Ya wacom has a patent on the batteryless pen. It requires the tech in the pen as well as a special kinda a screen. So can be done simply by adding a pen to a tablet.
Normal maps are not applied sometimes when you are generating a lot of something, such as zombies. Valve did this in that case and had no normals for the zombies, to allow for a lot more to be on screen.
lol, it was SO terrible. Whoever was in the booth, choosing which camera to display, should be fired. Every time something important appeared on the screen, they switched to a scan of the audience :/
Quick screen capture of Orc ready for animation, excuse its funkiness BBFlashback can be buggy lol https://www.dropbox.com/s/1h280xpyc1ur7h0/Pig_Orc_read_for_animation.wmv?dl=0
yeah good point about subd. But your eyes are rarely drawn to the feet of a character. And in that screen that is from the movie, the upper body is in your face, incl the hands.
i'll get it on the screening room on the 20th Ant hows that - it'll be online with facetube, youpages and vii-mii-o anyways so you can see it there if your not in :)