By Kieron Gillen on July 10th, 2010 at 2:00 pm.
Catching up with the last few day’s Internet and I wonder how on earth I missed the wonderful dancing TF2 characters videos by Professional Animator James Benson which PC Gamer posted on Thursday. Because I’m drunk, 24-7, that’s why. God knows what Walker’s excuse is (Answer: He Is A Bad Healer). Anyway, better late than never, as Delightful Fiancée put it after the last pregnancy scare. I want you to all stand up while watching these, so you’re ready to give a standing ovation. And…
STANDING OVATION GO!
Ooo, press play on all of them with a couple seconds of delay between each. Fun!
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Sorry, isn’t nearly as good as the troll dance.
Still pretty good though.
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Oh please, that was fantastic. Valve should hire this guy right away.
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@HD
I’m short-sighed and I say you need your eyes checked, or perhaps your brain.
That was brilliant!
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C’mon, get the mob out of here and be nice on people with different opinions.
Srsly, majority is not an excuse, period. We, over at the ethics branch of philosophy, laugh at “the truth of majority”, it’s one of the biggest jokes of all*
If you want to be consistent with your other claims, you should aknowledge that how other people get bored shouldn’t be this relevant to anyone either.
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*Some of the others are:
Christianity and how Jesus doesn’t quite fit in the picture..
Hegel and his oh my spiral keep cumming… let’s kick in another Triad and stuff
Kant – an empty categoric imperative…man, what he was thinking!
Big binary and absolute dichotomies like Good and Evil, West and East, Us and Them…thank God for postmodernism
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@ Frankie The Patrician.
I have no idea what you just said. Something about Jesus and Kant playing TF2. I don’t know.
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@Frankie — Hold on now. When you fuck with Hegel, you fuck with me.
Me and the weltgeist, actually. And if there’s one thing that the Phenomenology teaches us, it’s that you don’t fuck with the world-spirit, the world-spirit fucks with you.
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Can I say some stuff I know too? I used to watch this T.V. show with these two guys whose last name was Kratt, and they talked about animals. They added a Lemur Puppet to the show, and changed its name, whereupon it jumped the shark. That’s one thing I know.*
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* Others are:
– peeling a grapefruit and eating like an orange is pretty challenging, but rewarding
– I’m standing on one foot
– how to make shiny buttons on the internet
– how to be invisible
– some maths
– the Irish word for butterfly
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Also — “be nice to people with different opinions” doesn’t really belong in the same post as a sort of world-blanketing mockery and pronouncement of various thoughts as “the biggest joke ever”. I like the latter better than the former, because it’s more honest and less froofy of you. But they don’t mix very well.
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Ew. Could do with, well, any other soundtrack. Time to experiment…
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Brilliant! He has some more nice videos on that account. Like the Rock, Paper, Shotgun animation (That was posted here too, right?)
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Press play on each one second after the other for MAXIMUM DANCE
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EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!
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Hah!
I’ve seen this guy quite a few weeks ago, the guy’s an animation genious I hope he gets hired for valve and makes the dance a new end of the round taunt.
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Brilliant, of course. But they’re way too fluid and slick to be something that you’d see in game or in the meet the team vids. No slight on Valve’s technique; they just have more deliberateness and heft to them in TF2 than in these fun little vids.
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I’m probably just weird, but the whole TF2 fandom has grown in a way that it now just seems very odd and forced.
A bit like furries with less fur and more wrench.
Oh well, to each his own.
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this. its starting to put me off playing. very odd. sadface
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TF2 is far too memetic for it to not grow this way.
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@Rebb You’re right, you’re just weird. People find it amusing watching the characters they play all the time do silly dances, that’s all. You’re looking too deeply into it and shouldn’t let such a harmless thing put you off playing.Comparing it to furries is just insulting.
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@Bloodloss:
Guess We Are Not The People, (err…Feeder got under my skin after several years, yes), then.
Insulting? C’mon, get a grip, it’s only a game, not a religion (and even then I’d tell you to get a grip, ahem :))
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Some people just can’t stand watching others being creative, having fun, and enjoying themselves. To the point, in fact, where they can get neurotic and hateful because they feel they’re incapable of doing the same.
And yes, this applies to both furries, the TF2 scene, and just about anything where people have fun and are more creative than the average person.
TF2 hasn’t built up quite the level of widespread schizophrenia that furry has yet, though. For example: The reaction to a trailer to an upcoming film – Alpha and Omega – in a number of corners of the Internet was rather ridiculous. “The furries are winning, they’re going to rape our children!”
How about… less psychosis, more fun? Stop fretting over people having fun, and have a little fun yourself. You won’t regret it. You’ll probably feel healthier for it.
