Take a look at any L.A. Noire trailer and you’ll notice the striking facial animations. The game is still a month away from release but there may already be new technology in the works that plans to top Team Bondi and Rockstar’s latest effort.
Developer Remedy Entertainment, the team behind the Max Payne franchise and last year’s Alan Wake, are creating a new animation technology that utilizes traditional motion capture while overcoming some of its limitations.
Lead animator John Root, formerly of id Software and Epic Games, explained things in a bit more detail. Remedy is still using motion capture as a basis for human movements and expressions, but the company is working around the "re-targeting" problems often synonymous with that technology.
Ultimately this means the animators will have more control over facial animations, including the ability to make edits in real time. In addition, the technology will still retain that life-like quality found in games like Heavy Rain and the upcoming L.A. Noire.
Remedy CEO Matthias Myllyrinne explained how his company wants to take facial animation to the next level.
"LA Noire has set a bar for facial animation," he said.
Then he put up one hand, raised his other significantly higher, and added: "But [Rockstar’s game] is here, we’re aiming to be here."
The company is not yet ready to reveal the new technology to the public, and it’s not announcing any upcoming projects either. But whatever game ends up featuring this new technology will surely be one to pay attention to.
[Edge]
