Character Animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated characters to life. In terms of its usage in Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth animators utilize animation programs, such as Poser and Autodesk Maya, in order to computer animate various characters in the series, separate from the Halo game engine's already pre-rendered animation elements. Additional character animation has been used in Red vs. Blue very minimally beginning in the PSA, Holiday Plans, Part Three: Chestnuts Roasting... Originally using Poser, additional character animation was used to animate Sarge and his shotgun. During Revelation, Rooster Teeth began using Poser more extensively, with a majority of it being carried out entirely by Monty Oum.
In seasons 9 and 10, the Freelancer back story was mostly displayed in Poser. During the latter half of Season 9, a small team of animators joined Rooster Teeth, assisting Monty. In Season 10, Rooster Teeth gained a full team of animators to animate the Freelancer backstory, as well as during present day scenes. After Season 10, Monty Oum and the season's other animators went on to work full-time on RWBY, causing Season 11 to go back to traditional machinima. However, for Season 12, Chris Dike was hired as the new lead animator for the series, using the animation program Maya as opposed to Poser.
Red vs. Blue seasons utilizing original character animation
Poser
- Revelation
- Season 9
- Season 10
- PSAs (Various)
Maya
Trivia
- Throughout the series, the lighting has been inconsistent between the character animation and the machinima scenes; objects and characters appear brighter in the character animation in comparison to the machinima game engine's darker lighting. Sometimes vice-versa.