NaturalMotion Ltd. announced euphoria, a breakthrough in run-time animation technology for game play and development on next-gen platforms. Based on NaturalMotions DMS technology, first introduced in endorphin (the off-line character animation tool), euphoria uses the CPUs of next-generation platforms (such as Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) to synthesize interactive animations on the fly, resulting in truly unique game moments that occur during the players experience. Unlike traditional animation playback technology, euphoria is not based on canned data recall, but on fast simulations of the game characters actual motor control, muscles and biomechanics.
euphoria enables a whole new level of interactivity and realism during gameplay, said Torsten Reil, ceo of NaturalMotion. Every time euphoria synthesizes what happens on the screen you know that no player has seen it before. It makes every game your unique experience. Every football tackle is your tackle. Every haymaker is your haymaker. Its not canned animation data; its you. These unique game moments are what next-generation games are all about.
DMS is based on artificial intelligence controllers that imitate the human nervous system. Unlike conventional animation techniques such as keyframing or motion capture, euphoria uses the CPU to simulate the brain and body of 3D characters, which allows animators working on next generation development platforms to synthesize human movements in real time. This approach produces fully directable and fully interactive 3D characters with real-life movements that are unique every time thus dramatically reducing animation asset production time.
euphoria is being integrated into multiple AAA next-generation titles and is available through NaturalMotions co-development program. NaturalMotion will show euphoria behind closed doors at the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC).
NaturalMotion Ltd. (www.naturalmotion.com) is the first company to create 3D character animation software (endorphin) based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS), a technology that utilizes Adaptive Behaviors and artificial intelligence to simulate the human-nervous system. Based on Oxford University research on the control of body movements, NaturalMotions first product, endorphin, synthesizes off-line 3D character animation in realtime. With customers such as Sony, Capcom, Namco and Konami, endorphin has rapidly become the tool of choice for many leading games and visual effects artists creating high-end animation.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
