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

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