[Interview] NaturalMotion's Torsten Reil
We sit down with the man behind euphoria and endorphin to find out exactly how animation is changing on next-gen consoles.
Published: July 20, 2006
TotalPlayStation: First off, would you mind explaining your role in the company and give us a little run-down of NaturalMotion's history?
Torsten Reil: I am the CEO and Co-founder of NaturalMotion. My background is biology and artificial intelligence. Prior to founding NaturalMotion, I was researching for a PhD in Complex Systems at Oxford University. I developed NaturalMotion's core technology together with Colm Massey.
We founded NaturalMotion in November 2001 to commercialize our research on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that simulates humans. We now have a team of 40 people with backgrounds ranging from artificial intelligence, biology, robotics, math and physics to next-gen console optimization.
TPS: Let's get right into it, then: what are endorphin and euphoria, and what are the differences? We're still trying to wrap our head around the idea of characters more or less animating themselves based purely on a set of pre-determined behaviors. Or is that not quite the idea?
TR: You’re right – the characters essentially animate themselves, based on AI behaviours driving muscles in a physically simulated body. Think of it as robot control theory, only without looking robotic!
Both euphoria and endorphin use this technology (called Dynamic Motion Synthesis, or DMS). However, euphoria is a run-time technology for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The result is truly interactive 3D animation while you play the game. This means that something different and unique happens every time you play. endorphin, on the other hand, uses DMS to create baked animation for later playback in films or games.
TPS: How easy is it to integrate something like euphoria into a development timeline. Is there a significant learning curve to checking things out, or do the tools share a basic framework with a lot of animation software currently out.
TR: Fairly easy since the game production work flow does not change significantly. We work closely with developers to minimize learning curves and help with the integration process. We collaborate with their team to help create adaptive behaviours in euphoria that are called upon by the game AI where usually the animation would be played back. The resulting data is synthesised in real time, but to the render engine it looks like ordinary animation data.
TPS: What kind of overhead does adding euphoria into a game's engine add? Is it a case of being able to offload the workload onto the PlayStation 3's SPEs, or is it something that needs to be more tightly integrated into the core game engine?
TR: The overhead is pretty low, as the AI behaviours are very fast. The most important thing is that the physics engine is optimized for next-gen consoles, which is now the case with all commercial offerings.
TPS: How scalable is the technology? Are entire crowds of independently-thinking characters possible on something like the PS3, or is that reserved for pre-rendered sequences?
TR: Simulating entire crowds with euphoria would probably be overkill, as you wouldn’t be able really see the movements of all individual characters anyway. A better way to deal with crowds is to simulate those characters that are closest to the camera, and simply animate the ones that aren’t that visible. euphoria can dynamically switch into any character in the scene, thus making it truly interactive for however long required.
TPS: We saw some really impressive examples of blending keyframed or motion captured animation in with the endorphin-driven animations in your show reel, but can you cite any specific examples where the tools have already been used?
TR: endorphin has been used in feature films such as Poseidon and Troy, commercials such as a Pepsi spot created by The Mill, and in dozens of games from developers such as Namco, Capcom, Konami, Blitz Games, FreeStyleGames, Sony Computer Entertainment, and many others. euphoria is currently being integrated into multiple AAA next-generation titles; however, the only one we have announced publicly is LucasArts’ Indiana Jones 2007 (working title).
Torsten Reil: I am the CEO and Co-founder of NaturalMotion. My background is biology and artificial intelligence. Prior to founding NaturalMotion, I was researching for a PhD in Complex Systems at Oxford University. I developed NaturalMotion's core technology together with Colm Massey.
We founded NaturalMotion in November 2001 to commercialize our research on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that simulates humans. We now have a team of 40 people with backgrounds ranging from artificial intelligence, biology, robotics, math and physics to next-gen console optimization.
TPS: Let's get right into it, then: what are endorphin and euphoria, and what are the differences? We're still trying to wrap our head around the idea of characters more or less animating themselves based purely on a set of pre-determined behaviors. Or is that not quite the idea?
TR: You’re right – the characters essentially animate themselves, based on AI behaviours driving muscles in a physically simulated body. Think of it as robot control theory, only without looking robotic!
Both euphoria and endorphin use this technology (called Dynamic Motion Synthesis, or DMS). However, euphoria is a run-time technology for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The result is truly interactive 3D animation while you play the game. This means that something different and unique happens every time you play. endorphin, on the other hand, uses DMS to create baked animation for later playback in films or games.
TPS: How easy is it to integrate something like euphoria into a development timeline. Is there a significant learning curve to checking things out, or do the tools share a basic framework with a lot of animation software currently out.
TR: Fairly easy since the game production work flow does not change significantly. We work closely with developers to minimize learning curves and help with the integration process. We collaborate with their team to help create adaptive behaviours in euphoria that are called upon by the game AI where usually the animation would be played back. The resulting data is synthesised in real time, but to the render engine it looks like ordinary animation data.
TPS: What kind of overhead does adding euphoria into a game's engine add? Is it a case of being able to offload the workload onto the PlayStation 3's SPEs, or is it something that needs to be more tightly integrated into the core game engine?
TR: The overhead is pretty low, as the AI behaviours are very fast. The most important thing is that the physics engine is optimized for next-gen consoles, which is now the case with all commercial offerings.
TPS: How scalable is the technology? Are entire crowds of independently-thinking characters possible on something like the PS3, or is that reserved for pre-rendered sequences?
TR: Simulating entire crowds with euphoria would probably be overkill, as you wouldn’t be able really see the movements of all individual characters anyway. A better way to deal with crowds is to simulate those characters that are closest to the camera, and simply animate the ones that aren’t that visible. euphoria can dynamically switch into any character in the scene, thus making it truly interactive for however long required.
TPS: We saw some really impressive examples of blending keyframed or motion captured animation in with the endorphin-driven animations in your show reel, but can you cite any specific examples where the tools have already been used?
TR: endorphin has been used in feature films such as Poseidon and Troy, commercials such as a Pepsi spot created by The Mill, and in dozens of games from developers such as Namco, Capcom, Konami, Blitz Games, FreeStyleGames, Sony Computer Entertainment, and many others. euphoria is currently being integrated into multiple AAA next-generation titles; however, the only one we have announced publicly is LucasArts’ Indiana Jones 2007 (working title).