Interview with Benjamin Potts: When Movement Serves the Player
Turn on spots are among those systems that directly influence the feeling of control and the quality of movement.
Yet when trying to understand what makes movement feel believable, responsive, and enjoyable to play, the discussion quickly goes beyond the simple question of locomotion.
Behind every movement system lie directing choices, technical constraints, character intent, and a vision for the game as a whole.
To explore these different dimensions, I had the pleasure of speaking with Benjamin Potts, Animation Director at Ubisoft Bordeaux.
Drawing on his experience in animation, motion capture, and team leadership, Benjamin shares insightful reflections on the role of animation in game development, the collaboration between the various gameplay disciplines, and the way movement systems contribute to shaping the player experience.
To start, could you walk us through your journey in animation, from your early beginnings to your current role as Animation Director?
After graduating from the London Animation Studio in 99/2000, I spent my first years as a traditional animator and storyboarder on various TV shows and short films.
2D Animation was definitely shifting to 3D in London at this time, and when an opportunity came up at The Creative Assembly, I was also naturally pulled towards this new challenge in videogames.
I remained at The Creative Assembly (CA) for almost 15 years. I worked on most of the Total War games up to and including Warhammer.
However, my main role was to be a part of the evolving console team, where I shipped several games as Lead Animator.
A pivotal moment for CA and myself, was the development of Alien Isolation. Working on the Alien franchise was such a huge responsibility. The team was so passionate about creating something special, and we put everything into building the Alien experience we believed in.
We had to build all our Animation systems, several new pipelines, tools… as well as a new team.
Moving into FPS also brought a completely new perspective on Character Animation for us all.
During all of this time, I had also been building CA’s motion capture pipelines since 2001. We were one of only a few Vicon Mocap systems that existed in the UK at this time.
With a great colleague and mentor, we handled everything from the ground up. This is where I grew a deep understanding of Motion Capture, everything from the technical aspects of camera and sensor calibration, marker, suit and volume setup, cleaning data manually, processing… to acting in the suit, casting, budgeting and directing whole shoots.
All of this when mocap was a new and emerging technology for Animation in the industry.
We made a ‘life-decision’ to move to France in early 2016, where I have lived with my family since. During this transition I worked as a freelance Animator on various different game genres, from an interactive puzzle game to an incredibly challenging VR game called The Invisible Hours for Tequila Works…it was a fun time !
Since 2017, I have been at Ubisoft Bordeaux… where I have worked as Lead Animator and now Animation Director for the past 6 years.
The studio started on Ghost Recon franchise followed by the first DLC for Assassin's Creed Valhalla 'Wrath of the Druids’, AC Mirage and most recently the Claws of Awaji DLC for AC Shadows. I am currently working on an unannounced project.
When I look back, the first Assassin’s Creed in 2007 and Splinter Cell really put Ubisoft on my ‘animation radar’. There was something about the level of detail and immersion in third person animation in these games that stood out to me. The games delivered an experience and a strong player fantasy which is in my opinion the foundation of great Animation.
So when I had the opportunity to work for Ubisoft in Bordeaux, a city we know & love…it felt like the stars had aligned.
As an Animation Director my role can change very much depending upon what stage we are in development.
Generally speaking though, I work to make sure that Animation is at the forefront of any collaborations with design, tech and artistic direction. As experts in movement we should be assisting in how we manage and design core systems and features within a game.
A second key role is to create guidelines and artistic animation direction for the teams. This comes with close collaboration with Creative, Design, Artistic and Technical Direction.
Any vision for an Animation Direction needs to understand exactly what type of game we are making, before any artistic pillars and guidelines are shared with the wider team.
Finally, I aim to ensure that what we deliver in terms of Animation, is reaching the quality expectations for the project. This comes in 2 forms.
One is making sure that we are focusing on the right pipelines, processes, creative choices and technology that makes gameplay and animation work as efficiently as possible together.
And secondly, that the Animation quality is being delivered by the team, through continuous review, mentorship and feedback.
"In the past 26 years I've been lucky enough to work on quite a variety of genres. This has given me a deep expertise of both Keyframe and Motion Capture pipelines.
But most of all it's the understanding that gameplay Animation exists as part of bigger systems and is absolutely central to the ‘look & feel’ of any game experience."
