The Emily Project

[Jobz]

I did a search for this and nothing came up, which was quite surprising because I thought such a breakthrough in gaming technology would have already been mentioned here.

Image Metrics have used a Markerless Motion Capture technique to create what is in my opinion the most beautiful piece of computer animation ever. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiX5d3rC6o

And I highly recommend watching it in high quality. This could be the future of gaming, I thought it warranted mentioning.

EDIT: To Mods; If this has already been posted and I somehow missed it, please lock it swiftly.

 

[Mr. Moose]

OH MY GOD HER HAIR LOOKS SO REAL
>.>
<.<
Had to get that out.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

There's only one thing anyone could say to that. Dude.

 

[Labyrinth]

Oh dear. I can see the graphics pit opening further to swallow more gameplay and plot. That aside, it's brilliant.

 

[Graustein]

I'm confused. How is this different from a very well-done motion cap?

 

[Jobz]

I'm confused. How is this different from a very well-done motion cap?

It doesn't use the markers (Little balls attached to the motion capture actor) they simply video tape something and analyze it using computer software and by some process I won't claim to understand, make this. They explain it in the video.

 

[Gxas]

Wow. If that is actually real that's awesome.

I have a hard time believing it though... seems too real to me.

 

[Corven]

pretty neat, makes you wonder how they would implement that into games, if it was filmed like a movie then digitized(I guess that the word) it would take awhile to motion cap characters doing every possible action the player would do.

 

[Ralackk]

As far as I can understand after whatever series of facial expressions they use to capture the full image of the face, They no longer need the actor/person. It sounds as if once it has been captured and input into the computer that you have a mesh just like any other 3d object. They can then use animators to animate the face.

It is still very impressive how life like it looks, but It looks to be a few years off before we see that being processed in real time for computer games. The polygon count on the teeth alone would probably freeze up my computer.

 

[insectoid]

That's just plain scary.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Sweet balls of the almighty.

That is awesome.

 

[Stormcloud23]

Lol... peace out uncanny valley... i didn't realize that was an animation until i read the description after the video...

 

[Mstrswrd]

As far as I can understand after whatever series of facial expressions they use to capture the full image of the face, They no longer need the actor/person. It sounds as if once it has been captured and input into the computer that you have a mesh just like any other 3d object. They can then use animators to animate the face.

It is still very impressive how life like it looks, but It looks to be a few years off before we see that being processed in real time for computer games. The polygon count on the teeth alone would probably freeze up my computer.

Well, there was actually a report a few years ago saying that if technology continues to advance at the rate it is, in a few years, they'll be able to have new movies with dead actors. Whole new movies with, say, Frank Sinatra, if that floats your boat (he was just the first person who came to mind).

I apologize if I sounded rude.

Anyway, yeah, hadn't seen this. This is awesome. And scary. Very scary.

 

[Combined]

That's the second realest person I've ever seen.

 

[mr mcshiznit]

Man i can hear the Jack Tompsons now screaming how its to realistic and could damage the youth. If and when this does become common place im all for more strict rules on the esrb rules. If you watch someone that life like being ripped apart and your say, 11, you may not be ok for a little while after that. This could also lead into some wierd porn type games no? This looks like it could be amazing in a game but i also worry if the price of doing it would further inflate game prices. I'm sorry but 64.94 us money is still alot to be playing games

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

After reading up on the process on their site, it looks like you can just basically send them a video of the actor performing their part and a rig of the face you want to use and they will send you back the performance on your facial rig. It seems more like translation and less like capture and transfer of movement.

EDIT: I seems like it could make the actually production of games cheaper, since it doesn't take a lot of time consuming set-up and specialized equipment to do the capture.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Facial expressions and hand gestures are all well and good--those were pretty well-done before. The main problem that I've seen with animations comes from full-body motions--muscles don't quiver properly when someone's foot hits the floor, things have "wrong" hang time when they fall, and you certainly don't get motion blur which we are all used to in video. So it still doesn't look real even when the individual hairs escaping from her 'do' are rendered.

 

[Novajam]

The difference I noticed was that the Image Metrics Emily has very soft smoothed-over textures (if that makes sense). It made her look too rosy cheeked. Other than that, I don't like it. Too real. I like where we are now in terms of graphics. Writing and gameplay are the ones that need some love.