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order order everyone new frame plus is

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in session by order of the patrons we

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are here to examine the animation in the

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Ace Attorney series so before we begin

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thank you to Marina de Mar is Scout

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hunter 546 and Archie Andrew ski for

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suggesting this very good topic now I

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realized that this might at first seem a

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strange series to make an animation

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analysis video about because the

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animation in the Ace Attorney games is

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incredibly minimal you could even argue

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that it is unnecessary just a flourish a

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light sprinkling of movement over top of

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an otherwise static visual novel but

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however non-essential the animation

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might seem it is still an important

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additive element and it's a big reason

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why Phoenix Wright games have proven so

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memorable game animation is always a

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challenge of delivering the most bang

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for your buck and ace attorneys

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developers have historically had very

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little buck to work with this is a

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series whose visual identity has been

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shaped by its limitations the first game

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was developed by a team of seven people

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over the course of just ten months the

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original Phoenix Wright trilogy was

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first made for the Game Boy Advance of

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all things and yet despite all that

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these games are loaded with expressive

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characters and silly charm so how do

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these games manage to do so much using

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so very little to start it helps that

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shoot akka me and his team chose the

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perfect presentational format the visual

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novel is an ideal genre for delivering

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an interactive story on the cheap I mean

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all you really need is backgrounds some

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static 2d character art and a text box

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and you can't get much more efficient

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than that and if all these games had was

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a handful of static poses and

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backgrounds in a text box they still

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would have worked I mean lots of

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successful visual novels have been just

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that but Ace Attorney does not stop

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there the first thing that really sets a

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Saturnia games apart from the pack is

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the quality of their pose design

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characters in these games only have a

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handful of poses each and you're going

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to be staring at those poses for hours

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so they have to be good and they have to

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somehow

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vade the totality of each character's

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personality

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Capcom's artists have to essentially

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take each character and condense all of

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their body language and all of their

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full emotional range down into just a

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few snapshots and these games are so

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good at it all these characters are so

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expressive so many visual novel

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characters will spend their entire game

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standing in these relatively neutral

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poses letting the text and their facial

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expressions do all of the work but not

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these folks just look at the range on

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edge words courtroom posing you got

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neutral smug Stern assertive very

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assertive taken aback

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exasperated that's not a whole lot of

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poses and yet he is larger-than-life

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every one of these characters makes an

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immediate strong impression like you

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don't need to read a single line of

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dialogue from red white to know that you

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hate him here I'll show you see just one

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glance at that pose and that smug

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expression and do you have all the

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information you need heck this game has

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some of the most iconic poses in all of

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gaming you don't have to have played a

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single Ace Attorney game to recognize

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this this brings us to another important

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element that sets these games apart

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their approach to limited animation

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because as you can see these are not

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just static poses compared to a lot of

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their visual novel contemporaries Ace

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Attorney characters actually animate

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quite a bit you see one of the common

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challenges for this genre is that you

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want your visual novel to be visually

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engaging right because static images can

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get pretty boring to look at after a

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while but you got no money so you've

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either got to accept that your games

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just gonna look pretty static and that's

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gonna have to be fine or you've got to

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figure out how to liven things up in a

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way that costs very little and it's

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pretty fun looking around to see how

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many varied solutions different visual

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novels and adventure games have used to

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address that problem because there are a

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lot of really creative approaches out

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there now in the case of Phoenix Wright

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fully animating these characters on such

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a tight budget and schedule obviously

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out of the question so what the artists

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did instead was work within their key

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poses adding just enough movement to

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keep the characters feeling alive I've

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talked before about the concept of

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limited animation which you often see

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deployed in animation for TV which has

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to work on a tighter budget well this is

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basically that but stripped down even

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further down to the barest minimum

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possible so the characters will hit

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these striking poses but then as they

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hold each pose they will continue to

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blink when they speak as their text

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dialogue appears below their mouths will

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cycle through a handful of talking

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shapes and for certain poses characters

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will even have extremely limited unique

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animation just one or two additional

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drawings wherever it'll have the most

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impact maybe even on just one part of

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the body like nervous characters will

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visibly sweat detective gumshoe will do

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this heavy breathing which just adds to

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his sense of eager intensity

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dee Vasquez will smoke her pipe Cody

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Hawkins will try and fail to draw his

