Marker-less motion capture and Humanity Online poised to bring gaming and cinema characters to life
Facial mapping animation is mainstream. But new technologies are marker-less with streamlined, integrated workflows, letting studios like Humanity Online bring smiling faces to the gaming and film industries quickly and seamlessly.

SEATTLE, WA, December 09, 2008 /24-7PressRelease/ -- When it comes to PS3 or Xbox360 game titles, facial mapping animation is quickly becoming standard operating procedure for bringing characters to life. Modeled from live actors,
facially mapped animations bring a quality of realism to characters next generation gamers demand. Big title games can have huge budgets and take years to complete, resembling the workflow of a Hollywood blockbuster more and more often as games evolve. With the standard price of new titles around $60, a high level of production value is expected from the game play and the animated cut scenes.

For years studios have been using motion capture, a technology that went mainstream with such films Terminator 2, The Lord of the Rings, Polar Express and Beowulf and has given us such believable characters as Gollum and King Kong, who were incidentally the same actor. Video games, by their very nature pushing the limit, soon followed suit.

Seattle based Humanity Online ( www.humanityonline.com ) is the newest studio offering streamlined solutions for facial motion capture animations. Characters that in the very near future could populate the internet and beyond.

Until recently motion capture required green spandex and ping pong balls to map the movements of the actor, this is how Bill Nighy was transformed into the tentacled Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, but the latest technologies require no markers of any kind. Humanity Online streamlines facial mapping in Seattle to produce beautiful and cost effective animations that t directly on to existing rigs. Founder and CEO Lonnie Benson sees that potential for virtual people, or avatars everywhere, especially in the gaming community. " We are able to create very realistic faces, faces that change and move as real human faces do. When you can transfer micro expressions and emotions, you can bring a depth of feeling to the characters, as we are seeing in many new games."
~ Lonnie Benson

Humanity Online has designed its process to integrate seamlessly into studios workflow by creating the animations in the program of choice. The nal animation has all the nuances of natural facial movement informed by professional actors.

Games like Top Spin 3 use facial mapping to bring PGA professionals to life on the screen in ways that simply couldn't be hoped for a few years ago. The resulting game brings gamers and fans one step closer to their heros. Games on the leading
edge, like Top Spin 3, also allow users to upload their photograph and customize characters to look like themselves, literally inserting them into the game. Motion capture facial animation can be seen in such recent titles as Devil May Cry 4, Unreal
Tournament 3 and most impressively, over 80 characters, animating 300 minutes were brought to life using marker-less facial mapping in the 2008 release Grand Theft Auto 4.

Seattle is Americas undisputed video game city. A stones throw from Microsoft (who produces the xbox consoles) and Nintendo, there are over 70 game studios and gaming developers in Washington state, many residing a short drive from Humanity Online, who looks to make its mark on Americas gaming mecca.

Press Release Contact Information:

Lonnie Benson
Humanity Online
owner
Overlooking
lake Washington, WA
usa 98116
Voice: 206 819-4480
Website: Visit Our Website