The Animation of Hollow Knight
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- čas přidán 16. 09. 2019
- At long last, I'm enjoying this beautiful game and making a video on it!
Hollow Knight is considered a metroidvania, but it's so much more than that, and the beautiful art style just helps separate it further into a true masterpiece.
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Leave a comment on your favourite piece of animation from any game ever!
#HollowKnight #SilkSong - Hry
"Silksong around the corner"
*cries of sorrow and anguish*
I agree
agonizing pain
I still haven’t played the first one, so I may be losing for not playing it.
But I’m winning because of avoiding the pain of waiting
@@yokaiwatcher8500 plai it man!... Wasn't a big fan of metroid like games but this is just a masterpiece!
Madalin Dragan I want to, just waiting for a chance to get my hands on it, birthday money needs a bit longer to come in 🎁💵
"Lovely little game"
me with my 90h unfinished save: oh...
Little in the sense of dev team, I probably meant. The game is unimaginabley huge!!
Took me over 40h to beat it the first time at only 80% completion. After like 100h I’m finally at 112%
@@shmarfle47 i'm at 112 at 90h but i still didn't beat Pantheon of Hallownest... yea... at 48h i beat sealed vessel for the first time.
Don't mean to brag or anything but my first run through was only 16hrs.. Although I did only get 96% and have yet to fight Radiance but still. What were y'all doing?
I've put over 250h into this game, and at this point I can beat it in 5h and 112% it in 10h. Just kinda wanted to brag a little bit there.
"emptiness can still be beautiful"
*cries in void*
Pale King: "Hey, stop that! No voice to cry suffering!"
Pale king: wait that's illegal
@@Twilightingale21 CAAAAAARL, that _kills_ people!
Warframe players be like:
Pale King: *sigh* Another fruitless creation. *yeets vessel into the abyss*
loved the commentary all the way through the end. thank you
Hey Relyea
aYy
whatchu doin here-
OI-
I dont know you like game animation
WOAH YOU HELP ME WITH THIS ALOT OMG HAIIII
Didn't realize how much the particle generation adds to the visuals and overall atmosphere, that's very interesting. Great video for a great game!
Yeah I wish I'd have played it more before making the video as I've discovered so much more, too!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy You should absolutely do a part two when silksong comes out!
As an indie game developer, I immediately notice how nice it was...
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy did you know if you dreamnail already dead bugs they sometimes have a line of dialogue. The little details make it so amazing
I've got to that bit now yeah. Really interesting!
“Art is not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing to take away”
🤓🤓🤓🤓well AAAATCUUULLY--
My mind was blown when you showed the 3D layering parallax stuff. I had no clue. It explains so many little details, like when things skitter across the foreground. I never could figure out how that worked so well.
It's fascinating, right?
Lots of games do the exact same thing. Even Shovel Knight.
That's right. It's still surprising to see from the side.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I wish that you talked about it for more than 5 seconds tho 😕
That's how it's like with every 2D game made in unity, unity doesn't have a "real" 2D engine and all 2D games made with it are actually 3D with a static camera (static on the Z axis)
I like how Dan is trying tell us that the Knight has personality but in reality it is a cold empty vessel of a shell
i wouldn't call it empty. after all, it is a reject and so, therefore, has more personality than THK. Also mask maker says "To have a face is to focus, to feel, to exist." and i wouldn't call Ghost faceless really.
Actually, we don’t know that. You might assume that because of the White Lady’s dialogue, but she was presumably wrong once, so she could be wrong again. I personally believe that *no* Vessel was truly Hollow. THK was perhaps the closest, but still failed. Every single broken mask in the Abyss once held a life, one that should not have been so carelessly cast aside. Of course, I could be wrong on this.
to me hollow knight only failed on being hollow because of the pale king, we can see it got attached to it's creation, what made the hollow knight confused, it was supposed to be empty, with no emotion, but yet, someone was starting to care about it, and them it failed, on it's task of being empty.
