Making of "SteelRising": Animating Action Games in 3ds Max

What would robots have looked like in 18th-century France if they had today's technology? That's precisely what Parisian games studio Spiders sought to explore in their latest action-packed RPG, SteelRising, out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In SteelRising, you play as Aegis, a powerful automaton tasked with protecting Paris from King Louis XVI's army of robots during an alternate timeline of the French Revolution. Informed by history but firmly rooted in Science Fiction, it takes a talented team working together to bring a complete vision like SteelRising's to life. We recently spoke with SteelRising Art Director/Concept Artist Cyril Tahmassebi and Senior Game Animator/Rigger Arthur Munoz to learn more about their experience developing the game world from concept art to final model and all the highs and lows in between.

You can find our entire conversation below, only on AREA.

Could you please introduce yourselves and your role on SteelRising?

Cyril: My name is Cyril Tahmassebi, and I'm an art director and concept artist at Spiders Games. I was in charge of SteelRising's art direction.

Arthur: My name is Arthur Munoz, and I am a game animator from France, currently residing in the southern part of the country with my wife and two kids. From 2009 to 2021, I worked at Spiders as a Senior Game Animator/Rigger.

I love working on combat and creatures in general, and I also enjoy working on animation direction, technical aspects, and production processes among different departments. For this project, I researched an animation style during pre-production with our lead animator, Mathieu Pallet, and produced the gameplay animations for the player and the enemy automatons. I also worked on the GreedFall DLC during SteelRising's production. I'm now a freelance animator on various projects and recently joined Moon Studio as a Senior Game Animator.

How would you describe SteelRising? How does it differ from Spiders' previous titles?

Arthur: Steelrising is an action RPG with a strong emphasis on fast-paced combat. It's set in an alternate timeline based on the French Revolution of 1789. Compared to previous Spiders games, SteelRising has a unique historical setting and storyline, with a focus on action-packed combat and the use of customizable weapons and abilities.

What tools were part of your daily workflow on SteelRising?

Arthur: During [SteelRising's] production, the animation team relied on 3ds Max to create its custom rigs and animations. It was important to maintain flexibility in the animation rigs to have maximum creative freedom with the automatons and the heroine. Marion Patin, our rigger on the project, worked on creating rigs with complex mechanisms, such as chains that unwind, mechanical snakes with multiple arms, or even Aegis' weapons that unfold from its arms. She did an excellent job with great efficiency. We also used Syncsketch extensively as a tracking and feedback tool to iterate as much as possible.

SteelRising's setting is so unique. What inspirations did you draw from when designing/modeling the characters and enemies of this world, Cyril?

Cyril: Thank you. A unique world and art style are a great compliment to me. The world was built around [the playable character] Aegis, this special automaton with a unique silhouette. The idea behind [Aegis'] proportions was to create an elegant and refined character, like a dancer—long limbs, very ornate and delicate. The long limbs were something I worked on with our lead animator, Matthieu Pallet. A long, thin silhouette allowed us to create a soft and refined movement, like a "danseuse etoile," the famous French ballerinas. In order to have great readability in combat, we pushed this idea of combining action and choreography: fluid, delicate and lethal.

Initially, we intended to include multiple HUD elements like stamina and health directly on the player's back, but it ended up distracting from the feeling of combat. So we only kept the main idea of portraying endurance/stamina through the character's animations. The enemies also continue Aegis's elegant, refined, but macabre style and concept.

The global structure and materials were inspired by several French references such as "la petite géante", or "Les machines de l’île" from Nantes, a subtle mix between old and new materials, woods, and metals. There were also "La joueuse de Tympanon", an automaton created by Peter Kinzing and David Roetgen in 1780:

As an Action RPG with even smoother, higher-stakes gameplay than GreedFall, how do you balance the intense gameplay requirements while keeping true to the concept art?

Arthur: My main goal was to maintain the clearest readability during combat while finding a unique identity for the project, all while keeping the player in a flow of combat that is always action-packed with responsive and challenging enemies. It was important for each enemy you encountered to possess a diverse range of attacks to provide a challenging fight with distinct behavior. There had to be a function for each enemy you encountered.

I believe everything hinges on the direction that we choose at the outset, as well as the conscious and unconscious references within each of us as we try to create something new. It's about finding novelty and originality while keeping a solid foundation that players love across games. Since SteelRising was much more action-oriented than our previous games, I had to go through a calibration stage where I established a sort of animation prototype, like a fake game animation video. I do this to establish the project's visual and technical limitations, sample the targeted animation quality, and try to reach a good game flow.

Next, there is a game prototyping phase where your ideas are implemented into the game engine. There is a lot of collaboration with the team to determine what is interesting to play or not. It's a constant back and forth between Concept Art, Game Design, and Animation. Communication and teamwork are the keys to achieving goals and a common vision. In the video below, you'll find a preview of game prototype animation for combat and jumps, animation tests for enemies, and a rig test demonstrating how to handle enemy variations in the game. During pre-production, there were countless topics to consider, test, and develop, such as determining how to heal yourself, how to use Aegis' grappling hook, or testing new working processes.

How did your experience working on SteelRising differ from your experince on previous Spiders projects?

Arthur: At the beginning of the project, we wanted to make sure we had a unique game style and create unique animations. Having a macro vision of the project was also crucial to communicate the stakes and combat pacing, which was more action-oriented. To achieve this, I created gameplay animation pre-visualizations to guide the project toward a clear vision and share it with the team. I relied on several references from other video games or media I enjoyed, such as Sekiro, God of War, or Japanese animation. These game animation prototypes – created in 3ds Max – helped me visualize technical constraints on the team's needs and wishes regarding animation. How many animations do we need to make a satisfying combat system? Is cutting off enemy limbs feasible in production? Can we implement a squash and stretch system on the characters? We choose the pacing and rhythm of the game, the intensity of the hits and reactions, the types of weapons, etc. We establish future constraints, list future needs, and communicate the tone and challenges to the broader team so everyone is on the same page.

What was your biggest challenge animating SteelRising?

Arthur: The biggest challenge was animating the automatons - how to represent them best and how to bring them to life. In animation, productions often rely on motion capture to quickly create a large number of gameplay animations. But on Steelrising, all in-engine automaton characters were entirely animated in keyframe, so maintaining animation quality and style throughout the production was vital. Since all the gameplay animations were done in keyframes, we had to adapt our creation process and establish different phases of the animation production. A lot of iteration work was necessary between the animators and the game designers.

First, there's the "Big Picture" phase: Planning, brainstorming, and macro-vision. Always think about the big picture first, then the details. Next is the "Reference" phase: Getting references from movies, games, and anime and filming video references. Then we establish the animation blocking, like a draft of intentions and main movements through key poses. After validation from Game Design, the animation is then splined, an improved version of the draft to refine intentions and gameplay constraints. In the polishing phase, the animation is finalized.

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Steelrising is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.