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Well, incapable isn’t the best word for it, really. Anyone’s capable of having fun. It’s just that some people get so caught up fretting about the fun of others, and learning new and interesting ways to be angry with and irritated at them for it that they forget how to have fun themselves.
They get caught in this bizarre fun-must-be-destroyed rut. Instead, they should just find out what’s fun and entertaining for them and… well, do it! How other people have fun shouldn’t be this relevant to anyone.
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oh do not be so harsh on us misanthropes , Wulf , as, in some twisted way ,we have our fun too
even if that require sniffing a huge amounts of glue
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Mmm…glue..
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Well I’m standing, and now I’m definitely ovationing. And then some.
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Pyro is the best.
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Spy as Michael jack son was fantastic.
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I believe you mean “Spy as Bob Fosse”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6TKArIoFu8
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Hmmm… I’m meant to be going out for drinking, debauchery and dancing tonight. I think I’ve found me some new moves. Now I just need to find a club that plays non-stop C&C Music Factory… so that’ll be an early 90′s German gay bar.
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Only really works if they don’t load *slightly* out of synch, of course, but such is life…
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Let them play through once and it adjusts itself.
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Hey everyone, really glad to see people enjoying these, even though they’re work in progress shots!
Few things:
It’s the same song b/c these will all be dancing together in a final video.
Kieron, I saw you at the one life left christmas party, but I was too scared to say hello.
Oh, and I’m the guy who made the 1st peson rock paper shotgun animation that was also posted on here! Potentially, you should make me the official RPS animator.
PEACE
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Can’t wait to see the finished product!
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Ve-ry nice.
Lots of attention to detail in there, to say nothing of the general awesomeness.
New rigs too I see! Very well done.
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You’ve made me wish I was half as smooth as
a crazed gunmanan assassin. Bravo.report
Kudos mate, your work’s the most entertaining bit of TF2 material I’ve seen in ages; good luck finishing it up, and presumably doing other things.
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Ova-tion egg/pregnancy pun opportunity missed. You are slipping KG.
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oh you beat me to it, apparently by an hour. I am dissapoint.
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Is that where the phrase “egging them on” comes from?
Also, unrelated to eggs, the ass slapping part at the end was slightly disturbing.
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“so you’re ready to give a standing ovulation”
I am dissapointed it did not say this
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But where does the ovulation/egg reference come in?
Are you just saying ovulation because that in itself is supposed to be funny?
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Re: “pregnancy scare” in KG’s post.
- not KG
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Pyro seems the smoothest at this point, but for WIPs these are still freakin’ awesome :D
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Hah, these are amazing, to the point where I want them as hugely impractical in-game taunts.
(Impractical because taunting leaves you incapable of defending yourself until the animation ends)
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You know what would be awesome? If both teams got together in the middle of a game and started dancing as one group, that’s what. :D
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that would tie in nicely with the growing dance-fighting craze.
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now since the demoman is drunk most of the time i’m surprised that he can do a backflip
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I wish someone would create a Thriller video with the L4D characters
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THE SPY IS A
MICHAEL JACKSONPEDOPHILE!report
I would like to see the heavy dancing the woman part.
Also: can you freely exchange the animations between the characters? I would like to see everyone do the Beyonce. Or maybe just the soldier, but then he should also be singing Single Ladies.
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Who else thinks the Heavy+Medic was the scariest one of those besides the spy?
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Are you kidding? That was wonderful!
Easily the best of the videos.
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Wonderful and scary are not necessarily mutually exclusive in this case.
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I love the way that the Medic flops a little as he is manhandled by the stronger, heavier Heavy but still bounces back into the dance. Animating one character well is a challenge, plausible interaction is the real fun.
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give that man a golden wrench
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Sheer, and utter brilliance.
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Sniper = WIN
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It’s… beautiful.
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The pyro dance was also the most feminin dance of the bunch, I’m guessing this is deliberate :)
Srsly those rumours are gonna end up as : “Lady Gaga is Pyro!”
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It’s the Beyonce ‘single ladies’ dance, to C+C Music Factory… which doesn’t work but I guess he was limited by copyrights. Great animation though.
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end of heavymedic makes eyes burn
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Actually, speaking of furries, a whole lot of people from the furry community seems to be active in Team Fortress 2, no idea why though.. :|
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The overlap of “people who are furries” and “people who enjoy video games” is fairly large.
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*cheer!*
Can we have more of that, please? The Internet could always use more of this kind of thing.
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S
carexiest, you say?report
Loving the heavy/medic animation. The “lift” portion of the sequence could be repeated in a later segment but with the lifter role swapped – followed maybe by crushing/bad back animation for the poor medic. :-P
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The Heavy/Medic one was slightly disturbing… I LOVE IT!
