#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