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[DarienA]

I Tivo'd Cinematech so I have no idea when this ep came on but it had a sequence from Onimusha 3 that was f'n drop dead gorgeous... does anybody have any background info on it? I'm assuming it's the intro to the game? The fight sequences were choreographed better than quite a few of the B movies I've seen in my time... and the animation.... that HAD to have been motion captured it was just too fluid....

It shows large insects marching across a plain like troops and in the center there is a HUGE insect that seems to be like a base... a ninja enters the base and fight begins... he dispatches some undead soldiers, and in the process his mask comes off and we see its our hero SAMANOSUKE... he make it into a "brain" room and fights two ogre like warriors, again with great animation, finally another warrior steps in to the room forms a sword and they fight. Again some awesome moves, and the hero ends up on top of a canister that is atop of a large brain(we pan down and see), he cuts the cable just as the guardian throws his start at him.... the canister falls down in to the brain and it explodes... our hero dives out of an opening. On the ground after the dust settles our hero turns around and the guardian is there... he calls his sword again... our hero sucks all the souls of the undread warriors into his gauntlet and morphs... this time the fight is over in two moves... pretty f'n sweet.... the guardian laughs falls down and vanishes.... then we get a shot of Nobunaga who somehow realizes Samanosuke is coming...(I've left out a few details as I'm just pulling this from memory).

Wow, wow and wow.....

 

[TekunoRobby]

The intro was completely done in 3D Studio Max for any that are curious. Discreet pimps it quite a bit.

 

[DarienA]

Gametrailers.com has it:

http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_onimusha3_gi.html

 

[Brofist]

you should play through the game, I thought it was great. I even didn't mind the Jacques character (Jean Reno) that much, and that was the biggest complaint I heard about the game.

 

[sonycowboy]

Yeah,

I saw that the other night as well. I swear, I assumed it was Ninja Gaiden for the longest time as i caught it after they showed the title name. Are you sure that was the intro?? Or is it a recapping of the second one's ending (which I've had for a year, but haven't touched yet). I'm a little upset if that's the ending boss battle, but I just couldn't stop watching it.

It's easily that absolute best CGI I've ever seen, bar none.

 

[DarienA]

you should play through the game, I thought it was great. I even didn't mind the Jacques character (Jean Reno) that much, and that was the biggest complaint I heard about the game.

I've got it on my watch list on eBay right now.

Yeah,

I saw that the other night as well. I swear, I assumed it was Ninja Gaiden for the longest time as i caught it after they showed the title name. Are you sure that was the intro?? Or is it a recapping of the second one's ending (which I've had for a year, but haven't touched yet). I'm a little upset if that's the ending boss battle, but I just couldn't stop watching it.

It's easily that absolute best CGI I've ever seen, bar none.

Gametrailer.com lists it as the intro....

 

[Lord Error]

Yeah, Oni 3 intro is probably the best CGI that I've ever seen, and that includes Hollywood stuff like Shrek 2 or FFTSW... The animation has to be seen off the game disc if you want the real thing. None of the trailers, not even the OPM DVD trailer, or broadcast transmissions comes close to the video quality it has when you play it off the game disc.

One 3D magazine had a cover story on this animation and they gave it so much praise you wouldn't believe. ROBOT also got several awards for it. They used 3DS Max for modeling and someting else (I forgot what) for rendering. Also, a bunch of plug ins for hair, fire, etc. They made small models of objects featured in the animation and then photograped their surfaces to get the best possible textures, animation was motion captured and manually enhanced where necessary. Fights were choreographed by Donnie Yen.

The way they handled Samanosuke's face in the animation is tremendously good. Especially at that ending bit where he angrily walks through the smoke and mist. Quite possibly the only CGI where a human being, and a human face, looks just rock-solid believable.

 

[levious]

It is the intro, so don't worry about it spoiling anything in the game.

Donnie Yen did the fight choreography and overso the motion capture and stuff.

 

[Brannon]

You will of course be wanting to play the game naturally. It's as good as the intro.