Well...no. As everyone before me has elaborated, we learned that the discarded vessels are not empty, the one closest to pure being THK, and they too were corrupted by their love and devotion to the Pale King. Even the Broken Vessel/Lost Kin has enough sentience to reach out towards the Knight and bowed right before they fade.
If anything, the Knight is as sentient as us, the player, because that's basically the point. We learned about the world, got interested in it, wanted to know more... And eventually, we came to love it, too.
@@hiraethion Which is why the ending where you replace the Hollow Knight is a bad ending. You are just as imperfect as him, the only difference is, there isn't going to be another vessel just wandering around that'll replace you. So you basically let the Radiance win.
Oh, how I love Hollow Knight!
It's rare to see a game commit so much to an artstyle. To have an artstyle even before any real gameplay and still having it follow the gameplay. That's definitely the advantage of a small and flexible team!
This game is gorgeous, along with the soundtrack.
This may not be extremely related to animation, but do you ever consider including the artists' use of color palettes in the video? I only mention because it seemed like Hollow Knight had an intentional use of color overall and in certain areas. Enough so that it seemed as if each area carried a certain mood just based off the use of color alone.
Excellent vid, btw!
That's definitely the case, while dark gray is the overall colour of the game each area has its own defined colour. The TV Tropes page lists them explicitly.
Yes, their use of orange for the infection contrasts most other colours they use for environments. I love the colour palettes!
Dirtmouth: gray
Crossroads: gray
Deepnest: gray
Dirtmouth and Crossroads are blue, Deepnest and Kingdoms Edge are grey.
At some point in the video there was the beautiful music from the City of Tears I think. Almost got emotional.
Great work Dan :)!
Easily my favourite piece of music from the game!
(And thanks!)
Hi noa
This game art style got me into the game. I feel like a lot off indies use pixel art and this one strayed away from that
I was also drawn in by the breathtaking art. I love it so much more than pixel art. it is just wonderful
@@darthTwin6 yeah I get you. I was getting real tired of pixel art
@人へんたい It's funny that you mention Cuphead, because that was the other game that I played before I got into Hollow Knight. I beat all the bosses with S ranks and yet I am still trying to beat the third pantheon with all bindings. Either way, both games are pretty hard and satisfying because of it.
@人へんたい I would agree with you in that hall of gods is actually harder than Cuphead. I also agree that you should beat all the radiant fights first. That was my strategy actually. I beat all the radiant bosses, but the bindings are something else. Funnily enough, I think Radiant Markoth might actually be harder than Radiant Absolute Radiance! Good luck with that if you haven't already completed it. The things we do as we wait for Silksong.
@@darthTwin6 I think the reason of Markoth being harder is due too the bs arena and the bs way the attacks work
the particles and smoke effects add SOO much to the experience!
in the soul sanctum, the whole area as well as the entrances to them is full of floating particles of soul. you can feel the energy in the area.
in certain areas of the fungal wastes, a soft yellow overlay is added, and its really simple but it really makes you feel like youre in a cave of noxious gas and spores.
while in hotsprings, soul particles will emanate from the knight and follow them as they move through the water
if crystal dashing above or through water, the water will splash around and behind the knight
in the ancient basin and the abyss, void particles will float around the area
the whole game is a masterpiece. i love team cherry
11 minutes of Dan's smooth voice about video games's designs and animation. 😎👍
I'm a simple man, I hear Hollow Knight praise, I hit like.
Best 2d adventure game in history.
The style is what made me love it even before the quality
If there is one word to describe this game is *_atmosphere._* Everything is perfectly crafted with a combination of artstyle, animation, music and cryptic lore that really is really immersive. This game is a masterpiece, really.
Amazing analysis, Dan. Now I'm even more pumped to play Silksong when it finally arrives.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm really pumped for SilkSong!
Hollow Knight is an interesting game. It's put under the _'metroidvania'_ genre, as that's what describes it quickest and easiest, but it's far beyond what the genre encompasses.
I found it difficult to get into the first time, because I didn't get why the you couldn't see yourself on the map, and that the map didn't update where you were.
That's because it's not your average metroidvania. It's so much more, draws in lots of different things from so many other genres of games, I'd be willing to call it an offshoot of a metroidvania.
