n n n n Gaming
Tooning Fine
Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman Origins sports a retro 2D look created with a new graphics engine that simplifies the animation process
By Karen Moltenbrey 18 August/September 2012
Video games of late, particularly first-person shooters, strive for realism. Realistic characters. Realistic environments. Realistic physics. Realistic
simulations. Realistic action. Sometimes, though, players want a break from reality, even if it's virtual "reality," to escape into a fun, fantastical universe that is as far from real as one can get —like that of Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman Origins. Rayman Origins, a retro 2D side-scrolling game, is set in a lush 2D cartoon world.
The rich, hand-drawn environments are brimming with objects and color, and each unique setting looks as though it were lifted from a 2D animation cel. The characters, meanwhile, appear to have stepped out of a Saturday-morning cartoon—or from the pages of an artist's sketchbook.
