A Game Development Blog

ImageMetrics Facial Animation Tapped For UT3, GTA IV

Animation software company Image Metrics has revealed that its proprietary facial animation solution was used to animate characters in games including 2K Games’ Top Spin 3, Epic’s Unreal Tournament 3, and Rockstar’s Midnight Club Los Angeles and Grand Theft Auto IV.

The company says its animation solution animates faces without the need for markers or makeup, and is able to translate human movement onto the faces of game characters.

For example, for Top Spin 3, Image Metrics produced 10 minutes of facial animation, focused mainly on reaction shots for the tennis title. The company also held a two-day recording session at Epic¹s North Carolina studio to create the necessary video for Unreal Tournament 3, and provided performance capture animation for six characters in all cut scenes.

Epic Games president Michael Capps commented, “It was critical to maintain our high level of cinematic quality while reducing the amount of manual animation effort. We chose Image Metrics to be our partner on Unreal Tournament 3 and were quite pleased with their effort and the end result.”