Being an Animation Director means shifting from craft to systems. In a modern AAA environment, what does that really involve, and how do you keep the animator’s eye when your role becomes that of a movement architect?
In a large modern AAA development, you cannot afford to scale a game by hand-crafting every moment. For example, if a character has to navigate an open world with a variety of possibilities in terrain, being a Director, you have to think at a higher-level about how you can help to define a system or even leverage the engine and technology to create a satisfying result.
This is where collaboration and communication becomes very important in my role.
A lot of time is spent talking together with Design, Code and Technical Direction to lay down the foundations and requirements of any system. Depending on the state of the engine and existing systems…we’ll work together on for example, creating complex graph setups, blend tree networks, or procedural and other technical solutions.
"Due to this complexity and investment, you also often have to consider scalability and sharing across a variety of other archetypes.
Can these systems be used elsewhere for other characters ? Does the Animation data scale well onto larger bodytypes ? What work needs to be done to refine or compensate for issues?
Optimising like this can be very important when it comes to managing your Animation budget and capacity to create other assets."
This collaboration continues throughout development. Cross-Department negotiation, especially between Design and Animation, is key.
While Design defines what and how the gameplay will be executed, my role is to make sure we are delivering on that gameplay while maintaining the Animation vision, fidelity and immersion at all times.
While I do spend less time Animating, being an Animation Director has allowed me to use my craft skills and ‘Animators Eye’ in different ways.
My focus needs to be on the bigger picture, and how Animation fits into the game that we are creating. I have to have a clear understanding of the project's creative and artistic direction, and that enables me to shape a vision for Animation by establishing some ‘rules for the world’.
It’s about defining the physical logic and emotional context of the characters and other objects that move, which can also potentially affect how a system needs to be built.
I will create clear Animation guidelines, references, previs animation, mood movies and other benchmarks for the team to work with.
It is important that I work with ‘broad strokes’ leaving space for the team to find their own creative choices, my role is to gently guide the Animators (and others) towards this Animation vision.
This is the idea of the “First and Last 5%” where a director's eye is most critical at the bookends of a game’s development.
The First 5% is the inception phase (as mentioned above). This is where my craft knowledge can be used to help shape a direction or designs, or for example directing initial first mocap shoots, setting visual benchmarks and giving the team(s) what they need to move forwards.
And the Last 5%. Which is to thoroughly review, play and feedback on the Animation performance in-game. This is when I can see whether, or if, a system is affecting Animation. By checking transitions, blends, weight distribution, physics, controls, reactivity, this is the moment when you can step back and look for the tiny human details that engines can sometimes strip away.
So while I do animate less, I still have plenty of opportunity to use my ‘craft skills’ in different ways and a much broader context.
Assassin’s Creed locomotion has a very strong identity: fluid, credible, always in service of the player.
When you join a franchise with an established movement language, how do you make it your own, and how do you evolve it without betraying what players expect?
When I joined AC Valhalla, understanding this movement language was my first mission. Being a player of Assassin’s Creed obviously helps, but working on a movement system so complex means you have to really deconstruct and fully understand everything.
"Understanding all the different states, transitions, conditions and metrics of movement around the world, is necessary in order to be able to make meaningful changes."
An example of this was when (the team) moved from the main game of Valhalla to Mirage.
Valhalla is a game that delivered on a very strong Viking fantasy, which meant that the physicality of Eivor (player character) was heavier, wider, more muscular and laboured than previous Assassins. Some of the parkour movements such as climbing and mantling up, took longer to compensate for this weight. In addition there was a layer of ‘effort’ in some of the actions, such as combat and leaping, with poses, arcs and timing that displayed this bulky Viking warrior that we had control of.
Mirage was built upon these systems and animation, as Mirage was originally a DLC for Valhalla.
The first and biggest challenge for us was that Basim was definitely not a Viking! Basim was physically different, and we needed him to move with more subtlety, still with intent and control, but with a much closer influence from the earlier Assassins such as Ezio.
For Animation, we spent a lot of time researching and referencing these earlier Assassins.
What are the key properties of an Assassins movement ? The timings, poses, physical nuances that create this language and find the moments where we could re-inject this characterisation.