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Speaking as a career medic I would pay good money for that Heavy/Medic dance as a joint taunt.
Seriously.
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Speaking as a career heavy, YES.
<3
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That Sniper dance reminded me.. I really should watch Napoleon Dynamite again (it’s a good movie) :)
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This made my day, thank you
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Ooh, very nice. Me likes. Can’t wait for the finished scene.
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Danceoff could easily replace sudden death mode and would be a lot more entertaining. (Particularly now since a lot of teams are engineer-heavy and it turns into a turtle stalemate.)
There’s that new Misc slot in character setup now– hopefully it’s intended for tap shoes for extra crits while dancing.
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What the &*(& Copy the blood elf / napolean dynamite dance on the sniper! Wow fail valve, another fail.
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…Valve? This is an independent animator, acting outside Valve. Working on his own.
I believe the “fail” belongs to you, my friend.
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Valve must satisfy our dire need for a “Westside Stories” map with these dance being the only things capable of doing.
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Not sure if you’ve seen the elusive spy-der crab :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFN0YTUMBzU
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Sniper as Napoleon Dynamite was a nice choice.
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Very Awesome, and so nicely done! I love em!
Are you planning to do all of the classes?
I’d be looking forward to seeing the scout and engineer ones! :3
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WOOT! That is BAD ASS!!! I don’t care if it’s not original; the dancing fits them awesomely. XD I can’t wait to see the finished stuff! :D
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these videos are excellent (except the end of the medic heavy pair. that was scary) anyway i think i would love to see scout with vanilla ice dance moves. seems more like him. hope you can make that a reality XD
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im not a crazed man dad, im an assasin!
:0
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In an awesome parallel universe, someone just made a series of shooting animations for a popular online team-based dance game.
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that looked gay, especially the medic-heavy couple- UGH, GAY
it’s only appropriate for the pyro character in my opinion. Disturbingly appropriate
Signed, an expert in sexuality, phd
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If there’s one thing games need it’s better animations. Someone hire this guy before the movie industry swoops in.
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lol at the end of the heavy medic one, spanky spankey ;)
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OMG MICHEAL JACKSON IS THE SPY ^^
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He definitely needs to animate a load of L4D zombies to dance behind the spy to Thriller.
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boy would i like to see THIS during humiliation :D
the medic and heavy ARE gay >_> they are a couple, it’s obvious.
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Wow… This guy obviously has too much time on his hands. Nice job!
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The heavy/medic thing should be a special melee attack the heavy can do on enemy medics.
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MOAR LIEK STANDING OVULATIONS AMIRITE?
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The end of the Medic and Heavy one was just akward to watch, but the Spy was brilliant.
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Dear Animator,
Would you be so kind to use Otto von Schirach’s adaption of this song? (another night another rave)
That would be great.
nice animations animator
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A dance as an ‘end of round taunt’? THIS is the stuff that destroys otherwise exceptional games. The animation in the videos is, of itself, outstanding, an accolade that would strip itself from the very object it pertains to if one where to actually implement a dance routine in TF2. How about we keep those dance routines right where we found them, in the videos, OUT of the game. You want dancing in a shooter, go buy Star Wars Galaxies or the Sims.
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You want crafting in a shooter? Go play an MMO. You want hats in a shooter? Go play The Sims. You want humour in a shooter? Pfft, go play a point-and-click. You want incremental content updates? Go play a subscription game.
Do you see where I’m going with this and how absurd it is in the context of TF2?
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I’m glad scout wasn’t the Napoleon dance but i’m also sad sniper got stuck with it =/ Scout better be like..a break dancer.
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The Pyro should shoot at 0: 01 flames ^^ THAT IS EPIC :D
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Great work, I wish I knew how to do this. Also can someone tell me where to post GMod photos (I have some great ones)
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Actually, if I got it right, he’s already working for Lionhead Studios. But I might have been tricked by someone.
Anyway, he’s an awesome animator and I’m happy he publishes some of his fun animations on youtube :D
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I remember there was once an RTD mode called Dance Fever(stopped and taunted nonstop for a few seconds), and it was catching..that could work
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Great work!
Pitty you have ADD though :(
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This is wrong on SOOOO many levels. But I love it. Especially the Heavy/Medic buttbuddy duo.
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KritzKast, the TF2 podcast, have just published their interview with James ‘thejazzman’ Benson about his work creating these TF2 Dance Videos and life as an animator in general.
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The sniper dance is taken directly from animations of the Bloodelf Male dance in wow, itself originally from Napoleon Dynamite.
Still the rest are damn nicely done and the last is awesomely choreographed!
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