PS3 Triggers endorphin Release
That's not us being all artsy, it's lower-case for a reason.
Published: March 27, 2006
Traditionally, 3D animation -- not just in games, but everywhere -- is either motion captured, where actual movements from actors are translated directly into movements for the characters, or keyframed, where animators move models to set positions and then let software interpolate those moves. There's a good reason why it's been this way: both have their plusses and minuses, but they're reliable and produce great results.
Keyframing lets the animators inject personality (just look at the Jak or Ratchet games for stunning examples), but requires a basic understanding of traditional animation techniques and won't give you entirely natural or subtle human movement.
MoCap gives you that subtlety and save a massive amount of time for things like sports games where capturing a ton of basic and signature moves from athletes lets the players in the game move like they should if they were actually playing, but the technology can produce some funky results, like characters jumping around, and if more personality is needed, a keyframer still has to go in and add those touches manually.
The folks at NaturalMotion have a third option: give the digital character a brain and a nervous system and let them make the moves. This DMS technology can shave off tons of time for background or crowd animations where variety is needed but the painstaking process of making all of them move would be a waste of manpower.
“The new network licensing is one of many improvements in endorphin 2.6 which are a direct result of feedback received from our key accounts,” said Richard Craig-McFeely, sales and marketing director for NaturalMotion. “We’ve integrated new features and added functionality that was requested by many of today’s leading games and production companies plus our extensive 20,000-strong Learning Edition user community. These additions to endorphin 2.6 give animators and artists even more control when creating highly-complex character animation sequences.”
Mr. Craig-McFeely there is talking about letting multiple workstations use the same software that's housed on a single server rather than having to buy a copy for each person using it. Given that the sticker price is $9,495, a distributed license is probably a good thing. endorphin also comes in a free Learning Edition version and can be rented for $1,195 for those one a budget or tight timetable.
NaturalMotion's addtions to the 2.6 version of the software include the aforementioned network licensing, improved character edit and pipeline tools, better selection and viewpoint options for adjusting and building characters, adaptive behaviors and a new manual to explain what the hell all of this stuff means. It's clearly good enough to be used by the big boys; Sony Computer Entertainment, Namco, Capcom and Konami have all used endorphin, and we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more references to the software in the credits of next-gen games.
Keyframing lets the animators inject personality (just look at the Jak or Ratchet games for stunning examples), but requires a basic understanding of traditional animation techniques and won't give you entirely natural or subtle human movement.
MoCap gives you that subtlety and save a massive amount of time for things like sports games where capturing a ton of basic and signature moves from athletes lets the players in the game move like they should if they were actually playing, but the technology can produce some funky results, like characters jumping around, and if more personality is needed, a keyframer still has to go in and add those touches manually.
The folks at NaturalMotion have a third option: give the digital character a brain and a nervous system and let them make the moves. This DMS technology can shave off tons of time for background or crowd animations where variety is needed but the painstaking process of making all of them move would be a waste of manpower.
“The new network licensing is one of many improvements in endorphin 2.6 which are a direct result of feedback received from our key accounts,” said Richard Craig-McFeely, sales and marketing director for NaturalMotion. “We’ve integrated new features and added functionality that was requested by many of today’s leading games and production companies plus our extensive 20,000-strong Learning Edition user community. These additions to endorphin 2.6 give animators and artists even more control when creating highly-complex character animation sequences.”
Mr. Craig-McFeely there is talking about letting multiple workstations use the same software that's housed on a single server rather than having to buy a copy for each person using it. Given that the sticker price is $9,495, a distributed license is probably a good thing. endorphin also comes in a free Learning Edition version and can be rented for $1,195 for those one a budget or tight timetable.
NaturalMotion's addtions to the 2.6 version of the software include the aforementioned network licensing, improved character edit and pipeline tools, better selection and viewpoint options for adjusting and building characters, adaptive behaviors and a new manual to explain what the hell all of this stuff means. It's clearly good enough to be used by the big boys; Sony Computer Entertainment, Namco, Capcom and Konami have all used endorphin, and we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more references to the software in the credits of next-gen games.
