Near-optimal animation, Brutal Legend's UI, and Deltron Zero

adam

We've a bevy of things for you to check out in this afternoon's post. From animation tech that's a couple of years old and STILL awesome, to Brutal Legend's UI design then ending it off with some music.

Near-optimal Character Animation with Continuous Control

I understand that this video is 2-3 years old by now but it still holds strong for an interesting look at how animation has come to be in some of todays games.

Back at 2007's Siggraph event Adrien Treuille, Yongjoon Lee, and Zoran Popović. presented their technology on continuous control for character animations.

We present a new model for real-time character animation with multidimensional, interactive control. The underlying motion engine is data-driven, enables rapid transitions, and automatically enforces foot-skate constraints without inverse kinematics. On top of this motion space, our algorithm learns approximately optimal controllers which use a compact basis representation to guide the system through multidimensional state-goal spaces. These controllers enable real-time character animation that fluidly responds to changing user directives and environmental constraints.

You tend to see a lot more intuitive animation systems in todays games, and I am wondering how influenced they were by this technology (or how influenced this technology was by earlier games). You especially see it in sports games. I remember loading up NBA Live 2009 for the first time and just mucking around in the loading screen, running my character around like an idiot new to games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXDZZt7TEAo

Brutal Legend's UI Design

Uploaded by Youtube user InterviewKowalski - who I am assuming is the designer responsible for the UI - is a video showcasing how the design for Brutal Legend's UI came to be. Like everything else in the game, it was inspired by 70's Metal but created to contrast against the rest of the games bright colours and over-the-top effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_ldZ6op1w

 

Music

The music post from last week went over so well that we're doing it again here on this fine Tuesday afternoon.

I'm changing things up from last weeks music and going with some hip-hop on this one.

Now, before you run away* (you sissy) consider this: This song is from the Deltron 3030 album, by Del. Del was one of the singers for the Gorillaz 'Clint Eastwood' album and is a crazy creative hiphop artist. Case in point: The Deltron3030 album was themed in the idea that it was written while he was living on Mars in the year 3030 under his alter ego Deltron Zero. He's a former mech soldier who's opposing the huge corporations running the universe.

Oh whats that, did that tickle your nerd bone? I thought it would. Have a listen.

 

*Oh you didn't run? Well we should hang out some time.

haiddasalami

YAY grooveshark. Keeps me entertained at work

bounchfx

I'm mainly a metal head but I have to vouch for Deltron 3030 - one of my favorite albums. It's awesome.

Eric Chadwick

The Brutal Legend vid was great! Fun to see his thought process.

W1r3d

mmmm Deltron 3030
Some tasty stuff.

cman2k

Really enjoyed the UI vid. I was impressed when I first saw it, but now even more so.

Makkon

That animation video intrigued me a lot! Those movements and transitions looked very natural, that's amazing how they put that all together.

Matroskin

great vid on Brutal Legend!

lol, the last shot was nice .... "dam, this menu takes a long time" :P

gsokol

Both videos were awesome. The animation thing was cool, especially changing directions. I'm sure that something like that is used in some newer games, especially sports games.

The Brutal Legend video was neat. I never got a chance to pick up the game, but this makes me want to play it. The intro is awesome.

Haha Deltron 3030. I'm with you bounchfx. This is one of the cds I regularily cycle through on my Ipod while I'm working. First heard of him from Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3's soundtrack. Haha "if you must" is a great song.