Fantastic video to post. This is their work on PS3, a console 2 generations before Xbox Series X.
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Ninja Theory sets a new benchmark in video game animation
- Thread starter Oggmeiler
- Start date
Fantastic video to post. This is their work on PS3, a console 2 generations before Xbox Series X.
I'd be weeping if I was an animator reading the comments reducing the on screen actor to purely "motion capture." Like damn y'all, check out some videos on the work flow of motion capture, you'd be surprised how many amazing different teams can touch that stuff. Shoutouts to everyone involved in that process here, the results are 🔥
Hellblade was made by a small team. So conscious decisions were made with what to use tech wise, how many animators they had and what they had for acting talent, mo-cap software/studio/ etc.
I do a lot of work with facial motion capture and yes some of the comments are both sad and hilarious. Like it's fine if you don't know how these things work but then don't try to comment as if you know what you're talking about. Like the fact that somehow facial motion capture is different from "gameplay animations". Those can be motion captured too.
While they can capture a lot of that performance in real time there is always tweaking and cleanup done by animators. Not to mention all the work that goes into building the animation and musculature rigging which is how you even get these kinds of realistic animations to work in the first place. You don't just slap a 3D character into a program and mocap it. Without good rigging and deformation you're going to end up with crappy animations. Look at the way her lips curl from the O position to the open mouth during the scream. That's a fantastic facial rig and animation system that even allows that to happen before any mocap is recorded.
As I said earlier, even if this was straight CGI it would still be impressive work.
I really doubt the game will look like that.
We've been tricked before so I'm gonna be extra cautious this time.
The game will probably end up looking great but I don't expect it to live up to the first trailer, just seems like another Uncharted 4 situation to me.
Anyway, I'm gonna wait until I see actual gameplay before I dare say anything about their animations, NT is a talented studio so I'm not doubting they're able to deliver something special -- the question is just if it'll be something that's noticably better than the "competition".
We've been tricked before so I'm gonna be extra cautious this time.
The game will probably end up looking great but I don't expect it to live up to the first trailer, just seems like another Uncharted 4 situation to me.
Anyway, I'm gonna wait until I see actual gameplay before I dare say anything about their animations, NT is a talented studio so I'm not doubting they're able to deliver something special -- the question is just if it'll be something that's noticably better than the "competition".
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These guys literally won some tech award for their real time performance capture while being and indie studio with like 20 people. I have no doubt they can raise the bar again with proper funding and next gen hardware.
I was super into the vid already for many reasons, but this part got me not just because of the the lip curl (which was unbelievably awesome to me) but also because of the suble, realistic lighting in Senua's mouth. The combination of the realistic musculature, the texture work, and the lighting actually resulted in a realistic mouth inside and out even when a LOT of expressiveness was being conveyed by the actor.
I've never seen that before in a game engine.
Capcom's Community Director claimed on Twitter that the initial Resident Evil Resistance CGI teaser trailer was "all in-game :)"
Then the gameplay trailer came out and she deleted the tweet
I don't believe any of these devs, especially for early next-gen stuff. Wait and see. And even if it looks like this, lmk if it's longer than 4 hours and has good gameplay.
I absolutely love that you're literally already moving the goal posts. Amazing.
User Warned: Console wars
Yeah...but it's on Xbox...so doubts..
I just don't believe that the actual game will look like this, and I don't find amazing visuals impressive if a game is super short and restrictive gameplay-wise. Though I admit that's a little unfair/unreasonable of me.
What is everyone missing here?
That character is terrible. I wish they had done more with Heavenly Sword.
The animation is good though.
The animation is good though.
As in-engine as any naughty dog cinematic... its good but lets hold off on the assumption this will be in-game gameplay
I mean I have doubts too, because it's head and shoulders above any other game I've ever seen before. But I also remember that Killzone Shadow Fall areal shot in the reveal trailer destroying any notion I'd ever had of game graphics. I'm excited to be surprised again with next gen.
I think Ninja Theory is fully capable of rendering that in real time, but the problem for any studio is whether they have the time, money, and amount of staff that is able to deliver that level of quality over 10-15-20-25-30+ hours of a finished product.
That's an old movie. Look at the Hulk in Avengers Endgame. Senua's Saga has passed further away from the uncanny valley. You can always spot when someone is CGI, but here it looks 100% like live action and makeup. People say that it's confirmed in-engine but are we sure that the talk about it being in-engine is not just the other scenes and not the closeup with her screaming?
Still, Ninja Theory is insanely skilled when it comes to motion capture acting so I don't doubt that my jaw will hit the floor. Their gameplay is not there yet but few devs can rival their work in their best cutscenes. Having this studio in-house (and possibly collaborating with other XGS devs?) is going to do serious wonders for the Xbox brand. MS did so very well when buying this studio.