There's lots of complex things that surround that core open ended idea that make it something truly unique.
What do you think?
I'd say it shakes up the conventions of what a metroidvania can be as much as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night did back in the day. Hollow Knight is a trailblazer as well as the new gold standard for the genre.
Definitely agree!
Definitely a game that grows on you and with you.
@@supersaltlee7657 I'm envious of people who are young enough to grow up with the game.
@@GoldStorm07 the genre is built for learning. Great for kids to discover and master
I started playing this months ago and still have things to do at 40 hours, from the scenery to the animation, this game is just incredible to play and watch through
Yep, I keep finding more and more to do!!
Xeno my first ever run through was as thorough as could be and took me something like one hundred hours
@spark its hard, but if you learn the patterns it becomes easy. Just remember to not rush damage.
As you mentioned about the map maker - the sound effects also really give the characters.. character.
I also used to die to Hornet a lot, but in later playthroughs I'd always beat her on my first go.
i feel that! i thought i would never beat her but once you've got her moves down its a lot easier
All 5 of us? You underestimate the residents of Hallownest xD
It really is the tiny details that gives Hollow Knight its charm, beyond all the other greatness.
Awesome work sir, really interesting to see it broken down!
Void exists to be filled, emptiness can still be beautiful :)
This was my first Metroidvania/Dark souls like game I've ever really owned and it's honestly surprising how I got into it in such a small time
That's because it's also the best metroidvania game :)
TheCivildecay I got it around April of 2018
TheCivildecay No that would be Metroid Zero Mission.
@@Ghost-ul8eu if there's any other games you'd want me to check out
Then I'd love to here them
BlitzWolfer Two Metroidvanias that are always recommend to newer fans of the genre are Super Metroid and Castlevania Symphony Of The Night,both of these games have aged incredibly well and are still worth playing today.
Some more modern examples for modern gaming platforms are
Bloodstained Ritual Of The
Night
The Messenger(Would say it's a better platformer then a good Metroidvania though.)
Salt and Sanctuary
Ori and The Blind Forest
Every time I see another video deep diving into just how much love and detail was poured into every facet of this game it blows my mind a little more to consider it was made by not even a dozen people
I know, I'm astounded by it also!
Randomly stumbled upon this video - because my CZcams knows if it's about Hollow Knight i will want to see it.
Great one. Intresting analysis of my favourite game ever. Seriously, even Castlevanias from DS i could replay over and over don't stand a chance.
I always had a problem with describing Hollow Knights animation while describing the game to my friends - so hearing "simple - but confident" filled a void (tee hee) in my head.
I certainly hope you make a video about Silksong when it comes out! I can hardly wait for the game myself.
(And you have a nice, smooth voice with good diction, so it's not hard to understand you for non-native english speakers. Good bonus for channels such as yours)
Thanks every so much for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoy the videos and that they're easy to understand.
I think I definitely will make a SilkSong video when it's comes out, that could be interesting.
“Silksong around the corner”
Bud, you said that five corners ago.
"Around the corner" Its been 94 years
When my friend ask me why i love HK, i legitimately don't know what to say. But now i know what to say
The music. THE MUSIC
"Silksong around the corner"
cries of intense sorrow and anguish
Oh my god thank you so much for making this video XD
I was looking for any videos talking about the animation but there wasn't much at all... And yours was really interesting. Thank you for your great work !!
(Hollow knight is just so good I can't wait for silksong at all)
Hey thanks a lot! Also, I love your profile picture - is that animated?!
Well I've discovered something funny. If you change your Google accounts profile to a gif, your channel also change profile picture and the gif plays in notification, surprising the person xDD (only in computer notifications of what I've seen)
So it's fun to surprise people :p
I also seen on your channel that you were a professional animator, I find that amazing ! I wish you all the best in this job 👌
Ha, I still am a professional animator, this channel is something I do in my spare time.
I'll have to give that a go...
"... with silk song around the corner..."
yeah... any day now...