Sometimes this came in the form of gameplay ingredients and iconic moves such as vault-overs, roll-overs or corner-swings.
Sometimes we reworked parkour movements and other animations entirely to maintain better fluidity, reducing transition timings and reintroducing iconic Assassins shapes, all of which had to be done respecting the existing metrics and systems.
It was only by deconstructing the many systems, understanding our foundations both visually and technically of the Assassins fantasy, were we really able to evolve the player character to be much closer to an original Assassin.
Ubisoft Bordeaux works with Anvil, a proprietary engine with a long history. At your level, how does this engine influence your decisions on locomotion, in terms of blending, interpolation, technical constraints, or possibilities?
At a Direction level, Anvil’s architecture can directly shape and influence how I would design locomotion because I’m not just thinking about animation quality, I’m thinking about how the engine will interpret, blend, and sustain that quality in gameplay systems.
Anvil has a long legacy, which means it comes with proven systems but also inherited constraints. So many decisions will always balance creative intent with this technical reality.
Anvil has decades of iteration behind it, especially for large open‑world characters, so as mentioned for AC Mirage, my job is to understand those rules deeply enough so we can push and maintain the quality of locomotion (& other systems) while keeping the system reliable for gameplay.
Motion capture is central to your workflow. How do you prepare a session to cover the full combinatorial scope without blowing the capture budget or losing systemic quality?
For Motion Capture, preparation is everything.
In the first instant much of the information you need to find out should come from initial prototyping and understanding of existing game systems and feature designs.
"Working and prototyping quickly with designers and gameplay programmers with rough assets should start to give you the basic information such as :
Turn angles, timing, blend conditions, game states and context when played in Engine."
In addition it’s equally important to have all the concept and background information for the character(s) that you are capturing.
We need to understand the ‘action drivers’ for a particular character or group of movements. At a basic level these are descriptions of ‘how’ an action should be delivered by an actor or stunt person. These normally come in 2 forms: Physical Drivers (eg. reactions, ability, physicality) and Emotional Drivers (thought processes, personality) Information like this is important when considering character vs gameplay performance such as how reactive a movement may need to be?
I really recommend reading a great book by Anim Director Mike Jungbluth called ‘Directing Game Animation’ to learn more about the use of Action Drivers in our context.
As an example, capturing data for systems such as basic navigation can be quite mechanical.
We should already know the basic set of angles, transitions and states that we need to cover and preparing this information needs to be clearly understood and rehearsed.
Simple shots such as ‘turn to walk’ can have many variations and nuances to consider when capturing.
What is the leading foot? Which angle ? How fast/slow? When should the hips begin to rotate ? etc…
all of these things can have an impact on transition timings and blends into other states and actions..
So preparing for any session, small or large should be about gathering as much of this information as possible before you commit to capturing.
This preparation can take several weeks or even months to gather into formats that everyone involved can clearly understand.
If any information is unclear, you will feel this uncertainty in the Mocap data and performance, and the risk will be that you miss capturing some essential data or even may need to re-shoot.
The turn on spot seems tiny within a locomotion system, yet it directly shapes the sensation of control. When designing it, what do you prioritize : reactivity, credibility, continuity of flow? And what makes a turn on spot naturally "disappear" from the player's perception, in the best possible way?
There’s a few things here we need to understand.
Obviously what type of game is it that we are making ? Are we a fast paced, anime-inspired action game? Or are we an action-thriller like Alan Wake 2?
We could already have expectations on the type of 3C controls and feel from these two very different genres.
Anime-inspired games carry an instant action feel where reactivity is the priority. Alan Wake’s fantasy is slower and more considered, allowing for a little more time in systems such as a turn on spot, where we could focus on a bit more animation fidelity, such as foot placement and longer lead-in’s to a movement.
So a turn on the spot has to stay consistent with the fantasy and pacing of the game and in some cases the existing expectations of player control.
Secondly, What kind of gameplay does this feature need to work within ? For something like a turn on spot you could imagine this would be used by the player to make micro-adjustments when you may need to interact with something, or face a particular item ?
Or it could simply be for a hard change in direction, as in a plant to turn... leading to a different state such as running.
