Chapter 3.3
Image Metrics Animation
“Life-like animation heralds new era for computer games” Jonathan Richards, Times publication, Aug 2008
‘Emily' will set a new precedent for photo-realistic characters in video games and films.” Mike Starkenburg, chief operating officer of Image Metrics
Extraordinarily life-like characters are to begin appearing in films and computer games thanks to a new type of animation technology. Emily - the woman in the above animation - was produced using a new modeling technology that enables the minutest details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated. She is considered to be one of the first animations to have overleapt a long-standing barrier known as “The Uncanny Valley” - which refers to the perception that animation looks less realistic as it approaches human likeness. Researchers at a Californian company which makes computer-generated imagery for Hollywood films started with a video of an employee talking.
They then broke down the facial movements into dozens of smaller movements, each of which was given a ‘control system.
“Our recent Emily project is something we're all proud of,”
Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
That tech demo wasn't the first time the public had seen what Image Metrics was capable of, nor is it the end of it. Image Metrics did face work for Grand Theft Auto IV , (Rockstar North, 2007) Unreal Tournament II ( Midway Games, 2007,) as well as Gnarls Barkley's “Who's Gonna Save My Soul” (Atlantic Records, 2008) and Rock Band 2 . (Xbox Live, 2008)
Gnarls Barkley's “Who's Gonna Save My Soul” (Atlantic Records, 2008)
Traditional face motion capture uses traditional tools. Ditching pricey, special equipment or markers, the Image Metrics solution is software-based. All that is needed is a well-lit video of the actor's performance.
“Image Metrics provides marker-less performance-driven facial animation using its proprietary technology. Our solution starts with video footage of an actor's performance, which is then analyzed pixel-by-pixel. The resulting data is transferred back onto the CG facial model.” Company CEO Kelvin Duckett
“We were convinced that this was the best way to really understand and solve the problems that had prevented computer vision from becoming integrated into the many fields it could benefit,” Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
Walker could see how gaming would only benefit from better computer vision. Better computer vision meant better rendered faces. “As computer vision can be applied to many fields, when developing the technology, we were looking for the most difficult task to test it with,” Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
“Facial animation was the perfect challenge. Faces, for the most part, are quite similar, but the small subtle differences are what make us so unique. Teaching a computer to learn to recognize those minute elements that define our personas was quite a challenge.” Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
Coupled with the tech challenges, Walker and his colleagues didn't have a background in animation. It was an uphill climb, there were obstacles, but they lucked out and met industry types who could see the inherent value in Image Metrics and were willing to fill in the gaps and plug the leaks.
With the new tech in hand, the differences were startling. Traditional MoCap can only capture markers, losing whatever is in the space between the markers. Image Metrics captures the entire face and thus, renders a more emotive mug as seen in the Emily demo.
“While we're always working on improving our technology, I think the Emily demo shows how real we can get with it right now,”
Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
“We can produce Emily-quality animation for games as well, but it just can't work in a real-time gaming environment,”
Image Metrics co-founder Kevin Walker.
Continue to Chapter 3.5 Practical Interruption
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