Character modelling is particularly difficult to task due to the high attention to detail required. The solution is to add motion capture and face scanning.
Motion Capture (MoCap)
Full body motion capture is used to create realistic animations of in-game characters. The animations are cut into segments that can be strung together as required to make up part of a continuous sequence. The game’s artificial intelligence (AI) will choose the necessary elements to correctly navigate an character along a path and will modify turning angles and footfall smooth the transition between each segment.
Walking animations are recorded at different speeds so the character can also speed up realistically from
MoCap Procedural Enhancement
Walking, running and turning MoCap data has been captured to realistically animate game characters as they follow routes through navigation meshes or are driven by a user.
Ivo Herzog is the lead animation engineer who has been responsible for extending the mocap walking data to handle uneven terrains such as staircases and rock-strewn surfaces.
A game character has a simple internal skeleton to ensure that the elements of the figure stay in their correct positions when moved. In order to cope with uneven surfaces, the skeletal hips and legs of the character are adjusted in real-time. The extents of movement are limited by the joints and the feet will make contact using the ball or flat of the foot as appropriate.
A jump trajectory is used to connect surfaces at with significant height differences, and the posed figure will look natural if the relative heights of the supporting surfaces are less than 1 metre apart.