This means that the inputs to turn need to be reactive, consistent and accurate, work between many different changes of angles, and across all contexts.
I do believe this is a bit more of a challenge when you are dealing with a realistic Animation vision.
Trying to maintain Animation fidelity can sometimes be lost in the system and technical setup. This can often lead to a stiffness in animation and break an immersion that must remain natural. But in most cases, or where you may be using motion-matching, correction layers and IK can do a lot to help with accuracy for contacts, and maintaining natural momentum.
This has to be balanced very carefully with the control inputs, and overall reactivity of the player. Everything has to work together in all contexts.
"In the end, like many systems, it is about finding the right balance of credibility, reactivity and continuity based upon the player experience you want and importantly the rhythm and pacing of the gameplay."
You’ve animated locomotion for very different games. How do you ensure a locomotion system is not only technically correct, but expressive of the character, the world, or the gameplay?
If we are talking about ARPGs or action-adventure, or a heavily character driven game… In my experience you have to start with both the physicality of the character(s) as well as the ‘Action Drivers’.
It can still fall back on basic acting techniques, by having a strong player fantasy and understanding of the character’s motivations.
What does the character want? What is the conflict ? their personality ? their ability?
While this can be exposed with great actors in Cinematic moments, in gameplay, you have to centralise this in your core character direction from the start, and find opportunities to express your character in systems.
A great example of this is Kratos in God of War.
He’s a demigod, he’s angry, fueled by vengeance, and you can feel it in most of what he does. From the way he speaks, to opening chests, everything is done with a hidden rage.
His locomotion is solid, combat hits hard, the camera perspective adds to his intensity, he moves powerfully and with purpose
"As character animators in games, it’s really important to remember that we are a part of delivering a performance.
Even in locomotion, starts, turns, stops, runs, jumps… It's very important to try and bring character intention into the actions, especially if you are directing a motion-capture shoot."
It’s also important to try and find the opportunities within a system to express character.
Can you afford a few extra frames in a settle for a release of tension? Could you be unbalanced on a beam if your character is not naturally athletic or scared of heights ? Does your character have a trait that can be injected through movement?
These nuances add up, and can help to bring personality to basic actions.
But, as mentioned before, there has to be a balance found with gameplay and reactivity. Nothing should get in the way of the user's experience, responsiveness and believability remains the most important factor.
Gameplay animation sits at the crossroads of design, technology, and artistic direction. How do you ensure everyone speaks the same language, and how do you handle moments when animation and gameplay pull in opposite directions?
In my experience this all comes down to good collaboration and alignment of each department's needs as early as possible. I think as soon as you understand what is important for other teams (Art or Design) or what constraints you may need to work with (Technical Direction), it helps everyone understand how to work together from the beginning of a project.
This can start when a game is being fleshed out in conception workshops.
Having all the key stakeholders and directors in the room at the same time, discussing and aligning on needs, is a foundational step in 'speaking the same language' which will then be shared throughout the project.
This philosophy should also be filtered down through the teams as the project moves into development.
"I have found the best collaboration and understanding has come when content teams for gameplay are put together as early as possible, with game designers, programmers and animators working together on solutions, on new 3C systems or combat.
By doing this you are encouraging working relationships, building trust and momentum within a team, it can minimise conflicts and often lead to unexpected gameplay solutions from the team.
This means everyone has the opportunity to own and contribute to a feature."
I think it also helps you with your own work.
If you can have a higher and wider vision of the game, its structure and systems, it can help when you need to find creative or new solutions that don't stray far from the core development needs.
This is something I encourage all Animators to consider, especially if they are new to gameplay animation. We must always remain Animators, but it's so important to understand that Gameplay Animation is only one part of delivering an immersive and impactful experience.
Having this alignment mindset can reduce conflicts between design, tech and animation.
But there can still be times when we (animation) would for example, like to push some anticipation or recovery times by a few frames. And design may want little to no anticipation and a short recovery - the classic conflict!
But the resolution of issues is typically answered by the fact that the game has to both look and feel great when you interact with the gamepad.
Animation has a huge role to play here, whether that's in actual animation frames, or fine-tuning markups, interruptibility, blending etc. Sometimes having the challenge of constraints can actually help you discover new solutions or make different animation choices.
