[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
TPS: Can you go into a little detail on how the AI is set up and how complex it is? What kind of behaviors can be applied to the characters; is it something where you can target just a particular limb or joint, for instance, and go from there, and can these pre-set things in turn affect how a character's AI would respond? We're thinking of, say, someone's leg that's been damaged and if that could in turn affect how they react to a threat.
TR: Yes, all of that is possible. Behaviours can be applied to an entire character, or just limbs. We can also simulate injuries on particular limbs, or fatigue on the entire body.
The AI itself is quite complex, as it is based on robot control theory. Run-time execution, however, is very fast on next-gen platforms.
By their very nature, behaviours are adaptive. So, if you have a balancing behaviour, and you attach a heavy rucksack to the character, the behavior will be able to deal with it, and you’ll see the difference in the way the character moves.
TPS: Pretend we're a game developer and you're pitching the endorphin or euphoria suites to us. What kind of best-case scenario is possible with the tools? For the purposes of wow factor, pretend the sky is the limit on resources, though this must still be realistically done in real-time rather than a movie.
TR: Imagine a football game where all the tackles are truly interactive and unique. Every time you tackle your buddy and see a slo-mo of it you know “that was my tackle”, and not just a played-back animation. Or imagine a fighting scene, where you hit your opponent, he stumbles back, maybe into another character; they trip over a chair, but just regain their balance, only to come and charge back at you together. And imagine knowing that none of this was scripted, but happened there and then because of the way you played the game.
TPS: Is it possible to have a character or object react dynamically to input? We're trying to imagine an euphoria-powered main character that has branched animations according to specific actions like, say, grabbing a cliff and climbing up it differently every time.
TR: Yes, euphoria reacts dynamically to all input. You don’t even have to add any branching. It will look different every time. (The same as you and I never do the same thing exactly the same way twice.)
TPS: Since we're obviously clueless about things here, is there anything you'd really like to point out in regards to the products that we just completely missed? Consider this your chance to grandstand a little and edumacate us.
TR: I think your idea of euphoria is spot-on. It uses the CPU power of Xbox 360 and PS3 to simulate the human body and its nervous system. Sounds a little science fiction, but that’s what it does. As a result, characters become truly interactive. If you think about it, traditional game animation worked in a weird way. Developers pre-produced animations and then played them back at more or less appropriate times. That never looks right, and it also can never really create something new or unique in a game. euphoria solves this problem, and while – we think – it’s already pretty powerful, there’s a lot more to come from NaturalMotion.
Huge thanks to Torsten for taking the time out to answer a few of our admittedly newbie-riffic questions. If you happen to be in the Boston area from July 30th till August third, NaturalMotion will be showcasing their tech at SIGGRAPH. All you VFX and CG folks that read TPS (there's got to be at least one of you, right?) can get a peek at live demonstrations at the nVidia and Autodesk booths (#1017 and #1706, with respects) during the show.
TR: Yes, all of that is possible. Behaviours can be applied to an entire character, or just limbs. We can also simulate injuries on particular limbs, or fatigue on the entire body.
The AI itself is quite complex, as it is based on robot control theory. Run-time execution, however, is very fast on next-gen platforms.
By their very nature, behaviours are adaptive. So, if you have a balancing behaviour, and you attach a heavy rucksack to the character, the behavior will be able to deal with it, and you’ll see the difference in the way the character moves.
TPS: Pretend we're a game developer and you're pitching the endorphin or euphoria suites to us. What kind of best-case scenario is possible with the tools? For the purposes of wow factor, pretend the sky is the limit on resources, though this must still be realistically done in real-time rather than a movie.
TR: Imagine a football game where all the tackles are truly interactive and unique. Every time you tackle your buddy and see a slo-mo of it you know “that was my tackle”, and not just a played-back animation. Or imagine a fighting scene, where you hit your opponent, he stumbles back, maybe into another character; they trip over a chair, but just regain their balance, only to come and charge back at you together. And imagine knowing that none of this was scripted, but happened there and then because of the way you played the game.
TPS: Is it possible to have a character or object react dynamically to input? We're trying to imagine an euphoria-powered main character that has branched animations according to specific actions like, say, grabbing a cliff and climbing up it differently every time.
TR: Yes, euphoria reacts dynamically to all input. You don’t even have to add any branching. It will look different every time. (The same as you and I never do the same thing exactly the same way twice.)
TPS: Since we're obviously clueless about things here, is there anything you'd really like to point out in regards to the products that we just completely missed? Consider this your chance to grandstand a little and edumacate us.
TR: I think your idea of euphoria is spot-on. It uses the CPU power of Xbox 360 and PS3 to simulate the human body and its nervous system. Sounds a little science fiction, but that’s what it does. As a result, characters become truly interactive. If you think about it, traditional game animation worked in a weird way. Developers pre-produced animations and then played them back at more or less appropriate times. That never looks right, and it also can never really create something new or unique in a game. euphoria solves this problem, and while – we think – it’s already pretty powerful, there’s a lot more to come from NaturalMotion.
Huge thanks to Torsten for taking the time out to answer a few of our admittedly newbie-riffic questions. If you happen to be in the Boston area from July 30th till August third, NaturalMotion will be showcasing their tech at SIGGRAPH. All you VFX and CG folks that read TPS (there's got to be at least one of you, right?) can get a peek at live demonstrations at the nVidia and Autodesk booths (#1017 and #1706, with respects) during the show.