 

[TekunoRobby]

One 3D magazine had a cover story on this animation and they gave it so much praise you wouldn't believe. ROBOT also got several awards for it. They used 3DS Max for modeling and someting else (I forgot what) for rendering. Also, a bunch of plug ins for hair, fire, etc. They made small models of objects featured in the animation and then photograped their surfaces to get the best possible textures, animation was motion captured and manually enhanced where necessary. Fights were choreographed by Donnie Yen.

Ehh the Discreet reps I talked to said that the whole product was rendered under 3DS Max. Of course they didn't go into detail what plugins were used. Now they could be wrong (doubt it) but this is what I've been told by many of the higher up reps (not the usual lackeys or regional product demonstrators). Luckily they had a few of the scenes/animations/and models on hand to play with (only if you asked nicely of course). You wouldn't beleive how insanely awesome it is.

 

[jett]

Heh, man...am I the only one that wasn't impressed with Oni3's intro?

 

[DarienA]

Donnie Yen is the f'n man... he makes the last Highlander watchable... even if only briefly.... Yes to those who have asked I'm bidding on the game on eBay right now.

 

[Lord Error]

Ehh the Discreet reps I talked to said that the whole product was rendered under 3DS Max

Well, technically it was, but it was not using Max's native renderer, but a 3rd party plug in renderer like Mental Ray (might not be Mental ray, I really forgot which one it was, but I know for sure they mentioned it in the interview with the guy from Robot)

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Heh, man...am I the only one that wasn't impressed with Oni3's intro?

Pretty much, yeah.

 

[TekunoRobby]

Ahh ok that would make sense since they were so hesitant to talk about plugins. Either they didn't know or they wouldn't want to expose that technicality. One of their head honchos of software development was too busy so I never got to speak with him about the recent Discreet demos they're showing off (Robot's work being one of them). Unfortunate I know, I should call up the guy and ask him about it.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Wow...

Looks fantastic and I'm so, so tired of CG.

Capcom has come a long way. They were at the bottom some years ago when it came to prerendered stuff. Their early RE series CG for the most part had been laughable, compared to what Namco and others were dishing out at the time.

 

[aku:jiki]

Capcom has come a long way. They were at the bottom some years ago when it came to prerendered stuff. Their early RE series CG for the most part had been laughable, compared to what Namco and others were dishing out at the time.

A CG firm called "ROBOT" does the Onimusha CG...

But, yeah, the intro is fucking amazing. It gives me a sense of... "Holy shit, this guy's such a hero!" when Samanosuke is kicking ass, and I never ever get that feeling from games.

The only sad part is that it's the only notable CG movie in the game. I was hoping for more greatness, or at least an ending on the same level.
Game still kicked ass, though. Beat it like four times in a row.

 

[XS+]

ROBOT is the CG production king for this gen. There, I said it.

 

[Fifty]

ROBOT is the CG production king for this gen. There, I said it.

What else have they done?

 

[aku:jiki]

There, I said it.

What? It's true.

Every new Onimusha has wowed me with the CG (Oni1 intro / Oni2 underwater ride / Oni3 intro), but unfortunately that's the only place I've seen their work. Anyone know of other things they've done?

 

[Brandon F]

Yea the intro rocked hardcore. Sux there is no equally entertaining ending sequence.

Oh and the game is alright, nice visuals and many types of demons to slaughter, particularly cool is the Issen(critical kill) system which lets you swath down foes in true samurai form.

 

[Defensor]

Best Game Into EVER!

 

[DarienA]

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=4167449&linkID=1977925

ROBOT Chooses Discreet 3ds max Animation Software for Thrilling Cinematic Opening Sequence in CAPCOM’s Onimusha 3


A piece from the PR:

“In the final episode of the Onimusha series, our intension was to produce the best 3D cinematic opening entertainment ever, and captivate the game players,” said Ikuo Nishii from ROBOT, Japan. “Takashi Yamazaki, a film director of ‘Returner’, and Donnie Yen, legendary martial arts choreographers in Hollywood and Hong Kong (‘Blade 2’, ‘HERO’) co-directed the production with Shirogumi and Kaihei Hayano, who both completed CG (computer graphics) creations for both Onimusha 2 and now, Onimusha 3.” added Nishii.