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toy sword Luke at me will clean his

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magnifying glass thing Franziska von

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Karma will tensely grip the fabric of

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her sleeve just like her dad does by the

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way and they'll add these anticipation

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frames to the poses that really need to

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pop with some more energy like Phoenix's

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accusatory point or the moments where

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Phoenix or Edgeworth slammed their hands

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down on the stand that tiny bit of extra

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animation attention goes wherever it

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will achieve maximum personality or

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appeal or comedy like the first time

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you're up against Godot and you see him

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lean forward hand outstretched and a

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coffee mug suddenly slides into his palm

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out of nowhere if that gag is not worth

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a few more frames of animation than what

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is but the real value of this strong

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pose design and hyper limited animation

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is in the ways that they can both be

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used to show a progression of emotions

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over the course of a story this is a

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game of comically exaggerated courtroom

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drama and the posing on this cast of

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absurd caricatures needs to reflect the

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drama of the moment and not just for

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narrative purposes but also for player

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feedback in the context of a virtual

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courtroom visible shifts in a

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character's emotional state are some of

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the clearest

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back the player can get in response to

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their choices like if that last question

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got a big emotional reaction then you

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might be on to something or if the

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prosecution starts looking smug all of a

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sudden now that's probably a bad sign to

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show you what I mean let's look at just

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one characters entire animation set over

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the course of one story and to show just

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how good a Saturnia spin at this from

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the start let's do it with a character

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from the very first episode in the

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series Frank saw it now this particular

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episode opens with a cutscene showing us

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that Frank is in fact the real killer so

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there is no ambiguity going into this

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case we know for a fact that the accused

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our client is innocent and that Frank is

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not to be trusted so when the trial

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starts and it's finally Frank's turn to

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take the stand this is the first pose we

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see look at this suck-up clearly he is

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hoping to come in here sweet-talk his

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way through his testimony and get out

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without a scratch now obviously this is

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not subtle characterization but it's not

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supposed to be this is a game of

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larger-than-life caricatures subtlety

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has no place here and he's already got

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some limited animation happening in this

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first pose just a set of three drawings

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on only his body to allow him to do that

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little sycophantic wiggle and this is a

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particularly great touch because that

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back-and-forth movement not only adds to

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the cloyingly over friendly nature of

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the pose but it also gives Frank a sort

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of nervous energy and of course we know

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why he might be feeling nervous it's

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just two extra drawings but they have a

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big payoff so then the prosecutor asks

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his first question and it's a pretty

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simple little soft ball of a question

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but Frank's response is accompanied by a

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flash and a screen shake the Ace

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Attorney games use these full screen

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effects a lot for emphasis in this

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instance it makes Frank's response feel

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kind of overeager like maybe he replied

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a little too suddenly or too loudly this

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is also where we see the additional

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drawings for Frank's talking mouth in

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this pose just his default mouth shape

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and three additional mouth poses playing

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on a loop now as Frank starts giving his

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testimony you might notice a subtle

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difference in his animation during the

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moments when he's speaking

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he is still holding that same pose as

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before but as the text appears on screen

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and his mouth flaps the speed of his

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wiggling increases slightly when he's

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beautifully just standing there idle his

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little wiggle animates on twenty frame

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intervals but when he's talking that

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animation speeds up so that the drawing

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cycle every 15 frames or so which makes

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him feel a little more active on screen

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and I love this little efficiency the

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artists are altering the character's

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performance just through timing alone

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here without having to add any new art

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and we're gonna see them play with that

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timing a lot more in a second so Frank

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gives his testimony and wait a minute we

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find an inconsistency when we call him

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on it

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that's when we see Frank's second pose

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and it's very similar to the first one

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in fact I think the body animation might

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be identical which again hey efficient

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but now his head is tilted downward

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slightly his brows are furrowed he's

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looking a little more worried he's

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starting to sweat and that body

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animation cycle is going even faster now

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the drawings are switching on eighth

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frame intervals plus we're starting to

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see more screen shake on his responses

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he is getting more and more nervous and

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that act he's been putting on is

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starting to feel less charming and more

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desperate and does that not feel

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satisfying of course he does come up

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with a lie to dig himself out of that

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hole and he reverts to that original

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smarmy grin but then he gives revised

