I recently posted about the improving technology video games have been using to transport the player's face into the game, as with NBA 2K15. Probably an even more exciting development in recent years is the alarming accuracy with which video games are using real life actors. Graphics are getting so good nowadays that we can accurately put an actor's face and performance into a game and have it look realistic using motion capture. The most recent and probably best example of this is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's use of Kevin Spacey during it's campaign. This is the first time I believe a real life actor has played a main character in an action video game where they played the character the same way they would in a movie. This is definitely the first time graphics have been good enough to translate their facial performance this accurately, and Kevin Spacey seems to have taken his role more seriously because of that. Here's a spoiler-free trailer:
Another recent example of this was in last year's Battlefield 4. This example was much less high-profile than Call of Duty's but it featured one of my favorite actors, Michael Kenneth Williams. This one was almost cooler for me because he played one of the player's squad-mates through the campaign, as opposed to Kevin Spacey's mostly cut-scene role. Here's some scenes with Michael Kenneth Williams in Battlefield 4:
This stuff excites me. I can definitely see a future where using the likeness of real life actors as characters becomes a common thing in video games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. These two examples are only the beginning.
The new iteration of the NBA 2K series just came out, and although it's mostly the same as every other version of the game (except better graphics), one new feature they added this year is the ability to scan your face into the game using the Xbox One Kinect or Playstation 4 motion sensor. This way, when you play through the game as your own personal character, you can actually look like a video game version of yourself, which is simultaneously incredibly creepy and really cool. This has been done in video games before; I can remember in other sports games the game would use a camera connected to the system to take a picture and create an in-game model similar to your real life appearance. However, the result always looked horrible. Nowadays, video game characters look alarmingly realistic, and the motion sensing technology of things like the Kinect make face scanning pretty simple:
Of course, this is the 2K sponsored YouTube video promoting the technology, so of course it's gonna work flawlessly in this video. Still the scanning looks pretty realistic, which is scary considering this kind of technology is only going to get better and better.
Still, the face scanning is nowhere near perfect, as illustrated by this fairly hilarious video:
My god that's terrifying. So the potential for face scanning is not quite reached yet, but it's getting there. This made me imagine a future where you can put yourself in almost any video game, which is pretty cool to me. I'd definitely like to run around in Call of Duty or Battlefield as myself killing terrorists and whatnot, but that's just me.
Stop motion is highly articulate and not for the easily distracted and less-than-dedicated artist. It requires a substantial amount of time, patience and visionary talent, which is essentially why I have so much respect for those who can pull it off successfully. The choice of medium (Legos) used in the following video struck me, because - well, who hasn't imagined their legos coming to life when they were younger? Also interesting was the choice to use story elements from the Call of Duty: Black Ops series. Preferably, I would have liked to see Metal Gear Solid re-imagined with legos, but that's just me.
I must say I am very excited to dig deeper into After Effects! The first time I used the program was probably around three years ago. During this time I was really into the video game Call of Duty 4, and I often liked to make videos of gameplay. This is actually how I ended up wanting to pursue a career in the editing world because of how much fun it was to arrange clips, color correct, and tons more. To further expand on what I knew of post production, I decided to try out After Effects. What really appealed to me about After Effects was a plug in for it called Twixtor. This plug in allows for super slow motion while still being able to retain quality. You can see an application of it below.
I also liked After Effects for all the neat text effects and video introductions that it can produce. I remember one time I took text and made it dissipate into bits of sand. The ability to produce these otherwise nearly impossible graphics goes to show how powerful After Effects is. How even an amateur with a tutorial can create things of the caliber of a professional studio is why I think After Effects is perhaps the best Adobe application out today.
