Archives For Cutscenes

Virtual Reality And Game Animation

May 13th, 2013 — 5 Comments

I’ve long held that the technical (i.e. non-artistic) pinnacle that videogames’ can attain, when we’ve finally achieved the point at which technology no longer holds us back, is the complete virtual reproduction of an immersive world in the manner of Star Trek TNG’s Holodeck. If we’re looking to offer wholly-immersive experiences in a virtual environment, then this is the absolute zenith.

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As such, my interest has been piqued for some time now by the affordability and accessibility of virtual reality’s second coming in the form of the increasingly popular Oculus 3D headset. I lapped up the VR-related talks at this year’s GDC, convinced the immediate benefits would outweigh criticisms from developers at Valve and the Oculus guys themselves – appreciating the latter’s “mea culpa” approach and the former’s assertion that while far from finished, this is the first step on the long road of virtual reality becoming a viable gaming reality by comparing the current situation to that of the early days of PC 3D accelerator cards.

Continue Reading…

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Full Performance Capture on Far Cry 3

January 21st, 2013 — 2 Comments

Here is a video on Far Cry 3′s full performance capture technology, which is virtually identical to Assassin’s Creed III’s given that we used their workflow entirely albeit from a third-person perspective. I can’t imagine recording face, body and voice separate again after seeing the subtle nuances picked up by all three working together in sync.

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Marc is the Technical Director in charge of R&D at our Montreal mocap studio, (we have one in Toronto also), so oversees the motion-capture technology-sharing on all Montreal projects. For more info on FC3′s character pipeline you can see an additional talk by Character Technical Director Kieran O’Sullivan here.

In Cutscenes, Facial Animation , , , , ,
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Connor VGA Nomination

January 18th, 2013 — 4 Comments

He didn’t win so it was never aired, but here is the video I created for the Spike VGA’s “character of the year” acceptance speech. Not counting the mocap shoot, it was only a few days work with a little help from those on the cinematics team, (the fight portion is a modified combination of two of our ingame double-counter-kills), but I never made any cutscenes for AC3 and wanted to familiarise myself with the entire workflow.

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Agni’s Philosophy – Realtime Editing

July 22nd, 2012 — Leave a comment

No sooner had I posted on my expectations of realtime editing in the future, and here I find Square Enix is already working on a next-generation engine named Luminous Studio that focuses on just that. Check below for their video showcasing their new realtime cinematics running on a top-of-the range PC, then hit up this link for a behind-the-scenes look at all that glorious rendering and character work being modified in realtime within a Maya window.

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Rendering out 10 million polygons per frame at 1080p at 60 frames per second is no mean feat, but to do it with fully physics-affected hair and a facial performance capture on a par with L.A.Noir only on fully deformable 3D characters with layers of cloth is something amazing to behold in realtime.

This is definitely the one to watch of all the facial animation shown at E3.

[via Game Watch]

In Cutscenes, VFX , , ,
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Source Filmmaker & Realtime Animation

July 8th, 2012 — 1 Comment

Valve have opened the beta for their in-house cinematic tool, the Source Filmmaker. Below is a video taking us through its various features, but those I’m most interested in are the abilities to not only pause and reframe shots in realtime, but also pose and and animate characters on the fly.

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This is one of the new directions I’ve been anticipating we take as an industry as a whole as we do away with the idea of creating animations and rigs in content creation packages such as Maya and 3DS Max and animate directly in the engine, removing both the export step and more importantly the disconnect between what you make in the DCC and later see in the game with the correct camera, rigging, and all the motions blending together – allowing us to truly work in a WYSIWYG environment.

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Digic Pictures Demo Reel 2011

January 16th, 2012 — Leave a comment

Currently the darlings of the CG Game Trailer world after stealing the title from Blur Studio, Digic Pictures have just released their latest reel.

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Although only containing a handful of updates from their 2010 version, this video shows that they owned pretty much every CG Trailer you got excited about in the last few years.

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Making of the Diablo 3 : Black Soulstone Cinematic

November 7th, 2011 — Leave a comment

A long video, and relevant only for pre-rendered cinematics due to the high-res nature of many of their challenges, but this cinematics panel from Blizzcon 2011 hammers home the importance of reference gathering for top-level animation.

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The Making of Tomb Raider : Turning Point

July 14th, 2011 — 3 Comments

This trailer passed me by at E3 this year, but knowing Square’s Visual Works of Final Fantasy fame were involved makes it deserving of another look. Nice comparisons between animatics and final comps. Skip to around 1:15 to get past (at least some of) the Irish marketing man.

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Cinematic Reel : 2011

April 10th, 2011 — 3 Comments

I took the time this last week to put together a reel of my work on Mass Effect 2, done between late 2008 and early 2010. Look below for a full shot breakdown, and, because you’re gonna ask, the music is Invaders Must Die by The Prodigy.

Shot Breakdown

Below is a breakdown of what I was responsible for in each scene. The terms used are as follows: Continue Reading…

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L.A. Noire’s MotionScan Performance Capture

December 17th, 2010 — 5 Comments

Everyone’s talking about it so it would be rude not to post that the new trailer for Rockstar’s (Sydney-based team Bondi’s) L.A. Noir dropped yesterday and the facial performances look fantastic. Using Depth Analysis’ MotionScan technology, they appear to be going all out to capture the performances of apparently over 200 characters.

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While the visual benefits are obvious, I can’t help but wonder just how much it cost the production for so many actor contracts when not only voices but likenesses are required. Additionally, the production task must be one of the hardest parts of the game, considering that at the time of writing they’re still hiring senior roles for the cinematics team around 6 months before the planned release date.

That said, I’ve really been keeping an eye on this since E3 so can’t wait for spring to roll around, plus I’m a Noir nut since a Humphrey Bogart stint last summer.

Read more about the MotionScan tech and process here.

UPDATE: They’re not still hiring as the front-page job posting on their site is dated 2008. Makes me feel better about the frequency of my own posts.

In Cutscenes, Facial Animation, GAME ANIM Articles , , , , ,
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