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[civilstrife]

Obviously it works great for movies where cg characters are set against a real background, but what about in games?

Yes, I suppose it looks real, but something is always lost in the translation. Especially when you're the one controlling it. I mean, a character doesn't look real anymore when he's showing the same running animation loop over and over into a wall.

It just seems to me that key frame animation looks better than Mocap in a game world. It's weird. The mocap look just seems "cheap" to me. Maybe it helps in cutscenes, but even then, I find that key frame just has more life to it.

Anyone have any examples of really good mocap in games?

Here's a video that some guy made using mocap with the Alyx model from HL2.

 

[Bebpo]

Metal Gear Solid games, Devil May Cry games, Tales of Legendia, etc...

Motion Capture is awesome and should be used whenever its possible for games with pre-canned move animations and cutscenes.

 

[Wario64]

motion capture...hell yes.

 

[eshwaaz]

I think mocap has its place in games, but it's become far too much of a crutch for many developers - it's used as a substitute for strong keyframed animation instead of a compliment to it. They rely so heavily on mocap that when they're faced with a situation that can't be physically acted out, the resulting "hand done" animation is often terrible, and kills any sense of believability. Even simple transition animations between mocapped actions frequently looks stiff and awkward.

Two recent (and admittedly, unfinished) examples are NBA Live 06 for X360 and Matrix: Path of Neo. Nice motion capture, horrible animation.

 

[Doc Holliday]

mocap = gay!

Learn how to animate you lazy bastards

 

[Bojangles]

Real people = mocap

CartoonCell shaded anime ratchet and clank crap = key frame

 

[SolidSnakex]

Watch the Making of video here

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/metalgearsolid3/media.html?mode=all

They'll show the mocap being done and then show the scene that they were mocapping.

 

[civilstrife]

Real people = mocap

CartoonCell shaded anime ratchet and clank crap = key frame

Relative to the world they live in, these "cartooney" characters move with great realism.

The reality of real human movement is thats its pretty much never the same twice. Its just jarring to see a realistically textured character doing the same exact motion over and over.

I mean, look at a game like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Entirely keyframe animation. And it was lawded for its seamlessness. Such fluidity simply wouldn't be possible with Mocap.

I also find it removes any sense of style in a game.

It doesn't look real to me, just generic.

 

[Bebpo]

Relative to the world they live in, these "cartooney" characters move with great realism.

The reality of real human movement is thats its pretty much never the same twice. Its just jarring to see a realistically textured character doing the same exact motion over and over.

I mean, look at a game like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Entirely keyframe animation. And it was lawded for its seamlessness. Such fluidity simply wouldn't be possible with Mocap.

I also find it removes any sense of style in a game.

It doesn't look real to me, just generic.

I think pretty much everyone who played MGS3 would disagree with you on that, but if you don't like motion capture you're entitled to your opinion.

 

[civilstrife]

You're right, I havn't played it.

How is it implemented?

 

[acidviper]

Obviously it works great for movies where cg characters are set against a real background, but what about in games?

Right now mocap is basically ping pong balls on person in black suit. Until we get to the point where it is radiactive dye in muscle groups, its going to look like fucked up stick men with an engine that fills in whats in between the pingpong balls.

Game designers and art directors forgo real world physics to create unbelievable motion, which is what gamers want. Its a lot easier to Matrix something and create zero gravity and impossible collisions, than it is to show a realistic muscle-force interaction.

 

[Andrew2]

Seeing that animation is my thing(currently studying it) I would say mo-cap have its long-term benefits than the everyday key-frame animation.

With mo-cop, you have TONS of time on-hand with your animation pipe-line, and simpily because you don't put up with the in-effiencies of key-framing(key-framing sucks especially when your on a tight schedule to deliver animations). Imagine trying out-put the type of animations say games like Virtua Fighter or Tekken uses; your talking about weeks even months of work if you was to key-frame every characters motions. Mo-cap however, not only does it shorten stuff, it makes doing clean-ups a easy task.

The only down-fall of mo-cap though, not every kind of animation can be captured especially if the motion complex, so this is why key-framing is still around.

Anyone have any examples of really good mocap in games?

Tekken
Virtua Fighter
Urban Reign(though this uses recycled animation data from Tekken and Soul)
Soul Calibur
DMC3
Tomb Raider:AOD (suck game, but you excellent character mo-cap animations)
Resident Evil Remake
Onimusha games

 

[Andrew2]

Real people = mocap

CartoonCell shaded anime ratchet and clank crap = key frame

Not true even games like ratchet and clank could use mo-cap. Imagine if your wanted to capture say sword-deuling, then MC could be used.

Motion Capture is awesome and should be used whenever its possible for games with pre-canned move animations and cutscenes.

I agree, but the sad part is that not every studio have the money to even build a studio. Even a small studio cost alot of money.

Oh btw, SCEA not to recently invested in a state of the art mo-cap studio. This is the PR about it:

http://www.vicon.com/company/releases/031505.html