Videogame news site IGN brings word of NaturalMotion’s new videogame physics-based animation system called “euphoria”. From the IGN news blurb (Link):
Using euphoria, developers can escape the need to pre-program character reactions. Instead, the engine will take into account multiple variables like physics and degree of force to determine how an in-game model should react, making for distinctive results every time.
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Based on NaturalMotion’s Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technology, euphoria allows for A.I. to act as though they possess a central nervous system.
IGN may be wondering which videogame titles will use NaturalMotion’s technology but I’m wondering a) what PLM systems might license it or b) which proprietary PLM systems will see an opportunity for them in the videogame arena.
via Blue’s News
This technology, along with motion capture and increasingly easy to use scripting programs, implies a market that has perhaps gone under the hood in it’s early development. This may be a little off base but;
Samuel L Jackson is paid for his voice and likeness in games like Grand Theft Auto. Serena Williams is paid for her serve motion and yelp in one of her Tennis games. These are still games and their market is controlled by companies that can afford the technologies needed to produce these motions. Will we get to a point where a reuglar person is paid for their movements?
I do see a future where regular people are paid to lend their natural movements to perhaps a production company that sees the benefit of machinimas turn over rate. I once asked the leading scriptor in SL if he saw potential in buying up as many motions as he could in order to supply users and non users a membership to a database of natural movements. It will be clear that using machinima is far cheaper than trying to seek funding for a pilot tv show. Also, we will get to the point where emails will be short movies that the user helped create.
I don’t see Natural Motion’s device as applicable to video games as it could be for the world of medicine and simulated health care. Vague enough?
A bit wild.
“Will we get to a point where a reuglar person is paid for their movements?”
Some years ago I got to thinking about the emergence of what I called “sample clans”. These were groups of people who would sample other things – mostly people and especially celebrity types (photos, DNA, footprint, whatever). This sampled data would then be sold as a commodity.
“I don’t see Natural Motion’s device as applicable to video games as it could be for the world of medicine and simulated health care.”
See my comment on PLMware (which encapsulate everything from a BOM to a Fourier stress analysis).