Archives: Video Games
Information and older arcticles from my original website.
Sprites and Motion Capture Technology
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 20:03:39 GMT
From: Eric Franklin (franklin@vivid.com)
Question: Sprite-based, motion captured characters?
Does anyone out there know if sprite-based characters' movement can be made w/motion- capture technology?
-Eric
Re: Question: Sprite-based, motion captured characters? (Eric Franklin)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 03:16:51 GMT
From: The Saturnman (vellet@positron.qc.ca)
Feedback: Of course!
You can already find games using sprite-based motion captured characters. You have the excellent Flashback which appeared two years ago on Genesis, Super NES, Amiga and PC. But in all fairness, not a lot of sprite games use motion captured technology because it's simpler to digitize actors a la Mortal Kombat (which isn't really impressive).
The Saturnman
Re: Feedback: Of course! (The Saturnman)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 17:17:44 GMT
From: Eric Franklin (franklin@vivid.com)
Yeah but....
Flashback was rotoscoped. I'm talking about full 360 degree motion-capture, a la VF2, Tekken etc.
-Eric
Re: Yeah but....
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 17:44:31 GMT
From: Red Ronin (babamat@wavenet.com)
Feedback: SPRITES
Don't let the companies fool you - polygons or no, pretty much everything that is on-screen can be defined as a 'sprite' in some fashion. Once a two-dimensional representation of a 3D model is created to place on the screen, it is for all intents and purposes, a sprite. Just because those sprites are generated and displayed on the fly (questionable) does not mean they aren't 'A collection of bitmap screen data that can be manipulated as a group to simulate animation.' - a sprite.
You answered your own question. Sprite-based motion capture is by definition, rotoscoping. Now, if you do your rotoscoping by moving the camera around the subject in 360 degrees (or 720 degrees), you have just captured more frames of animation to work with. It's just that rotoscoping is almost always done in a single plane, left to right.
Clatu Verata Nicto,
Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai
Re: Feedback: SPRITES (Red Ronin)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 18:14:02 GMT
From: Eric Franklin (franklin@vivid.com)
Feedback: For SOR4
I was wandering about this because I thought that this would be a good way to do SOR4. Using (motion-captured)sprites instead of polygons would allow for more characters on screen (I think). If the characters in SOR4 (or X-perts) were motion-captured, then you could do all sorts of things w/camera angles and such. Also, the fighters would move realisticly. This would a truly bad-ass game if there was an interactive 3-D environment with (a lot) of motion-captured sprite- based characters onscreen with changing camera angles moving at 30fps. Could it happen?
-Eric
Re: Feedback: For SOR4 (Eric Franklin)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 03:25:31 GMT
From: Red Ronin (babamat@wavenet.com)
Agree: Nice Idea!
Nice Idea!
The October 95 issue of NEXT Generation has an interview with Tom Zito, president of Digital Pictures. That interview talks about a new type of FMV game that will use a technique similar to what you propose. The new game is called MAXIMUM SURGE. If that game is as good as the magazine says it is, the technique may be used in future games as well.
Clatu Verata Nicto,
Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai
Re: Feedback: SPRITES (Red Ronin)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 20:19:42 GMT
From: The Saturnman (vellet@positron.qc.ca)
Feedback: thank you for taking care of that
I just hate trying to explain technical stuff on paper (or on the Web) so I'm grateful you're willing to get dirty in order to explain to the populus the tiniest insignificant things about life.
The aristocratic Saturnman
Re: Feedback: thank you for taking care of that (The Saturnman)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 03:29:05 GMT
From: Red Ronin (babamat@wavenet.com)
Ok: No problem!
No problem!
Of course, I WOULD still feel better if SEGA would give me a JOB instead of sending me those cute postcards with Sonic on them...
Clatu Verata Nicto,
Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai
(AKA Red Ronin, The Cybernetic Samurai)
all rights reserved.