#125 - Carlos Mendieta Interview (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Animation, Drawing, Comics etc.)
Kiwi Talkz · Kiwi
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Show Notes
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