When animation and sound design truly melt together to enhance each other according to me are when Hiveblood masks heal and the Baldur shell first locks around you. Those are my favourites and part reason why I searched for videos on the underappreciated animation in this masterpiece of a game.
What a lovely breakdown. I'm so excited for Silk Song to come out, and I know that it's a small team working on it so I'm trying my best to be patient for it's release. Seeing how much care they put into Hollow Knight's animation gives me a better appreciation for how much work they do and, as a result, I will happily wait until they are satisfied with the result.
Two of my favorite Dans are covering Hollow Knight. Floyd with a let's play, Root with the animation!
who's the other dan?
@@CrazyLikeChris check out Play Frame. Dan Floyd is also an animator. The two Dan's did a collab recently too!
@@roy4173 Oh he is Dan too? I must have missed it. I actually got recommended from his stuff.
can we just appreciate the seamless editing at 9:45
Waaait... IT WAS IN 3D THE WHOLE TIME?! I knew something was off about how good those foregrounds and backgrounds were!
I swear I'm gonna watch every video on this game ever made before I actually *play* the damn thing. Awesome work Dan :)
Haha! Thanks 😅
The shading and lighting is so beautiful in this game. The game dev colour choice are just wow
Best game- best game! Beautiful video my friend
wow, 132 hours in hollow knight and so much I never noticed
This game is so gentle and melancholy. This game was an important buy for me as it was the first game I purchased for my Switch. Zero hesitation. I was captivated by its simple beauty and quiet ambience. What a time it is to be a lover of metroidvanias from the genres conception. Super Metroid and SotN are still my favorite games.
When he said "with a sequel just around the corner" I physically recoiled...silksong WHEN 😓
Picked it up yesterday as well! I’ve been making a metroidvania myself, where you fight enemies with a synth keyboard. Friends kept telling me this was extremely similar so I gave it a look. It was incredible!
Your game sounds interesting!
You play as a blind girl who can only see through sound. You fall 100s of feet into the vampire Kings lair, and have to escape. My favorite mechanic is the whistle, which acts as the map. When you blow it, the screen zooms out to show every path you uncovered.
"Silksong around the corner"
IT'S BEEN SO MANY CORNERS!
Watching this high and it feels like a movie
'Silksong around the corner'
Starts crying in 2 YEARS AGO
This is why I love Hollow Knight. It's a beautiful game with great gameplay and easy-to-learn controls.
2:25 "the jump is what they wanted to NAIL first"
Nice!
Also this is my fourth time watching this video, it's nice to watch people talk well about Hollow Knight.
Don’t mind me, just viewing old videos again. Thanks for the info!
HK is definitely in my top three games that I suck at, but it’s so hard to not repeatedly return to such excellent craftsmanship.
Hey, an old video is still a video, thanks for watching again!
As far as i know the history, you talked about Hunger Knight, which was the origin of the character design, but was not the start of Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight started off as a separate game jam entry with an underground theme.
I'm just going by what they've said themselves in interviews.
My favourite animation is how the bench appears when you pay for one. It cracks me up every time.
Ahhh yes I love those environmental animations, really nicely done.
I didn't understand what it was about my first time either, came back to it a year later and loved it.
I think this is a common theme with this game. Many others including myself have played the first time and did not get it and came back a year later to find myself absolutely loving it. I worry about the people who stopped playing after the first time and never get to experience such a brilliant game.
Playing this game for the first is very intimidating for sure lol I started my first playthrough for like an hour and was discouraged. So I stopped playing for a week but was also thinking did I miss something? So I started a new game file and it was very hard to put down. The music and art blend so well together it will always be embedded in my mind
A team of 200 people can make a game with so much effort yet it can be so universally hated, while one of the greatest most beloved games of all time was made by 3 dudes in a garage.
Power to the people. The indie people.
silksong right around the corner.. what a long corner it's been
is honestly surprising that such an amazing game was made by a team of three people. absolutely every part of this game looks gorgeous and has some of the most immersive exploration up there with botw and metroid which were made by a team of over a hundred people. Indie games have so much charm and its astounding what you can do with so little. I'm so incredibly exicted for silksong and can't what to see what team cheery does moving forward
Yeah, theirs a great inspiration to indie devs, myself included!
