and leaving him stunned for a moment.

The third was the Doom Slayer aggressively reaching into the Revenant Leader's chest, you can see him scream out in pain! and then pulling out the demonic essence/heart for a beat, before the Revenant Leader reaches out for one final dying attempt to reach for his beating heart.

It ends with the Slayer crushing the heart and the Revenant slowly burning away. When creating this animation, I intended for each of those moments to stick with the players and make them think internally, "Wow, that was cool", just as other animators from the past DOOM games have done before for me as a player.

Conclusion

I believe this animation took me about seven working days, not including other tasks on my plate. It went through various iterations, feedback, and testing to see how it played in-engine to get it to the final.

This animation mainly taught me the importance of clear silhouette and posing, key "picture" poses, especially in a first-person camera view. There are also other glory kill animations that I worked on that went into more depth with enemy limb dismemberment and parent constraint restrictions, and challenges.

My advice for beginning animators and artists is to build up your 12 Principles of Animation foundations first. No matter how experienced you are, once you grasp a good understanding of this, it will apply to every animation you work on. And for anyone interested in working in games, look into understanding game engines and how animations are hooked up.

Study other game animators' reels and notice what types of common animations are used for games, such as first-person animations, weapon animations, enemy death or attack animations, etc. Create those animations for your personal game animation reel, but push it to a higher quality level than before.

And last but not least, be open to receiving and addressing animation feedback, preferably from someone who has stronger animation experience and who will be able to provide you with the feedback you need, not just what you like to hear. That way, your animation quality will keep improving and not stay stagnant.

You can contact me on LinkedIn, my website, Instagram, and X/Twitter.

Skai Chow, 3D Animator

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine