“Mecanim is basically the underlying animation system for everything that is animated in Unity,” Johaness Reuben explained during Casual Connect Asia 2014. “It started out from a few different things, typically character animation in games can be a bit painful to work with, so we came from trying to solve a few major problems that cause a slow down in pipeline production.”
Johaness Reuben, product evangelist at Unity, loves everything about the games industry: the tech, the people and the games that entertain, inspire, and educate. He can’t even imagine what he would be doing if he were not a part of the industry; it isn’t something he ever thinks about.
The proudest moment of his career slipped up on him while he was doing something we all have done: his Christmas shopping. He was browsing the game shelf at a store when a woman came by and picked up two games, telling her friend that these were the games her son wanted. They were both games Reuben had worked on!
Roots in Games
The time Reuben spent skipping class in high school was what led him to his career in the games industry. He spent (no doubt his teachers would have said “misspent”) many hours at the arcade and was inspired by the beautiful pixel art. From there, he began exploring graphic design and animation. He wanted to get into the games industry, but at that time, no one in Asia was developing games. So he spent his time modding games, and admits he was crazy about the demo scene.
He was working for a company doing bicycle helmet designs when he happened to meet an American who had just started a game company in Malaysia. He says, “I practically begged him to give me a job. He did, and it’s been an awesome ride ever since.”
Change Is Good
What he enjoys most about the industry is the constant change. There is always something new, and things are continually improving. He insists, “There has never been a dull day.”
Reuben was in game development for more than 15 years, first as an artist, and then as technical art director for a medium-sized studio, shipping games on multiple platforms. During this time, he was involved in all the different parts of the development pipeline, working closely with producers, designers, programmers, and artists. He also lectured and developed courses for universities. Through these experiences, he brought to Unity a great deal of insight into various aspects of game development and training.
A Helpful Hand
As product evangelist, Reuben connects and visits developers in Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, getting their feedback and listening to their development pains. Then he provides solutions, advice, and suggestions, or he takes the information back to Unity’s teams to see how they can better improve things. He also attends events, giving talks and presentations to share and spread game development and Unity knowledge.
The next big trend he expects to come to the games industry is more sophisticated and improved virtual reality and augmented reality at a consumer level. He also expects a shift in the type of virtual reality. Although VR has been around for some time, it is still about being immersed in a digital world. He believes, “As the graphics technology pushes toward realism, for example like physically-based shaders, it will be more about being immersed in an alternate reality where the lines between real and generated are blurred, at least visually.”
These days, for his own gaming, Reuben is playing GTA5, saying he loves this series and the escapism he gets from playing them. He can also be found involved with his hobby: radio-controlled multi-rotors, trucks, and boats.
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