Remedy Claims New Tech Raises The Bar For Facial Animation
Developer demonstrates "LA Noire beating" animation tool capable of rendering every human expression in real time.
During a visit to Finland-based Max Payne and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, we were given an exclusive look at work-in-progress animation tech that the studio is using to create its next project.
Lead animator John Root - who formerly held the same post at id and Epic Games, as well a stint at Disney - explains that, while traditional motion capture offers a reliable way to create human movements and expressions, the need for “retargeting” (the process by which animators adjust raw captured data for final display) leaves the method open to inaccuracies and human error.
Created by Root, Remedy’s powerful tech uses motion capture as a starting point for generating scans of actors (in this case, Alan Wake’s physical model, lkka Villi) accurate to ½ mm, including 64 facial poses from which Root claims every human expression can be derived.
Armed with a highly accurate model of the actor, animators can then use sliders to adjust expressions based on the captured positions, allowing them to control and edit a realistic human face in real time rather than rely on bespoke performances for every cutscene and action, or manually animate the same expression.
The results are strikingly nuanced, telegraphing a great deal of subtlety even at this early stage, the system promising a significantly more flexible way for animators to work. Despite this, Root has even bigger plans: one additional component yet to be implemented is colour mapping, a system which will simulate blood flow beneath the skin, adjusting its colour as brows are furrowed or lips pursed.
The company isn’t yet ready to demonstrate the newly emotive Alan Wake character model in public, nor will it confirm the project to which it will apply the tech, but Remedy is confident that it can come closer to crossing the uncanny valley than any other developer has done to date.
“LA Noire has set a bar for facial animation,” CEO Matthias Myllyrinne says of Rockstar’s forthcoming crime title. Raising one hand, then placing his other significantly higher, he adds: “But [Rockstar’s game] is here, we’re aiming to be here.”