Yamazaki directed the creative elements of the opening sequence with jaw dropping motion picture realism, and Yen choreographed stunning martial arts movements. A year in the making, the opening sequence also required ten days of motion capture sessions. Using 3ds max and character studio® software, the ROBOT team created a visually rich CG universe that rivals effects-laden Hollywood blockbusters.

“Another strength and level of excellence for 3ds max software is that you have the liberty of choosing from different renderers depending on the style of animation you are creating,” said Ryuichi Yagi, Director of CG at Shirogumi. “For this project, after we tried several renderers to create photo realistic images, we chose VRay rendering solution from Chaos Group. It can render displacement quickly, produce beautiful motion blurs, and represent photo-realistic highlights. To create 3D hair, we used the Shag: Hair plug-in to create each fine hair as an object. Without Discreet 3ds max software, we could not have depicted the highlights on the black hair of the characters so realistically,” said Yagi.

A CG artist, Kaihei Hayano, who participated in all three Onimusha game cinematics, created mostly outdoor scenes and the scenes of the gigantic Genma Tank, symbolic to the game. “The crowd scene of the warriors for the Genma army was in fact, all hand created. We assembled objects one by one, such as small tanks and set lighting to utilize HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) and GI (Global Illumination). I did most of the work myself,” said Hayano. “Of course, many times, the process is trial and error, but with 3ds max, ultimately, you can find a way or ways to customize the result exactly to what you want.”

 

[Lord Error]

“For this project, after we tried several renderers to create photo realistic images, we chose VRay rendering solution from Chaos Group.

Yep that's the one they mentioned in that other interview too.

 

[DarienA]

Ok folks... how many generations more do we have to go to get real time gameplay at that high visual quality... 2? 3?

 

[XS+]

ROBOT's bilingual website (they did the CG in Returner! Eww)

http://company.robot.co.jp/english/menu.html

 

[TekunoRobby]

(they did the CG in Returner! Eww)

HA HA yeah that wasn't too hot.

 

[DarienA]

ROBOT's bilingual website (they did the CG in Returner! Eww)

http://company.robot.co.jp/english/menu.html

http://company.robot.co.jp/english/WORKS/index.html
1997

Cool Parasite Eve... I liked that movie.

 

[Mr_Furious]

The intro was completely done in 3D Studio Max for any that are curious. Discreet pimps it quite a bit.

Not true. Some elements of the intro were actually modelled miniatures and were integrated into the CG. I saw the making of where they had the whole deck of the inside of the bug modelled and were doing camera work within. The rep(s) you spoke to probably embellished a bit but I'd believed the CG elements were 3DSMax.

 

[Lord Error]

Mr_furious, I think those recordings were used for textures and image-based lighting/rendering. I cannot say for sure though, as the interview wasn't too clear on that. Where did you watch that making-of?

 

[TekunoRobby]

Not true. Some elements of the intro were actually modelled miniatures and were integrated into the CG. I saw the making of where they had the whole deck of the inside of the bug modelled and were doing camera work within. The rep(s) you spoke to probably embellished a bit but I'd believed the CG elements were 3DSMax.

Well I meant the actual rendering of it, sorry if that wasn't clear. For all intents of purposes we specifically spoke only about the CG work and nothing related to pre-production and/or external production. Essentially it was him promoting how effective 3DS was and how Robot used the software. I think it might have been because it was late at night or he didn't have the spec sheet handy but he completely ignored my questions regarding plugins and rendering methods/animation work. The guys is pretty trustworthy and would never incorrectly give me information however. Actually thanks to him I was allowed to tinker with some of the work ROBOT provided Discreet (which they didn't have much on hand).

 

[jenov4]

Ok folks... how many generations more do we have to go to get real time gameplay at that high visual quality... 2? 3?

I say we'll see this kinda stuff towards the end of next generation's life cycle.

Onimusha 3 intro was the one of the rare few that made my jaw drop. Soul Blade/Edge was the first one to do it.