"shakes head".........every time i see sports games, the characters always look like a bunch of mindless husks. 2k and EA should look into using "blend shapes" now for expressions, that would totally make the characters a lot more lifelike.
all of new games are using blend shapes, like Ryse, Uncharted, the order, halo, quantum break. it does serious wonders.
Commented on 2014-08-13 23:16:21 In reply to GunsnSwords
Posted by GunsnSwords
"shakes head".........every time i see sports games, the characters always look like a bunch of mindless husks. 2k and EA should look into using "blend shapes" now for expressions, that would totally make the characters a lot more lifelike.
all of new games are using blend shapes, like Ryse, Uncharted, the order, halo, quantum break. it does serious wonders.
You actually need to see a game animation running to know whether or not if blend shapes are being used. Any game that has facial animation uses them anyway,so they don't need to look into using them, as they've been doing so for years, and to create individual ones based on each person in a game is just far too much of an ask. I'm also not sure why people look at video game human based characters and expect them to resemble real life people or convince that they are. Not even complex offline CG and animation is there yet, so why should a game be any closer?
The technology you're probably thinking of is one that captures facial expressions and animation in the form of pixel data which is then baked into normal maps. LA Noire made use of it, as does Quantum Break. EA bought the tech a few years ago, but for some reason, they've yet to put it to any visible use as yet. Maybe it was just for CGI. Maybe we'll se it in a fighting or golf sim where there are less character models to concentrate on to capture the data from.
you're probably right, i would need to see this in motion. it's just there's something in sports games that makes them feel a little soulless in their expressions. EA's Fight Night and UFC are the only ones which come to mind on fairly good they've progressed, for all of the animations.
Commented on 2014-08-14 03:49:56 In reply to MrWhite
Did you even watch Avatar? Those blue people weren't real. So yes, offline CG is there. Nobody cares to put in the effort though. Can't really blame them though.
That aside, not sure why they don't use the detailed photos they take of the players as part of the textures. Maybe I'm just asking for too much. Not a designer so I don't know their woes.
Commented on 2014-08-14 05:02:57 In reply to bubble2020
Posted by bubble2020
Did you even watch Avatar? Those blue people weren't real. So yes, offline CG is there. Nobody cares to put in the effort though. Can't really blame them though.
That aside, not sure why they don't use the detailed photos they take of the players as part of the textures. Maybe I'm just asking for too much. Not a designer so I don't know their woes.
Bubble, Avatar looked good. I'm not denying that, but it was far from convincing the human brain that those blue things were actually real. Offline renders can make something look completely realistic and utterly convincing when it's a static render. It's when it's animated that the illusion breaks and betrays it's CG origin. Animation is still the biggest hurdle in CGI. We still don't have computers fast enough to capture the tiniest of movements realistically that an organic object or living creature exhibits in real life. It's just the tiniest of details in the nuance of movement that always give it away. There is nothing out there that exists that looks 100% authentic. Yet.
And they do use the photo's of the players as textures, and also as reference points for the model tweaks. They don't need to model these players off of an image plane as you would do traditionally. They are scanned from a number of cameras covering a 360 degree view. All that data gets used to build an accurate true to life model, including mapping. They use the technology in Fifa and a lot of titles now.
Commented on 2014-08-15 06:50:43 In reply to MrWhite
I get what your saying. It's true that nothing is 100% authentic. I doubt it ever will be, but we are pretty close. I don't think it's too much to ask for life-like* characters. CG has come a long way:
It may not be perfect, but it's pretty damn good. It's certainly good enough for me not to complain about it if I ever saw it in a basketball game. Maybe consoles don't have the power and maybe it might take a behemoth of a computer, but no one even tries to take it that far. Again though, I can't blame them.
As for the whole photo thing, I guess I was thinking more along the lines of something like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. They make models from the photos themselves. Not sure if you ever saw the whole photogrammetry thing they posted earlier. Still, I guess they are doing a lot with the photos as you pointed out.
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All comments (11)
Commented on 2014-08-13 17:02:17
Commented on 2014-08-13 17:09:46 In reply to digi_matrix
Commented on 2014-08-13 18:18:58 In reply to digi_matrix
Commented on 2014-08-13 19:12:12
Commented on 2014-08-13 21:06:43
Commented on 2014-08-13 22:14:43all of new games are using blend shapes, like Ryse, Uncharted, the order, halo, quantum break. it does serious wonders.
Commented on 2014-08-13 23:16:21 In reply to GunsnSwordsall of new games are using blend shapes, like Ryse, Uncharted, the order, halo, quantum break. it does serious wonders.
The technology you're probably thinking of is one that captures facial expressions and animation in the form of pixel data which is then baked into normal maps. LA Noire made use of it, as does Quantum Break. EA bought the tech a few years ago, but for some reason, they've yet to put it to any visible use as yet. Maybe it was just for CGI. Maybe we'll se it in a fighting or golf sim where there are less character models to concentrate on to capture the data from.
Commented on 2014-08-14 00:33:44
Commented on 2014-08-14 03:49:56 In reply to MrWhiteThat aside, not sure why they don't use the detailed photos they take of the players as part of the textures. Maybe I'm just asking for too much. Not a designer so I don't know their woes.
Commented on 2014-08-14 05:02:57 In reply to bubble2020That aside, not sure why they don't use the detailed photos they take of the players as part of the textures. Maybe I'm just asking for too much. Not a designer so I don't know their woes.
And they do use the photo's of the players as textures, and also as reference points for the model tweaks. They don't need to model these players off of an image plane as you would do traditionally. They are scanned from a number of cameras covering a 360 degree view. All that data gets used to build an accurate true to life model, including mapping. They use the technology in Fifa and a lot of titles now.
Commented on 2014-08-15 06:50:43 In reply to MrWhitehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBR4cT-0sKY
It may not be perfect, but it's pretty damn good. It's certainly good enough for me not to complain about it if I ever saw it in a basketball game. Maybe consoles don't have the power and maybe it might take a behemoth of a computer, but no one even tries to take it that far. Again though, I can't blame them.
As for the whole photo thing, I guess I was thinking more along the lines of something like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. They make models from the photos themselves. Not sure if you ever saw the whole photogrammetry thing they posted earlier. Still, I guess they are doing a lot with the photos as you pointed out.