Quantic Dream’s David Cage recently cast doubts on the viability the system implemented into L.A. Noire used to motion capture the various faces, citing the cost and inability to record the body and head simultaneously. However, developer Team Bondi and technology creator DepthAnalysis indicates this limitation will soon be overcome.
“MotionScan embodies the future on a few levels,” said Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara. “Firstly, when this technology can capture full body performances, the level of realism will be hard to differentiate between game, film and television. That will make the gameplay experience pretty seamless from exposition to action.”
“Secondly, for film makers it will mean they can create whole scenes from capture data on the desktop the way they currently edit films, he added. They will be able to adjust the action, move characters, change cameras and relight the scene until their heart’s content. Overall, for filmmakers that’s pretty exciting. And for games creators, it means we can compete with films and TV on a pure storytelling and performance level, along with leveraging all of the other interactive strengths that will pave the way for more exciting games.”
McNamara noted that they are working with DepthAnalysis to improve the technology and that it is still just starting out. “We want to be able to use shaders more cleverly, take a look at subsurface scattering and also computer generated hair too, which we see a lot of our film customers are working with,” he added. “We are also looking at retargeting so that you could take an actor’s performance from MotionScan and apply it to various non-human characters. We are already doing initial research for full body capture in costume for phase two – it’s exciting times for Depth Analysis and MotionScan for sure.”
“We have had people saying ‘I don’t like this character, he’s a snob. You should replace him with this actor because I think he’d do a better job,” commented DepthAnalysis R&D manager Oliver Bao. “People are treating it like TV. They are getting so much more into it, I’ve had people come up and say ‘Why’d you replace that guy, he was doing such a good job’, and you have to explain about script changes or actor’s availability. People become so attached to their favorite characters that its no longer like playing a video game to them.”
Source: Develop
