Image Metrics is a revolutionary new way to capture expression of human actors and ‘map’ it to their animated characters. One project which will feature Image Metrics is the upcoming movie by James Cameron, Avatar.

If you’re already impressed with the realism of Beowulf, Image Metrics is said to be 20 TIMES more powerful. I could not imagine such a thing. Then I saw the demo video. It’s on youtube.

Seriously, when I first saw the demo video with “Emily”, I was thinking… no, she can’t be ‘not’ real… She’s too real. And then… BAM. She’s animated. It’s bloody amazing.

The demo video with Emily talking is actually just a facial replacement. The body, hair and clothing is still real, I think. However, go to their website to see a better demo of Image Metrics, where they map the facial expressions on a totally 3D model.

Image Metrics 3D Model

Amazing. The future is here. Say bye bye to facial animation the traditional way. Well, unless you’re doing cartoony animation, that is.

I am seriously in love with this show. They left us hanging for months after the Firebending Masters episode. But now, the episodes 14 and 15, called The Boiling Rock, has aired.

It’s about a prison rescue. I was a little sad when the Avatar himself didn’t partake in this, but I was shockingly awed by how the two man team managed the rescue. Sure, it’s like 10 times simpler than Prison Break, but the charm and wit of the Avatar series made it beautiful. Plus, all the bad guys, I mean girls, are in this one. And there was great drama within the trio.

Princess Azula returns.

They took a heck of a long time to release episodes, but it’s definitely worth the wait. Every episode is done in the absolutely highest quality of animation and art. Story, dialogue, basically everything involved in making a great story come alive. Unlike many other titles which tend to drop their quality as they get popular. Like NARUTO, for example… Tsk. Avatar really maintains its awesome animation and art. Every single episode is great.

There are rumours that a live action Avatar movie is in discussion. I was worried that they might screw up the idea and concept of Avatar, but after watching Iron Man, I realised that if they put the right people together, something truly great can be produced from an already great idea.

Meanwhile, the Dragonball movie looks like it’s headed for doom, based on what I’ve seen so far.

Meanwhile, Aang sleeps this one out.

RIFT is complete. The demo, that is. And everything went well. This is actually a very long overdue post.

The presentation was pretty good. And I guess we’re all pretty darn proud of ourselves for pulling through on such a short time.

We can’t make the game playable for all, coz the game engine we’re using is a bloody trial version, which doesn’t allow us to compile the game into an executable. So, to play it, you’ve gotta install the damn engine and run it from there.

But no worries, I’m thinking of putting up an in-game video montage. When? I don’t know. Probably after my exams.. which is coming in 4 days time!

Speaking of the exams, I really have no mood to study. This semester had been extremely fun, challenging and taxing. With all the heavy duty assignments completed, I really can’t find the motivation to ’study’ the very logical/common-sensical subjects of game development and 3d modelling. Well, not 3d modelling, but how the hell are they gonna test that kinda subject on paper?

Today, I went for a wedding, a friend from JC’s. The other day, I went to my NS friend’s wedding. Tomorrow, another JC friend’s wedding. A lot of people getting married around me. Everyone’s moving on with further chapters of their lives. Cool.

Right then, some more RIFT stuff.

Looking forward to the holidays, hope to get some paying assignments.

Oh ya, forgot to talk about my poor scooter. Hmm.. lazy. Maybe next time.

The main character, Azeriel, looking smug.

The animated Main Menu

What the final game looks like.

Post presentation THANK YOU image.

remodelled characters, for Animatics.

Things To Do:

1. Cinematics or rather, Animatics
2. Cutscenes (victory and loss)
3. Rift Design n Animation
4. Monster Animation
5. People Animation
6. Sprites:
   Fire
   First Person View arm
   Portal
7. Poster Design
8. Art Documentation Cleanup

All that, to be done in Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Submission by Wednesday. More sleepless nights lies ahead…

Meanwhile, more screenshots!

Eirana, Riftwalker

I’m still compiling my level. It’s been a whole freakin’ day. It’s been compiling from 10 pm YESTERDAY till 7 pm TODAY. What the bloody hell.

I’m gonna stop with the level design. This will be final.

On to more models, documentations, and there’s still the other subject to worry about.

But hey, look at Eirana… Pretty hot eh? I should’ve used the method of modelling hair with the main hero. Saved so much time. Why didn’t I think of that.

The whole week. The whole bloody week of chinese new year holidays. I did nothing but sit in front of my PC working on this piece of project.