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testimony and aha another contradiction

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and with another flash and screen shake

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Frank is cornered again

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Phoenix calls him out on this latest lie

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and that's when we see a brief glimpse

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of pose number three an expression of

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furious shock kind of like when a cat

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digs their claws into your leg it's only

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onscreen for a second but it's a telling

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sign we are beginning to break through

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the act and there's a little animation

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to this pose too so long as you don't

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blink you might see his toupee flap off

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of his forehead just a little it's a

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little bit of foreshadowing for you

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so Frank digs himself out of this lie

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also but this time he doesn't go back to

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the smarmy pose he sweats through his

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entire third attempt at testimony and

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when we call him on yet another

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inconsistency this time we get pose

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number 4 anger he's shaking his fist the

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screen is shaking a lot on his dialog

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now his eyes are blinking just

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lightly out of sync which mmm that's

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good we are seeing a new side of Frank

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come out the true Frank who can't keep

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his anger in check we've almost got him

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you see what I mean about this animation

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acting as player feedback Frank's

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emotional state and also the emotional

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state of the prosecutor which is very

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fun to watch functions as evidence of

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your progress in this case and these

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emotional outbursts also weirdly

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function as a kind of celebration but as

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you wear the witness down with more and

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more of your very good lawyering they're

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escalating nervousness and anger is your

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reward and if you can manage to keep

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pressing them and break through their

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last few desperate lies then

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the game will celebrate your victory

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with a relatively elaborate meltdown

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this is almost always the most animation

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you're going to see on these antagonist

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characters Frank's little toupee throw

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here requires a whopping seven new

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drawings or I guess closer to twelve if

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you include the hair and also Phoenix's

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expression it is no wonder players love

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these meltdowns so much because they are

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immensely satisfying moments that you

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worked so hard to earn and the actual

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animation of these moments isn't even

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that impressive by most standards this

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would probably be considered kind of

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poor but the over-the-top comedy of the

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outburst still makes for an incredibly

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satisfying surprise but Frank's not done

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yet now that he's had his outburst we've

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got a sixth pose of pure rage and it has

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a lot of movement on it the Frank that

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started this trial is nowhere to be seen

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and when you deliver the final final

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blow the game has one more reward for

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you

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a court case won by knockout that's some

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good lawyering we just did and that's it

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that's all of Frank's animation just

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seven or eight poses with some extremely

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limited movement thrown in for emphasis

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compared to most other hit games that's

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barely anything and yet it achieves

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everything it needs to in fact this

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style of limited but exaggerated

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animation is so effective that modern

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Ace Attorney titles are still using it

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the characters may all be 3d models now

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and the snippets of animation may have a

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bit more detail than they used to but

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everything is still built on simple held

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poses accented with extremely limited

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specific motion and I'm actually shocked

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at how well this works in 3d

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granted the models aren't able to hit

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those old poses with quite the level of

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appeal as the original pixel art and

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drawings had but they do get like 95% of

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the way there and the constant use of

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unusually static poses makes the

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flourishes of animation even more

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appealing by contrast the animation in

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ASA tourney games is simple and

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impressive all at once aesthetically it

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has to strike this extremely delicate

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balance of adding just enough movement

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to keep things feeling alive and

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expressive without that simplistic

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movement just feeling like bad animation

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to be cheap without feeling cheap

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basically the line between limited

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animation and bad animation can be

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extremely thin and Phoenix Wright does

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drift over that line with some frequency

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if I'm honest but when you're posing is

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this strong and when your characters are

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this expressive and their reactions are

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this satisfying I'm not sure any amount

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of clunky animation can ruin that like I

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said at the end of the day the eternal

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challenge of game animation is in

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delivering the most bang for your buck

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and very few teams succeed in achieving

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this much while working with so little

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thanks once again to my patrons for

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00:14:51,679 --> 00:14:55,490
choosing this topic this was not a

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franchise I was planning to dig into but

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I'm very happy you gave me the

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opportunity to do so if you would like

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00:14:58,670 --> 00:15:01,939
to suggest a topic for a future new

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00:15:00,290 --> 00:15:03,500
frame plus episode then consider

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supporting the show like all of these

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beacons of justice over here thank you

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00:15:05,779 --> 00:15:08,870
for watching

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I'll see you next time

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[Music]