God damn that is so good for an early PS3 game, i forgot how impressive this was for 2007 i think?
Interesting on Ninja Theory's upload it says 'Created by Ninja Theory in collaboration with our friends at Epic Games and Unreal Engine.' Maybe this work will be in the game, but I would take this as a tech demo more than anything else, given Spencer also said it was early. Happy to be wrong though.
Yeah, HS was one of the most impressive early PS3 games. In some ways impressed me more than Enslaved
Yeah, HS was one of the most impressive early PS3 games. In some ways impressed me more than Enslaved
I would not be surprised if this will be another smaller game and Hellblade goes the episodic route. Or did we already get information about the length of the game?
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The combination of facial and body motion-capture technology that Ninja Theory used enables what the studio calls 'real-time cinematography'. Essentially, the studio is able to capture an actor's performance and transfer it in real-time into Sequencer, an editing tool for the Unreal Engine 4 game engine.
In this editing suite, the studio is able to edit the game footage like a film, with the added benefit of being able to change things like lighting and camera angles. Essentially it makes creating a game more similar to filming a small-scale film, something Hellblade's creative director Tameem Antoniades says has made a huge difference in terms of time, cost, and production value.
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Just really well done. Can't wait to see more of it!
Also why's the thread so full of goal post movers and huge amounts of salt?
Also why's the thread so full of goal post movers and huge amounts of salt?
It definitely gets fantastic results. I would be happy with this kind of fidelity and performance in a film
Hellblade is the most uncanny valleyish game I've ever played. Something about Senhua's face -which is rendered very realistically- and her animations -rendered not so realistically- rubs me the wrong way. This trailer looks very good, but it's just that, a trailer, so I'll wait until I can see the game in movement to judge wether they overcame the uncanny valley or not.
I'd say it's very possible given the budget they must have now that they're a MS studio and are not constrained by OG xbox one's limited power anymore, but we'll see.
I'd say it's very possible given the budget they must have now that they're a MS studio and are not constrained by OG xbox one's limited power anymore, but we'll see.
Looks like everyone has been fooled. Until gameplay shows up to each their own.
lol I'm gonna bookmark this thread
I'm willing to take that bet, what you up for?
Shocking to me, the amount of you who continue to come in here and comment boldly about things you couldn't take 5 minutes to read through the thread and learn.
it is real time. It is in-engine. The game will look this good, and anyone who has played Hellblade knows this isn't a wild leap for Ninja Theory.
If you guys could at least read the tweets and IG posts that confirm all of this and stop confusing people and wasting everyone's time correcting you, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
the only people fooled are the ones who didn't play Hellblade and are forced to use other games from more disappointing studios to argue against this. Ninja Theory is one of the industry leaders in this kinda stuff. Half of the posters in here are embarrassing themselves at best, and showing they didn't play Hellblade yet. You all should before commenting further. Or at least watch a play through.
No, rendered in-engine means made using the engine.
CGI trailers are not made using the engine and in a lot of cases they are outsourced to external companies.
This is a trailer made using the Frostbite engine and EA was clear: "NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY"
This is a CGI trailer made by Goodbye Kansas Studios and they are not using CDPR RED Engine.
Here is the major differences https://forums.totalwar.com/discuss...trailers-and-what-in-engine-and-gameplay-mean
Yes.
Expecting people to call Battlefield 6 or Bad Company 3 next gen footage a fraud next year.
I did play it a few years ago. Except for great characters model and animation the game was pretty barren visually and gameplay was very bland. Whats your point?
It's not Naughty Dog level (comparing Senua's Sacrifice to current gen titles and this to TLoU Pt. II, pretty sure ND will exceed anything we've seen before on PS5), but it looks good nonetheless. But I'm not expecting this kind of fidelity in-game (except when it's 7 hours long and extremely linear again, so they can put all resources in stuff like facial animation.
I don't think people are expecting Hellblade 2 to match a game made by a studio of 500 people, better tech, resources and more time in the oven at all lol
Ninja Theory as a whole does not have more than 150 devs and not all of them are working on Hellblade 2.
Visually and animation wise it looks leagues above anything I've seen this gen. This includes unreleased current gen games.
Wait, which is it? It doesn't look that good or it looks so good that it won't be possible in game?
I'm holding off getting too excited about in-engine footage until I see some gameplay. That being said, Hellblade was on my game of the year list so either way you can bet I'm stoked we're getting a sequel - especially with a bigger budget. This has the makings of becoming a staple franchise.
Yep. Heavenly Sword was way ahead of its time.
Lol.