Attention Officers,
Welcome to the 59th edition of our biweekly newsletter, September 8th, 2023! Have your heads on a swivel, because today we'll be taking a look at brand new motion capture from a recent major multi-week motion capture shoot. For this mission the team made a wonderful visit to our friends at Bohemia Interactive and their mocap facilities. Our development team here at VOID is thrilled so far with the results of this marathon of studio time, and we're sure you will be too!
Ambition Through Animation
Some major reasons for this specific motion capture session are the expansive scope in which we want to take our game and the high fidelity variety of animations we wish to include, all with the consistent direction of law enforcement operators. Our expectations are best met by the affordances of optical motion capture, with subsequent attentive tweaking to suit cinematics or gameplay.
This is a massive team effort, and the VOID Animation Team will be giving a more in-depth look into the entire process throughout this newsletter for what this brand new haul of animation data contains, and what it means going forward. This is not our first time working with motion capture so we already knew quite early what we wanted to achieve. To ensure the highest quality we had both cinematic and gameplay animators at the mocap stage to oversee the entire shoot.
Glimpses of just a slice of content from the past weeks of mocap are presented throughout below!
Dramatic Cinematics and Tactical Realism
“Trained [operators] performing what they have been doing naturally in their jobs, on stage, [...] to make the entire experience more authentic and immersive"
This new motion capture data will be represented via compelling cutscenes, gameplay animations, and future trailers that will help bring Ready or Not's gripping storyline to life.
Among 6 dedicated individuals who simultaneously donned their mocap suits for this shoot were several law enforcement professional stunt people with up to decades of Close Quarters Combat career experience, including tactical team leadership.
In close collaboration with our VOID developers we aimed to act out scenarios that are grounded in tactical realism and fit for integration into the game. The combination of trained stunts and CQB experience also meant we had a unique opportunity to capture dynamic animations that will see a wide range of potential use. It was especially a game changer and a humble learning experience to be able to “consult with [the operators] directly on stage, learning everything regarding CQB and SWAT tactics” during the shoot.
Video below: A tactical team climbing into an overwatch position.
With improved tactics shining in mocap performance for SWAT operators comes revamped arrest animations, allowing you to safely secure subjects with confidence using 20 variations of trained officers making arrests. It goes without saying that all of their other movements as well were recorded and will find places across countless areas of SWAT portrayal in-game.
Also in the expected changes are improved variations between animation types such as Suspect AI fake surrenders, melee, hostage taking, and more.
Video below: Suspects engaging in bladed combat.
True to Life
Although our previous animation captures in-game were serviceable, we wanted to raise our standards even higher. To scratch some of the surface, in this mocap session we recorded over “100 new death animations, more than 25 new movesets, and 90 or so new world building animations” to ground you in the gameworld.
Video below: SWAT is en route to the scene.
The updated performances brought by this motion capture will allow us to better convey the diverse array characters you will encounter in the game. Run animations for different physiques, for example, will better portray each individual character rather than adhering to the basic running animation cycle we had in the past. Some new flee animations are even motivated by a bit of safe method acting… through chases involving a sizable sledgehammer.
Video below: A stunt wire gag portrays an explosive level impact.
On a more serious note, the personal experiences of our officers will be better represented across the animation rigging, with some having more military experience and also the continued inclusion of female operators. SWAT AI in-game who have lore describing particular military training may be expected to act out traces of animation behaviors that we found unique compared to those more purely steeped in law enforcement conventions.
“A big change in gameplay that will happen with all of the new data [is how] it will make the game more natural and smooth— the enemies and SWAT will actually visually reflect all of the training and military experience they went through, [whereas previous animations were] a rough estimation based on real reference.”
Video below: Some smooth weapon transitions of a trained operator.
Conclusion
All in all, as a result of this mocap session you will see massively overhauled character animations across all areas of the game. We want the immersive experience of our gameplay to be as fully reflected and facilitated by how you move through it. With over 4 TERABYTES of spectacular data from this motion capture shoot alone, there will certainly be plenty to pull from as we forge ever forward achieving our ambitions.
This concludes our 59th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!
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