RipTen Videogame Blog » balls

Uncharted: Golden Abyss Motion Capture, Drake and Sully Get Covered in Balls

Drake Hess — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:00:51 +0000

Here’s a sweet little behind-the-scenes Uncharted: Golden Abyss motion capture video chalk full of imaginary mosquitoes, piranhas, shitty cologne, and nuts, balls rather. Seriously though, lots of funny shit rolling down stream in this two and a half minute clip. So much so that we felt the need to say “shit” three times in the span of three sentences. Give it a view and listen in awe at the voices of Nolan North and Richard McGonagle.

I hate boats, and even I’d paddle up stream with Nolan whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

Super Monkey Ball Coming to 3DS

Sam Naylor — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:06:51 +0000

Sega have announced today that their delightfully fun franchise Super Monkey Ball will be making an appearance on the Nintendo 3DS, including the classic Monkey Race and Monkey Fight modes.

“The moment I saw the features of the Nintendo 3DS, I could not help thinking how perfectly Super Monkey Ball would work on this new hardware,” said Toshiro Nagoshi, creator of the series. “I could quickly picture myself holding the Nintendo 3DS using the motion sensor and playing Super Monkey Ball… We have our all-time favourite Super Monkey Ball experience with the new excitement of the Nintendo 3DS!”

It’s not limited to the motion sensor to control the monkeys in balls; you can also use the slide pad. For hardcore Monkey Ball players, I expect this is must- there’s no way you’ll be getting that 0.67 time difference with the imprecise nature of your hands tilting the screen you’re holding.

The game is set for release in 2011.

Call Ripley’s — This Woman Is Not Real!

Dan Landis — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:25:41 +0000

This is Emily. Emily is a 27-year-old PR rep working in Los Angeles. She likes beef jerky and has a soft spot for videogame nerds. Actually, I completely made that up. In fact, everything about Emily is a complete fabrication. This image and the following video featuring “Emily” are completely computer-generated.

The uncanny valley may soon be traversed.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, the technology is called… actually, it appears the technology itself doesn’t really have a name. Image Metrics, however, is the company behind “the technology”. A facial motion-capture with results that rival that of Alter Ego, the big difference between the two techs being that Image Metrics doesn’t use any markers. This is great news for mo-cap actors that don’t like sticky balls all over their faces.

Image Metrics instead captures video of the actors performing, and then “the technology” is used to convert the movement into animation while tracking things that regular mo-cap can’t, such as eyes, teeth, tongue, etc. How does it do that? Well… I have no idea.

Image Metrics’s technology has been used in Grand Theft Auto IV, Unreal Tournament III, Top Spin 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (among others). You can also see it in action in the Gnarls Barkley video for “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”.

Is it just me, or do you now have a completely different view of the California Raisins?

In addition to the lack of balls on your face, Image Metrics can supposedly use their technology to give premium results about five times faster than normal motion-capture software. They even run the animation through whichever program a developer is using for their game or video to provide seamless integration with the rest of the project.

You can check out more info or get the “company line” at the Image Metrics website, which also hosts more video examples of their tech in action.