Silksong around the corner (still)
3 years ago: "Silk Song is right around the corner.“ Today: "Silk Song is a myth."
i didnt notice how many small details were in Hollow Knight
i played it too and I loved it everything id beautiful in this game but i never noticed the incredible amount of love Team Cherry put into the Game
Thank you for showing me :D
Such an amazing game, when I saw this in my recommended I knew I had to watch it. Hopefully now I can articulate even better how much love I have for this game. I'm so excited for silksong too!
Video: "Silksong around the corner"
2024:
I just found this channel and am so glad I did! I’m completely new to video game design/animation so it’s very cool to see a channel go into such detail yet explain the concepts in a way that I can still grasp them.
Hey there! Thanks for checking it out, I'm glad it's helpful and entertaining! Good luck in your endeavour!
If I had a nickel for every CZcams channel with a Dan talking about video game animation that I've found through Hollow Knight I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it happened twice.
OH MY GOD THIS IS MARVELOUS! Is it just me or does the beauty of what people can do just make you feel like crying. This game is the best i have played in my entire life.
Its only online i find a lot of people appreciative of this. People in my part of the world really don't value the beauty in art.
It's great to hear you say that, I definitely think video games can be considered as art!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Very true. I've always found video games to be a way to not only experience but also tell beautiful stories in much colorfully concepts.
This game helped me cope after my granny died, I'll always be grateful I had Hollownest to get lost in at that time.
'And with Silksong around the corner...' *sobs*
The atmosphere is just fantastic
Well looks like this is what I'm getting next!
Be patient with it. I like this game. But I don't enjoy it. It's unfair, but it can be fun.
@@jimmyjohnjoejr Thanks for the info, I've been feeling like getting a game that's decently difficult, because a multitude of games are quite easy.
Your breakdown was really interesting to watch. I especially enjoy the moments when you slow down the animation to show us the frames.
Hey thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
As an animator myself hollow knight completely blows me away with its stunning gorgeous animation. Alot of the time I liked to just sit down to see my knight’s sleeping animation. It was just so charming in an otherwise very bleak game. My animation and my software are awful. I use scratch as my animation software which shackles me to a forced 30 fps which limits my animation. On top of that I am very bad at animation with alot of it coming of either stiff,lifeless or boring. Hollow knight and Megaman zero/ZX are the games that show me the beauty of animation. I’m making animations as a hobby but I’m very lazy so I barely work on any of them leaving many of my projects unfinished. But right now on my current project I am trying my best to finish it. I won’t release it publicly for privacy reasons but I wan’t you to know how much respect I have for these games and their animation and also the skill and time it takes to make these animations.
Oh also make a MMZ/ZX video please. Those games have BEAUTIFUL animation please.
Amazing video for an absolutely amazing game!!! I really like how you explained the different little animation touches the team made into their beautiful game! Keep up the great work and can’t wait for the new Metroid video!!!
I didn't see most of things said in this video. But I definitely felt them. That's why this game is so fluid and smooth. So natural. And so alive.
I am one of the five that gave an actual sigh of relief that you’re doing this animation study on Hollow Knight. Well, maybe not a sigh of relief as much as an inhalation of excitement :) I’m really happy to watch this video.
Thanks so much, Rafael!
“With the sequel, silksong around the corner”
4 years later…
Really enjoyed your breakdown :) Please make a video on Hornet once Silksong is released! Like yourself I'm very interested to see how her boss moveset is expanded upon once she takes centre stage as a playable character.
Awesome video! A friend of mine recommended Hollow Knight to me, which is what first introduced me to the game. One of the major things that really began to draw me into the game was its art style and animation. I loved your analysis! Keep up the great work.
I'm glad they for you into it!
And thanks a lot!
this makes me feel more patient for silk song considering how much work is put in to their games
I love this game so much. Thanks for making this video. I'm going to have to check out your other videos now!
Heh thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy the others!
