Whilst stumbling my night away (because apparently I have nothing better to do), I came across something that I am so hopefully looking forward to seeing in the future.

http://www.tqcast.com/2011/05/19/what-the-xbox-720-ps4-and-wii-2s-facial-animations-may-look-like/

If this type of thing makes it to the PC... I need a new RIG..

That's...actually impressive. I don't get that "uncanny valley" feeling that makes me want to flee in terror.

Still in the uncanny valley for me. It's really noticeable in parts where the animation is too smooth, such as when he transitions from moving around his mouth to saying letters, or when he goes from smiling to frowning. But I'm an animation student so I was probably paying way more attention to his facial movements than most would. The texturing on that is absolutely insane though. And uncanny valley or not, the whole thing is still pretty awesome.

Well... for me as well, but only because it's a floating bust. If the entire body was portrayed, it seems to me it would look completely and absolutely realistic.

A little OT but I think that concept of the PS4 looks [censored] awesome. :mohawk:

W...wow.

Wow. :blink:

Ha, I love those types of concept. The utterly impractical ones made by somebody who clearly has no idea what *actually* goes into a machine, or often why their design actually violates the laws of physics.

Anyway!
While these animations are impressive, storing very detailed animations ain't cheap, so call me when you don't have to cut content in order to have these animations. One day we'll do it on the fly - that's the future of video games. Stored animations are all well and good until we have the raw power to not need to store them, but I just can't get excited about "We're doing what we used to do anyway, just with twice the resolution this time" any more.

Uncanny valley for me.

That's terrifying.

That is one fugly not real man....

Less uncanny than L.A. Noir for me. Though the heads alone were fine there, too.

It's funny recalling how the first time I played HL2 I thought the facial animations in it are absolutely incredibly real and they're nothing compared to this.

I don't like it.

I keep getting the feeling that motion capture and this push for absolute realism is not for video games. It comes off as lazy, even though I know for a fact that it's nothing of the sort, but I feel like motion capture kind of washes over an important handmade quality. Animation is an art, and when you do everything automatically and procedurally you lose some of the spirit of the thing.

Look at what Valve did with Portal 2. They managed to make a little robot ball more expressive and emotive than just about any character I can think of in a game that focused on "realism".

I'm impressed with it. :shrug:

Oh it's impressive alright. Technically speaking it's a huge feat, and to put so much into a fully formed game and narrative (not just some tech demo) is very cool.

At the same time though it's not the direction I'd like to see games go.

too desaturated, makes it look wrong

I agree yet at the same time it doesn't worry me, because you will always have two separate groups of realism. Realistic, and not realistic. You will always have games that use the latest technology to try and create, living, breathing, real worlds and people, but you will also get stuff like Fall out, Dragon Age, Borderlands, and other games that don't go for realistic, but more artistic, stylized graphics.

I know what you mean. A recent example is LA Noire, people say it looks so amazing but it just doesn't feel right for a video game, IMO.

Wow.

One day those graphics and animations will be standard fare. And there will be people refusing to buy a game because the iris detail is slightly off.