Changing the face of videogames with Image Metrics

8:00 PM on 11.27.2009   |   Ben Perlee

25 comments

Say what you will about contemporary game design. With all the technological advancements made in the last few years, gamers have been able to play games that offer something closer to a real-life experience in terms of graphics and gameplay. Unfortunately, those hyper-realistic experiences, while offering something that truly resonates with gamers, have a habit of falling apart when creating the human face.

Call it the “Uncanny Valley,” that bizarre occurrence when developers create realistic-looking games with realistic characters that have something “off” about them. It could be the way that the eyes are dead and heavy, or how the skin looks like tight plastic stretched over a skull, but whatever it is, something is wrong about how that person manifests in the game. And it's not just videogames, it is all forms of entertainment that rely on realistic facial animations. Anyone who has seen The Polar Express, well, they've seen deep into the pit of the Uncanny Valley, and it ain't pretty.

After all, the human face is integral to interpersonal communication. Without the face, much of what is communicated, whether intentional or not, is lost. A subtle droop of the mouth, a minuscule lift of the ears, Tyra Banks' infamous “smile with the eyes,” each is a way to convey a message. Deep in the heart of the Uncanny Valley, such communication is lost. For humans comforted by the familiar, to enter the world of the Uncanny is to look at someone who looks like a person and sounds like a person, but whose human representations look alien.

So what can be done? Well, I was lucky enough to talk with the Executive Vice President of Image Metrics, Brian Waddle. What does Image Metrics have to do with videogames? Well, it is this company that is trying to literally change the face of animation. Their job, whether it is a film or a videogame, is to create the most accurate facial animations possible. Seen in games like Assassin's Creed II, GTA IV, and the upcoming God of War III, they are a well-respected company known for offering a variety of options for dev studios to use. Follow the jump to peek at our discussion.

Part of what makes Image Metrics so influential is their software. With teams of people specially trained in using their exclusive facial recording rigs, they have the opportunity to almost triple the amount of people behind the animation side of a game. Waddle says, “The way to look at it is if you have five animators, and if you need to do facial animation, by using Image Metrics, you now have 15, because you are going to optimize the resources you can use with us.”

Even better, the rigging that Image Metrics uses, as opposed to motion capture, functions without the markers typically used. This means a lot, as eye motion and even teeth and tongue movements can be captured. Waddle promised that they hope to take their offerings to a better level of quality, as well as offer different pricing options. “We are doing some experimentation on taking it to another level.”

Currently, all of these offerings come with a price. A cost-benefit analysis for a dev team must make a choice in how they take their information. Studios receive the basic code from Image Metrics, while some companies choose to let Image Metrics trim the basic recording, and prep it for the game. Ultimately, it's an issue of cost and benefit, as well as the type of results that a studio would want.

When making a product to cross the Uncanny Valley, Waddle's attitude is that designers either need to go all the way or not try to cross it all. He used the recent film The Christmas Carol as an example. While it's an impressive CG film, the attempt to create something that is realistic came across as mildly creepy. “They should have not tried to cross it, or crossed it,” Waddle says.

One of the biggest hurdles in creating really accurate facial animations is to have  hardware that takes advantage of what Image Metrics can perform. After all, when you see a game that uses entirely in-game software to create the visual elements, such as Assassin's Creed II, the graphics are only going to be as good as the hardware will allow. Unfortunately, this means that we have actually hit the limit of what the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 can do. Waddle says, “What I need to get across an Uncanny Valley, or start to cross an Uncanny Valley, is I need better hardware and better awareness on how to do facial rigging.”

Specifically about Microsoft, he had some interesting words. He questioned how willing Microsoft was to stay in the console race, saying, “I think Microsoft is trying to figure out if they are going to stick with a console or completely kill a console.” With the advent of Project Natal, and no new console anytime soon, the Xbox 360 might be crippled with weak graphical power for a long time. The PS3, while not radically different, was looked upon more favorably by Waddle. When asked for specifics on how much more the PS3 can offer, Waddle only said, “Wait till you see God of War III. It's going to be noticeable.”

The Uncanny Valley is an area that needs the most improvement in high-quality, emotionally attachable videogames. Waddle, while proud of the work that his company has done in games like GTA IV and NBA 2K10, has plenty of issues he hopes the games industry will address. He says that studios need to understand outsourcing strengths to overcome a studio's weakness. “The industry has continued to use mo-cap and sub-par facial rigging, and they will continue to get sub-par results.” Image Metrics is aiming to educate studios. “We want to get rid of the Botox faces.”

In the end, it looks like Image Metrics is a company with some really interesting technology. Perhaps, like all things in this industry, it is the future that will offer the neatest results, especially with the Uncanny Valley. “We're talking about crossing that pretty darn fast and pretty inexpensively,” says Waddle. If they can continue to improve how faces animate in a game, and truly bring about some neat technology for videogames, maybe within a few years we'll have something that really offers an equivalent to a solid realistic human being. It's good to know that there are people who are working toward the actual tech behind it.