Ultimately we need to remain guardians of visual Animation quality, and hopefully the team around you understands your needs.
When evaluating a gameplay animator, what tells you that this person can carry a system and not just an animation? And in a demo reel, what genuinely stands out, and what would you like to see more often?
It’s really important that a gameplay animator has a good understanding of how an animation actually functions in a system and engine. This doesn’t mean that you need to be a technical animator, but being able to integrate and understand the basic logic and dependencies that support your work, can really enhance and improve the way that you approach your animation.
We have to support the interactivity of games. Which means animation is not just about crafting a beautiful piece of work, it has to serve the gameplay experience. If a control input is unresponsive, or the pacing is broken in some way, then it doesn’t work as a gameplay animation.
"In demo reels I typically look for 3 things:
A traditional understanding of animation
Impactful and reactive timing
and strong characterisation."
It's so important to demonstrate that you have understood the basics of animation and that they have been expressed in a believable way.
Posing, spacing, arcs, exaggeration, staging all matter in games, and being able to manage and understand where you need to push a gameplay animation, whether Keyframed or Motion Capture, can be the difference between a great, and an excellent animation.
Reactivity and Timing is also intrinsic to the interactive experience of gameplay animation. Animations have to serve this purpose, so demonstrating this with snappy, impactful animation within a DCC or even better in an engine via a gamepad is an advantage.
And finally characterisation. This is about making sure your actions fit both the physicality and the fantasy of a character.
For example, if you are animating a Zombie’s attack, perhaps his muscles are rotten and weak ? He could therefore struggle with his anticipation movement before falling almost uncontrollably into a strike.
Characterisation is about bringing characters alive and understanding where a movement has come from.
I think something to be careful about for Demo reels, is to not over-do camera work.
Fast and dynamic cameras added to animation shots can absolutely ‘level-up’ impact. But it can also be a distraction from what’s really important : Poses, Timing, Arcs etc.
Alternatively, displaying progression is nice… from DCC to in-engine if possible? It helps to show that the Animator understands that their work lives and performs inside a game, or within a larger system.
To wrap up, could you share a piece of advice for gameplay animators, whether it’s a skill you wish you had learned earlier, the best advice you were ever given (and now pass on), or something you believe the industry should change in the way it trains gameplay animators?
A simple phrase…“ Grow a thick skin !”
When I started working in Traditional Animation I was lucky enough to have a great mentor. He was incredibly experienced, having worked on many animated films and series. His advice to “grow a thick skin” still stays with me to this day.
His point was that animation is one of THE things that people see and feel first. Not only does it convey action in movement, but it can also convey emotions. And for this reason, humans will always react to animation with very strong feelings and feedback, especially if something does not work or feel quite right.
What I learned from this in games, is that you have to step back and try to understand what the feedback is actually aiming to address.
Sometimes it does not even involve animation. It could be some code or tech that is distorting the animations performance in the engine ? It could be a rigging or skinning issue ?
So you need to have a very open mind to investigate the problems and help pass them on to the right team in the end.
If it is an Animation issue, feedback should always be taken positively and as an opportunity to learn.
"Good feedback is never personal, and 99% of the time you will either learn something new or level-up your skills.
That’s one of the greatest things about animation…you never stop learning."
A huge thank you to Benjamin for taking the time to share his experience, his insights, and his vision of the craft.
Throughout this interview, it becomes clear that gameplay animation goes far beyond movement itself. Behind every system lie creative direction decisions, technical constraints, production compromises, character intent, and countless collaborations that all contribute to shaping the player's experience.
What I especially loved was his ability to connect all of these layers of thinking without ever putting them in opposition. Animation, design, motion capture, technology, team leadership: none of these truly exist in isolation. Every decision is part of a larger whole, with the same ultimate goal: serving the game and delivering the player's fantasy.
His answers also highlight an essential reality of our profession: the best systems are not born from a single discipline, but from trust, communication, and mutual understanding between teams.
At a time when discussions often focus on tools, engines, or emerging technologies, this interview shifts the spotlight back to what truly makes a production successful: the thinking, the decisions, and the people behind them.
Thank you again, Benjamin, for the time, energy, and honesty you brought to this conversation.
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