It’s actually bloody irritating, troublesome, meddlesome and I felt like crushing the PC so many times.

Edit one small thing, compile for 15 minutes. What a joke of an engine.

It’s the small motivations from seeing stuff work, and seeing newer versions come online, and getting some ‘pro’ help on 3D modelling, that kept my drive going.

Anyways, I was hoping to make constant updates on the development of the game, but probably couldn’t find the time to do it. So here’s a massive chunk of stuff.

The Riftwalker. Designed in Lightwave, ported to MAX, animated in Game Studio MED.

Preliminary City Screenshot.

Posing and animating in 3DGS Model Editor. The beam is fake. I photoshopped it! Haha.

click for a 1024X768 wallpaper.

I hope we can make it by the deadline. It’s getting intense. I’m very worried.

I wished I could spare you from more irritation of Flash Websites, but you guys GOTTA check this out. The Arab’s been bugging me to watch this, but I’ve been putting it off coz of the irritating flash website that I have to trudge through to watch it.

But I tells ya… it’s worth it.

Marvel Kids Presents… THE IRON MAN ADVENTURES.

I can’t wait for IRON MAN movie as well. The teaser trailer (yeah, the one with Sabbath’s IRON MAN song) got me hyped up from the get go. Found some intriguing pics from the movie on Slash Film.

I’m extremely new to the world of animation and storytelling. And the more I immerse myself into the world, the more I appreciate how freakin’ difficult it is to make this stuff. You really gotta have passion.  And the more I see great works, I just wonder if I’m ever gonna get that good. I can’t even draw right. Shit.

I woke up today for my usual servings of email and rss. This caught my eye and gave me morning goosebumps. Aged 6 to 12? Count this 24 yr old in! Click on the image to view the trailer. It’s bloody awesome. It’s as if the X-Men Evolution kids grew up. I loved X-Men Evo when it came out, coz it came after a long silence of XMen stuff. I think it was around the hype of the first movie. But since the third movie kinda disappointed me, I’m hoping to reaffirm my faith with this series. Very promising indeed.

In other news, I realised I haven’t been making as much entries as I wanted to. There’s not much going on right now, except for the ’secret’ project. Progress has been motivating, but there’s a hell of a lot more to go. Whether this endeavour can succeed or not still remain illusive.

I’ve caught Rambo 4, and a few other movies too, since Cloverfield. But the drive to write a review had faded since then. I should do a review the very moment I got home from the theater. Otherwise, it’ll just slip my mind.

It’s the long CNY break for us, and this time round, I’m making full use of it for the project. Damn. I hate how they leave you in the dark and expect you to learn everything yourself. But, what to do…

They keep making us do kitchens! What’s up with that?! From the first time we touched computer graphics, with OpenGL coding nightmares, to the POV ray coding nightmares, to the currently fun Lightwave modelling… We keep making kitchens!

Here it is. My Kitchen Evolution.

OpenGL.

POV Ray.

Magic of Lightwave.

edited: 4.45 pm, Wednesday

Ok, I’m done with my kitchen. Added a few more stuff which took me another half a day. Hmm… I guess it’s pretty decent now, it’s got a microwave, switchable lights, a bar, stools, and an awesome rotating fan!

Nuff with this shit.

—-end of edit—-

It’s what I tell myself everytime this period comes. The exams are upon me… again! While everyone else already had their exams, mine looms closer. It’s just two weeks till the papers.

But I wouldn’t complain if it’s two weeks and I got all the time to study. No, instead… I’ve got major assignments deadlines to meet. Assignments which are like 1/4 of the exams’ weight.

But one assignment I DID manage to complete by today is the very ‘fun’ and ‘interesting’ subject of computer graphics. Behold! My kitchen!

Ain’t she pretty? And all this… the whole kitchen, with the chairs, table, stove, refrigerator, fruits, cups, lighting… they’re all hand coded! It’s freakin’ crazy I tells ya! Coding takes all the FUN outta 3D modelling.

Well, whatever. It seems like they always teach us the screwed up way before the cool, short-cut way. Just like the other subject, System-Administrations. I only found out that the redhat linux has a built in GUI all along. They only revealed it to us in the final lab. If I had known earlier, I’d have used it to ease my sufferings working with Unix. We had to code… and type commands… the WHOLE TIME!

So, with this assignment sort of done, I’ll have umm… 3 major assignments, 1 homework assignment and 2 more lab tasks to complete in this two weeks. So… where’s the bloody time to study?

They really know how to make a killer schedule don’t they?