Source: hexus.net
There’s a cool new tool out there for video game designers. No, it’s not the Yankee driver. Last week, software developer Mixamo announced that they were partnering with computer giant AMD to release Face Plus, a plug-in for the Unity games development engine that will radically streamline character design.
Sorry, there were a lot of words and a lot of links in that last sentence. Didn’t mean to get all J.R.R. Tolkein on you. Mixamo’s press release puts it better:
With Face Plus, developers are now able to capture their own facial expressions via standard webcams and transfer them in real time onto a 3D character.
Pretty awesome, right? (No offense, Yankee driver.) It means less time dragging eyelids in an effort to get your characters to express realistic emotions. This kind of technology, while not quite Tony Stark-level, could drastically improve character development in low-budget and independent video games. And the less time you spend doing menial tasks, the more time you have for big picture thinking, which equals more and better games.
Source: mixamo.com
The tech website Hexus gets a little more specific on the nuts and bolts of Face Plus:
Face Plus facilitates markerless facial capture and animation in real-time. Mixamo says it is ”the world’s first facial capture and animation technology delivered directly inside a 3D game engine”. Appealing to thrift and convenience the firm says users can cut out expensive equipment and the to-and-fro of importing and exporting 3D models. A developer who is capable of facial expressions can act out and ‘record’ any expressions he/she wishes the in-game character to exhibit. This process cuts out a plethora of studio requirements such as ”armies of animators and riggers” says Mixamo.
Though Face Plus is only available for Unity developers, the fact that it even exists is a good sign for video game developers who want to make stuff outside of a giant corporate structure. One common complaint about low-budget games is that the characters have about as much emotional range as old school Donkey Kong, since detailed character animation takes a lot of man hours. It’s not unrealistic to think that Face Plus might be a step towards changing that.
Source: flopgames.com
Independent video games are already taking up a bigger piece of the market thanks to the mobile distribution model, which doesn’t require the same licensing necessary for console games. Some indie games are even as hotly anticipated as major platformers. Imagine how the business model might change once developers can get their hands on more tools like Face Plus that even the playing field.
It’s an extremely cool time to be developing video games. Technology is getting better and cheaper at the same time, and companies like Mixamo are developing tools to help designers tap their creativity. While motion capture was once exclusively the domain of stunt men in weird costumes, now you can do it from your webcam.
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