Stumbling Toward 'Awesomeness'

Character Creation Pipeline

Thanks to my brother, Mike, for translating  this from the original japanese [here]

The hero, Snake, and nearly all other characters we animate on the PS3 and make an appearance in the game are restrained to the range of about 5 thousand to 1 million polygons (including the face). Also, in both gameplay and “cutscenes” the same resolution polygon characters are used. This allows for seamless transition between the gameplay and cutscenes and makes it easier for the player to get emotionally involved in the reality of the game.

Furthermore, for all other characters, except crowds, the same resolution of polygon characters are used in game as well as in cutscenes. Separate from the resolution models used on the PS3, high rez data is modeled at the same time to generate a normal map. Wrinkles in clothing and other details are expressed through this normal map, created from the high rez model.

Of all the bones within the character’s body, the number that contain and are driven by animation data is roughly around 21. But, in reality a number of helper (auxiliary) bones are used to supplement motions like twisting in the knees, elbows, arms and legs.  These however are not driven by animation data. Instead, they reference values of the basic animation driven joints and move in like manner.

The same method is employed on the PS3, not just in XSI; all you have to do is extract the helper bones’ definition files from the XSI data and you can achieve the same kind of control on the PS3 as well. (Awesome! Rig syncing constraints and driven bones between DCC app and game engine)
Since there is no actual motion data stored inside the driven-bones, you are able to not only limit the data volume but even in the event that you need to add or delete helper bones, there’s no need to reconvert the motion data- you can just adjust the model data instead.

Shockingly Realistic Facial Animation

Thanks to my brother, Mike, for translating  this from the original japanese [here]

One of the most notable things about MGS4 is its world-leading cutting edge facial animation. Exactly how were these real-to-life facial expressions created?

Since the Metal Gear Solid series is lip-sinked for localization, from a workload standpoint voice analysis software is employed

In MGS4 for example, lip-sinking for Japanese and English were done seperately with different voice analysis software.Other emotions and expressions besides lip-sinking were animated by hand. In nearly all cases, the expression and phoneme elements were worked on together simultaneously, reducing interference and allowing MGS4 to achieve its simultanious world release.

When doing voice analysis, it’s necessary to set parameters for both expression components (i.e., anger, smile, etc.) and phoneme components (all languages) seperately. After setting this up, we need to see how it behaves as a rig. It’s possible to use parameters for the rotation and movement of bones; however, the rig can become more complicated and it can also become more difficult to predict how the bones with transform/change once enveloped. In other words, when facial animation is done by only controlling the bones, ituitively the designer’s job becomes more difficult and he runs into the following two problems: 1) expressing the behavior of bones, and 2) setting parameters for phonemes.

However, with shape animation (even though it has the drawback of linear interpolation) it’s extremely easy to set up parameters for all your phonemes and
expressions. Most of all, it’s adventagous in that the desiger will be able to intuitively predict the result.

For these reasons, this time on our rig we used bone-driven animation based on the results of various parameter shapes.

With this set up, using voice analysis automated animation (not just the mouth, but automatic animation of the tounge and throat phonemes as well) and hand animation for emotions, we are able to achieve an abundance of realistic expressions.

In the following flash movie you can see how smooth muscular expressions are achieved through superb rig setup

Flash Movie:

Facial rig setup pipeline

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1. Lo-poly model driven by shape animation
2. Above that, the constrained bones
3. Polygonal mesh enveloped to the bones
4.Tangent color
5. OpenGL display (wrinkles expressed also with normal map)

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Expressions, phonemes, eyes (eyebrows), and shader driven wrinkle animation are all tab selectable.
Through the combination of various parameters we can create life-like expressions like those shown above.

The most suprising thing is, we developed a tool that automatically sets up this facial rig that allows such sophisticated control. In other words, if you enter the facial model data and run the tool it will automatically identify the optimal position for bones– in this system the tool will create controls that include the preset parameters for emotions. (a smily face, an angry face, etc.) To perform the automated facial rigging, the facial data’s topology information needs to be standardized ahead of time. If you adhere to this one rule, your set up can be done automatically, and all that’s left to do is for the designer to fine-tune the controls and you have a constructed enviorment where you can get right into your facial animation.

Next, a rig that controls the movement of the eyeball and surrounding muscles can also be generated automatically using this tool. Since the area around the eye, like the area surrounding the mouth, is controlled by the simultanious usage of shapes and bones, when you move the eyeball locater you get smooth muscular movement. What’s more, even if you edit the shape, or redefine the configuration of the outline of the eye, it doesn’t disrupt the expression of brow wrinkles or the blinking of the eye in any way.

Behind all the characters that make an appearance in this game, and appeal to the player’s emotions, we have implemented this set up and animation system; and, through it we are able to increase and maintain a high quality user experience.