NBA Developer Insights: NBA 2K10 Art Direction
2K Sports have just posted another NBA Developer Insights, this one featuring NBA 2K10 art direction.
"I want to first get into what makes our graphics more innovative than ever: Image Metrics. Before this year, we only used a maximum of 3 different blend shapes per head, which would limit the type of emotion you see on the players’ faces. The end result had the players looking more robotic than human when running around or even in doing simple actions such as blinking. Now, with the help of Image Metrics the facial animation goes beyond what we’ve ever been able to capture before. An actor is actually recorded with a camera connected to their face to capture how facial muscles work and better document a facial animation. Now, simple animations such as blinks are not so much just moving the eyelids, but rather the cheekbones, muscles, and so much more. We took it a step further and sent Image Metrics the actual NBA footage of the players with signature expressions and signature intros, so that way we actually have the facial animation to match the body animation. We are not limiting this to the players either. Coaches, assistant coaches, and others will have better facial models and animations to bring the most realistic looking characters to any sports game you’ve ever seen."
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