NATURALMOTION | BUILD
Natural Selection For both Codemasters Studios Guildford and Ninja Theory, the decision to choose Morpheme as an animation studio was relatively clear cut. “Whilst the animators have the best tools for creating the initial animations, the path to integrate the animations into the game was a long and arduous one,” says Mike Ball of the studio he co-founded, Ninja Theory. “Once it was actually in the game the animators then had little control over the animation blends, timing and animation state changes – all the things critical to ensuring that the in game animation was realistic and more importantly fluid. “NaturalMotion’s Morpheme package offered a solution to this problem by giving the animators complete control over the animation control logic directly within the editor.” Over at Codemasters, it was a matter of selecting software that was both intuitive and supportive of stronger communication between code and animation. Daven Coburn, Codemasters’ animations supervisor explains: “Morpheme stood out as middleware that would enable the animators to follow their workflow and pipelines straight into their game, maintaining the visual quality of the animations while gaining some level of understanding of the limitations required to make them playable.” www.naturalmotion.com
both consumer and industry: “Pixar proved a long time ago that taking a simple object and animating it beautifully well can create an experience that is utterly captivating.” Having identified Morpheme as the best tool to push the potential of their animators, and to put them on a level with their graphic artists (see ‘Natural Selection’) both Codemasters Studios Guildford and Ninja Theory began work on their projects, and were quick to reap the benefits of their chosen tech. According to Ball, Morpheme has quite literally transformed the production pipeline for animating characters in Enslaved, providing a common interface for both animators and programmers that still gives those working on lifelike in-game movement a large degree of autonomy. “For Ninja Theory in particular this has reduced the time required to develop character animation and thus has allowed us to add extra complexity to the movement of the characters so that the fluidity and response of the characters is even better than what we had in our previous projects,” explains Ball. “It gives the animators one more step towards the ability to see and affect the animations in game,” adds Coburn. “This is very important as there can be periods when we can’t get everything in the actual game. A COOL CUSTOMER Two more satisfied customers is hugely important to NaturalMotion, simply because the quality of development talent behind each project can act as a showcase for the Morpheme technology. However, the work with Codemasters and Ninja Theory means DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
more to Reil than an expanded show reel. From a business development perspective, Morpheme adoption does a great deal more than simply show off the capabilities of the technology. “We continue to learn a lot from working with high-end developers, which gives us invaluable information for future features,” says the CEO. “The deals also reflect a general trend,” he adds. “Many of the most capable studios now licence advanced technology for core parts of their game.” Certainly, things are looking up for
The complexity of animation networks has risen dramatically over recent years, but information on how to build them is very scarce. We can do a lot better. NaturalMotion, its clients and the animation sector as a whole, but that doesn’t mean the future isn’t free from hurdles. One challenge NaturalMotion comes across is the lack of influence of animators on animation-related decisions. While it’s clear programmers need to be involved with how animation is authored and executed, Reil and his colleagues have again and again seen games held back by animators not getting what they need to produce the goods. “Secondly,” confirms Reil, “the complexity
of animation networks has risen dramatically over recent years, but information on how to build them – both in terms of underlying assets as well as architecture – is very scarce. We can do a lot better in making these general guidelines – tips and tricks – available, NaturalMotion included.” “Video games have often suffered from the problem of having animations that are cyclical or repeated ad-infinitum,” adds Ball. “We can create variants, however, even though we use an excellent animation compression system, our characters have more bones to animate than ever and so memory storage is still a big issue for us. Procedural animation systems provide a solution to this.” The future of animation and the related middleware is an exciting one, where procedural, physics-led and AI based animation are set to rise to power. With high profile clients and a highly regarded animation engine backed up by its euphoria and endorphin dynamic motion synthesis systems, NaturalMotion looks set to continue to be a key player as the sector that is its specialty rapidly accelerates on the heels of animation. It is the complex nature of that future that makes using NaturalMotion’s middleware so important, concludes Reil: “Animation tech has become so advanced that is now difficult and expensive to maintain internal technology that remains cutting edge. “We have spent millions of pounds on developing production-proven tools, engines and algorithms, and our customers benefit from this investment and experience.” Glance over the fruits of NaturalMotion’s client’s labour and it’s hard to disagree. AUGUST 2010 | 653