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A new service designed to provide developers with a full character creation, motion capture and animation pipeline has been created by Audiomotion, Cubic Motion and 3Lateral.
Called Level Three, the service includes the use of Audiomotion’s performance capture solution, 3Lateral’s scanning and rigging tech and Cubic Motion’s facial animation technology.
The service was made primiarly for in-game cinematics to help developers with the concept, thru scanning, capture and delivery of character assets
"Superb character animation is no longer optional – it’s essential on next-gen titles," said Audiomotion MD Mick Morris.
"But, until now, putting the right pipeline together has been a huge challenge for developers. Level Three removes the headache, and just ‘gets the job done’ – from scanning, to capture, to final result, leaving clients to get on with what they do best – making great games."
Cubic Motion CEO Gareth Edwards said: "Putting together the complete character solution for a next-gen title is a huge undertaking for a game developer – it was time to put in place a complete solution where a team can be sure they are getting the very best technical solutions, all perfectly integrated in advance.
"We’re delighted to be part of Level Three – knowing that clients who take this option will not only be using our world-leading facial animation services, but will be working with a trusted and robust pipeline, using stunning character assets. For a developer, where the alternative is the extremely risky strategy of trying to assemble a diverse pipeline themselves, Audiomotion’s unified solution is a perfect answer.”
3Lateral’s Vladimir Mastilovic added: “The entire industry is evolving and with that we are witnessing a change in perception by both audience and developers. Characters not only need to be designed well but also have a layer of subtleties and even flaws in the way they’re articulated. This is notoriously difficult to achieve through traditional methods. The facial animation systems that are required today are unimaginably more complex compared to just few years ago. Level Three is the final piece of the puzzle – we are combining all of the necessary elements to create functional, muscle based, digital characters.
"At 3Lateral, perfecting the software for the creation of these systems is the result of a decade of face rigging experience. The beauty is not only in the quality of the engineering but also the fact that it seamlessly ties in with existing game pipelines. We’re very excited about announcing the Level Three service together with Audiomotion and Cubic Motion and we’re very much looking forward to promoting amazing characters as a standard rather than a luxury.”
For more information, email Audiomotion’s Mick Morris at LevelThree@audiomotion.com.
