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Mass Effect Trilogy animation director left and returned to BioWare.

Asbsand

Asbsand

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Oct 30, 2017
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Now posed as Creative Director for some unannounced stuff, the Mass Effect Trilogy Animation Director Parish Ley left the company shortly after the release of Anthem last year, but it seems that was a shortlived endeavor as he returned to BioWare since january 2020.

He went to Improbable, the new video game division of Improbable IO opened by former GM Aaryn Flynn, but it seems his passions went elsewhere, as something interesting must be brewing at the old RPG studio.

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Parish Ley's LinkedIn



He had a feature leading up to Mass Effect 3 in this video, talking about the process of crafting cinematics for the game.

I just thought that'd be a positive story to share in these uncertain times. Also, BioWare, like most EA studios are allegedly handling the Covid-19 situation really well, with EA helping people get home-offices set up and stuff. I think these are all positive news, wouldn't you say?
 
Minty Freshness

Minty Freshness

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Oct 27, 2017
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Seattle, WA
The quality of the cinematic direction in the trilogy doesn't feel like it's talked about much, but always seemed to improve really well alongside other major franchises in that time period (2007-2012).

Assuming Ley had a hand in that growth and evolution, it doesn't seem like a bad thing to have him back on the team, for sure. It also feels like a role that could be applied to all their franchises. Like, you don't need a cinematic team for Mass Effect and Dragon Age separately.
 
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Asbsand

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
Minty Freshness said:
The quality of the cinematic direction in the trilogy doesn't feel like it's talked about much, but always seemed to improve really well alongside other major franchises in that time period (2007-2012).
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It was a bit hammy, I'll admit but it was also very nice to look at. It was much better IMHO than Andromeda because even looking aside that it was more polished it had a stylistic expression, which I think comes from Parish in particular, as opposed to 100% realism.

ME3 semi-late spoilers
 
EatChildren

EatChildren

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Oct 27, 2017
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Of note, he's now listed as a Creative Director at BioWare, which is a pretty lofty title. What's he working on?
 
Quinton

Quinton

Staff Writer at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
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Oct 25, 2017
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Midgar, With Love
Asbsand said:
I have two guesses.

1: He's in charge of Anthem 2.0
2: He's creative director with Mike Gamble as project director on a new Mass Effect.
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Gamble's a good dude. I've met him a couple of times and he's just very down-to-earth and humble. He's got a great mind for Mass Effect, too, so I hope Kotaku's sources are correct about him helming a new title.
 
Scottoest

Scottoest

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Feb 4, 2020
12,069
Asbsand said:
It was a bit hammy, I'll admit but it was also very nice to look at. It was much better IMHO than Andromeda because even looking aside that it was more polished it had a stylistic expression, which I think comes from Parish in particular, as opposed to 100% realism.

ME3 semi-late spoilers
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Only criticism I have of the cutscenes in ME, is that they tended to rely on the overused directing trope (especially in sci-fi), of showing action in a wider shot, and then snap zooming in on whatever the main subject is. Space battles are especially fertile ground for this overused camera movement.

Maybe I'll try to post some examples later.

Aside from that though, the cutscenes are great.
 
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Asbsand

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
Quinton said:
Gamble's a good dude. I've met him a couple of times and he's just very down-to-earth and humble. He's got a great mind for Mass Effect, too, so I hope Kotaku's sources are correct about him helming a new title.
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I think there's no way that couldn't be what he's doing. Either a remaster or a new game, and I think it's a new game. He posts enough about ME titles and recently retweeted something from Andromeda's galaxy map saying "We know what our mistakes were, you learn from those" etc. regarding how sluggish and indulgent it was. It seemed relatively unprompted to me so I would assume he's deep in thought about new games.

He's been in charge of a lot of development management ever since 2009 during ME2, so you can trust him regardless of whether the team or BioWare as a whole has gotten worse over the years. I wouldn't pin their failures on him - I see him as one of the sources of good quality left there.

I can add credence to the Kotaku claims. Prior to their article I was snooping on LinkedIn and saw he had updated his profile after Anthem to be slated as "Project Director". It is happening.
Stygr said:
They should re-hire Cooper for the next Mass Effect.
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Cooper was impressed with Anthem. He said it had his favorite animation framework, the flight animation systems, of 2019 in his GOTY tweets. You never know :)

He's definitely one of the reasons there were some good animations in display in the more cinematic parts of ME1.
 
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Asbsand

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
Scottoest said:
Only criticism I have of the cutscenes in ME, is that they tended to rely on the overused directing trope (especially in sci-fi), of showing action in a wider shot, and then snap zooming in on whatever the main subject is. Space battles are especially fertile ground for this overused camera movement.
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I think this was mostly true for ME3 which is emulating Battlestar Galactica 2004 in visual style. Each game had a set of specific inspirations that weighed more than others. ME1 was old school sci fi, Star Wars of the 80s and Star Trek and Blade Runner, ME2 was Bladerunner too and also more modern sci fi with sleek stylish and clean cut design heavy on light and dark shadowing. ME3 is "gritty" and bombastic. It's emulating War of the Worlds, JJ Abrams Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and stuff. There's also a lot of Contact 1997 in it as with its Crucible and Star Child motif, but they really leaned on the "rougher" kinds of sci fi movies for that game, probably to a fault but I digress.

I think it becomes more forgivable once you consider that every ME game is partly a tribute to all the best science fiction from cinema. I think it's part of the Mass Effect DNA to be heavily inspired by movies, hence the whole focus on interactive cinema and conversation it relies so much on. I also hope another game will re-emphasize the interactive conversation more again. I'm also cool with how Jedi Fallen Order used a dialogue selector for ambient conversation, just as long as it doesn't become ME3 where half of it is ambient but you also don't choose any of your dialogue and thus you're just playing "Uncharted: Mass Effect".

There's a lot of cool possibilities for Mass Effect going forward. The ME3 ending and end-states for the universe in that game is still a huge stone to overturn but I've had ideas, others here have had ideas, and MrBTongue has ideas on ShamusYoung's blog. I think everyone just wants a new good Mass Effect and so does people at BioWare who are investing themselves in it.
 
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