Let’s talk Natural Motion.
You guys may have noticed this soon to be trend that’s coming to games, which is physics based animation systems. Simply, game characters and NPCs responding dynamically to their environment by actual physics calculated balance and responses from forces.
Think of it as intelligent ragdolls.
And let me tell you that this is AWESOME! AMAZING! INTERESTING!
I love physics, the introduction of physics engines into games was such a leap forwards in technology. Now we think it’s silly for games not to have ragdolls but do you remember back to when they were first introduced?
Some of the early games to introduce ragdolls were Hitman 1, UT 2003 and Max Payne 2 and then we had the next leap forwards with Half Life 2 and its amazing enviromental physic systems.
BUT NOW! We are about to see the next evolution in game physics. Get excited guys.
We have NaturalMotion who have created a system called Endorphin Physics
endorphin is the industry’s first Dynamic Motion Synthesis software.
This system allows animation and physics to work together, you can’t really explain it to well so watch this.
How rad is that?! Too rad. Granted I am an animator so this stuff blows me away but I don’t care who you are, it’s amazing.
I have been having a great time using Endorphin because guess what, there is a free learning edition of this software available on their website! Hit the link
endorphin 2.7.1 Learning Edition
Yes you to can make people fall over! The software is very accessible as far as 3D packages go (try learning 3D Max!) but if you are new to this kind of stuff you will definitely need the tutorials.
You need to register on the site to get a copy of endorphin but if you are into this stuff you’ll love it.
It’s almost like gary’s mod for people falling over.
On a little side note I just noticed on the Natural Motion news section that The Academy of Interactive Entertainment is going to start teaching Endorphin. (scroll down a bit) I don’t want to brag or anything but I have a feeling I may even be the reason for this! I went to AIE and last year I brought in a copy of Endorphin and showed my teachers and classmates and they were pretty amazed with it, so I think I may have introduced it to my school! That’s pretty RAD! (sorry, you can see that physics animation turns me into an excitable 14 year old)
This technology is more for film. BUT don’t worry, natural motion has us covered.
Please say a warm welcome to
Euphoria
euphoria brings Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) onto Playstation® 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Oh daaang now we are all excited aren’t we!
Our first experience with Euphoria couldn’t come in a better game. Grand Theft Auto IV
Yeah that’s right, the biggest game of the year is bringing us physic based animation. Lucas Arts is also using the tech for some of their upcoming games such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and their untitled Indiana Jones game. Natural Motion also has an American football game in development called Backbreaker.
So this means we are going to have dynamic character interaction such as realistic falls, stumbles and dynamic hand to hand fighting.
So get ready for the PHYSIC BASED ANIMATION REVOLUTION!
Unrelated awesome things
You will never be hip after this
This is a good performance
ROBOTS! Check out MDS (the white humanoid one) amazing stuff
Check this vid of MDS. Could this be the start of our downfall?
“try learning 3D Max!”
Heyy, I learned 3DS Max all on my lonesome, it wasn’t that bad. :P
1 | Frunk April 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pmThough I will say I found Maya to be much easier to use back when I tried it out for the first time (Thanks, UT2k4 SE!)
Yeah I learned 3D max to, but its a pretty dense piece of software. Endorphin is also really dense and deep but you can use it at just the simplest level without needing to know the deep stuff.
2 | Simon April 5th, 2008 at 3:52 pmTinkering around with the learning edition of this is making the wait for GTA IV harder now…
3 | Frunk April 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pmahh thanks for the link. It’ll br fun playing around with this. I may even encourage me to animate more.
4 | Elise April 6th, 2008 at 6:49 am