GDC 2025 Session Viewer

Cinematic animation is crucial to bringing Cyberpunk 2077's rich, well-written characters to life, ensuring full immersion into its brutal world. The session delves into the intricate animation techniques used to overcome the unique challenges of a first-person perspective game, giving fidelity to complex storytelling with thousands of detailed animations — all at the service of player experience. Among other animation techniques used in the pursuit of cinematic realism, you'll learn how our in-house RED Workspot System manages NPC behaviors and interactions across Night City, providing a naturalistic touch to its open world. Discover, with visual analysis and a case study, how all the techniques in our arsenal work together in Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion to improve the kind of storytelling that has always been key to our studio.

Takeaway

Attendees will gain insights into overcoming first-person perspective animation and narrative challenges, focusing on our animation workflow, and using advanced tools like the Workspot System for animating NPC behaviors and creating rich open-world environments. They'll learn our techniques for seamless storytelling, character interaction, visual clarity, and complex motion capture design, illustrated through examples from Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion.

Intended Audience

This talk is open to anyone interested in animation workflows and techniques for complex video game environments, such as Cyberpunk 2077's first-person perspective and open world approach. While generally accessible, some topics may require a basic understanding of animation workflows and storytelling techniques used in video games.