You're welcome. I've already watched the first two How Metroid Creates Fear videos, and I'm looking forward to your new Metroid Prime video
I love this game, thank you for talking about this fantastic game and it’s Tim Burton like world.
I've actually been searching for a video explaining hollow knight's beautiful animation and couldn't find any til now so thank you
What I did is I watched a series on hollow knight so I knew what to expect and it really helped I really didnt "quit" for more than an hour or two
“And with the sequel, silksong, around the corner…”
Video released: 4 years ago.
Love your videos, Dan...and you finally covered what is quite possibly my favorite game of all time. ^_^ It was wonderful to hear your commentary over that amazing score and alongside that art. Thank you!!
Thanks for watching, easily one of my favourite looking games in the last 5 years.
I have only recently picked up Hollowknight (probably through your little mentions of the game in other videos) and since starting to play the game, I started to notice the little qwirks of animation- but the extrapolated layers of background to foreground and everything in between simply blew me away! Thank you for your insight into video game animation, I eagerly look forward to the next video and will keep on the lookout of more animated nuance! ♥️
Thanks for checking this out, and indeed the game itself! It's definitely a new benchmark for indie devs!
I’m currently making my own game and this is actually really helpful thank you lol
Wow I just came back to this game yesterday after giving up on it last year and now after seeing this video, I have more motivation to finish it
It's definitely, definitely worth it! There's lots to discover.
One thing I'd like to do is make a game that has levels akin to traditional 2D platformer games like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, has the emphasis of collecting things like Donkey Kong Country, and has a massive world map that plays like a Metroidvania game.
It’s funny. I don’t particularly enjoy hollow night, but I love it’s art style a lot.
I’m making a game at the moment and I love the idea of making my drawings the sprites as oppose to interpreting a drawing within the pixel art medium or 3d medium.
I'm addicted to hollow knight videos
What an incredible video and a fantastic game! I love Hollow Knight so much and cant wait for Silksong!
This breakdown was spectacular! Thank you so much!
Totally welcome!
With Silksong just around the corner is oh so funny.
God damn, did you have Shakespeare write that last sentence. It left me speechless. Great video as always.
Haha, thanks so much. It felt a bit cheesy to me but glad it entertained,haha.
“With Silksong around the corner”
*cries*
*looks at upload date*
*cries more*
I could watch the Stag run for hours. I laugh every time I it moves, it's perfect.
Yeah, I love its flailing legs 😆
picked up this game and have this thought after acquiring all the movement ability
"this is definitely inspired by MegamanX"
and X3 is one of few games that i managed to complete early on my life
Yes silksong is right around the corner
Some people here are requesting videos on more animations in games, but what about a collab with New Frame Plus?
We're discussing one, we need to find time that works with both our schedules, though we both did promotional videos on Breath of the Wild recently.
Part of why I found the Mantis Lords a bit difficult was bc after every hit, I thought I was on my last hp but I was actually almost full lol.
Not saying this as a bad thing. It's very nice.
Games usually do not get me to cry or be emotional but Hollow Knight managed
at first I did not have the foggiest why that is because it does not show you any excessively sad scenes or makes a huge fuss about drama like other titles do
but when I play I just simply cannot stop but marble at all the things visible on the screen, the characters little noises, how they twitch and wriggle, the dust and particles darting across the screen, the rain that falls on the windows of the city of tears, the Knight sitting down cross legged as he listens to Marissas song or when sitting before the blue lake with Quirrel, the white defender reaching out to the white dissolving sprites of his comrades, Mylas little song as she hacks away at the crystals...
it all casts a certain spell of... sadness over my mind when observing these things, but it is not unpleasant of forceful... more like a wave of nostalgia that overcomes me, everytime I see these things
the art-style and the overall appeal of the game, there is something subtle and sincere about it and in the way it´s being presented to you, something innocent and pure but at the same time curious, humorous or just plain odd like the collector, that moves me every-time in a way that I am certain, the most well played out or thought through animation acted out and perfected down to the last frame could not do or hope to achieve
thank you for making this analysis, alas I felt nostalgic once again