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Autodesk Technology in Hottest Holiday 2008 Games
Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed
Autodesk Technology in Hottest Holiday 2008 Games
Each holiday season brings an abundance of new and exciting games. In 2008, game developers once again broke down barriers and pushed creative boundaries using Autodesk products.
With a focus on character-centric solutions, more intelligent assets, and a tighter overall integration with the game engine, Autodesk technology helps game developers execute their creative visions, from start to finish. Developers used Autodesk technology to create games that offer believable characters, wondrous environments, and enthralling game play for the 2008 holiday season.
Keep reading to learn how Autodesk technology was used to create:
- Fallout 3
- Far Cry 2
- Gears of War 2
- James Bond: Quantum of Solace
- Rock Band 2
- Mortal Kombat® vs. DC Universe
- And more
Fallout 3
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Bethesda Game Studios used Autodesk® 3ds Max® modeling, animation, and rendering software to create the post-nuclear role-playing game Fallout 3. The game takes place in Washington, DC, 200 years after a global atomic war has left the United States all but destroyed.
“Fallout 3 offers an expansive world, unique combat, realistic visuals, and a great cast of dynamic characters,” said Istvan Pely, lead artist. “3ds Max allowed us to quickly explore our creative options to make the game’s devastated world and hostile, mutated creatures as shocking and provocative as possible.” Fallout 3 is available for the PC, as well as the Xbox 360™ and PLAYSTATION® 3 game consoles. |
Far Cry 2
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Ubisoft artists used Autodesk 3ds Max software and Autodesk® MotionBuilder® 3D character animation software to create Far Cry 2. This unique first-person shooter game offers a nonlinear story set in a 50 square kilometer environment, which gamers can explore freely.
“Far Cry 2 provides a truly open-world experience, in a dynamic environment that includes a day and night cycle, destructible vegetation, and realistic fire propagation,” explained Alexandre Amancio, art director at Ubisoft. “The speed and flexibility of 3ds Max was crucial to the unconventional pipeline that was needed to populate the huge game expanse with highly detailed art assets.” Far Cry 2 is available for the PC, as well as the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 consoles. |
Gears of War 2
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Autodesk® Maya® modeling, animation, and rendering software, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Autodesk MotionBuilder helped Epic Games raise the bar for Gears of War® 2 on a very tight schedule. In this sequel, the studio explored the game’s narrative on a deeper and more emotional level, paying particular attention to cut scenes that help the storyline to evolve.
“Time was our biggest challenge with Gears 2,” said Chris Perna, art director for Epic Games. “3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder allowed us to iterate quickly and create content in record time. It also enabled us to go beyond anything we’ve done before. Without Autodesk’s software, combined with our own proprietary Unreal® Engine 3 toolset, we would have been hard-pressed to finish the game in such a short development cycle.” Gears of War 2 is available exclusively for the Xbox 360 console. |
James Bond: Quantum of Solace
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Artists at Janimation created four in-game cinematics for James Bond: Quantum of Solace using SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® and SOFTIMAGE®|Face Robot® software. In only five weeks, the team produced more than four-and-a-half minutes of computer graphic content that included dialog from the Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace movies.
Janimation used Face Robot for more than 85 percent of the facial animation it produced. "Given our short deadline and the number of faces we had to both rig and animate for lip-sync, I felt more confident in our ultimate output quality using Face Robot," said Bradley Gabe, senior technical artist.
"This was the first time we used Face Robot in production, and it really helped to streamline our workflow," added Ludovick Michaud, senior technical and creative director at Janimation. "Standard face rigging just wasn’t going to work well enough or fast enough. Face Robot helped us to deliver a true likeness of the characters and portray great emotions, which helped to amplify the dramatic nature of the scenes."
James Bond: Quantum of Solace is available for the PC, as well as the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, PlayStation® 2, Nintendo® Wii™, and Nintendo® DS™ game consoles.
Rock Band 2
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Harmonix used 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, and Maya software to create all of the 3D elements in Rock Band 2. For the last decade, the studio has used 3ds Max for everything from level creation to character modeling, mapping, and more. This year, MotionBuilder was introduced into the pipeline to help the team deal more efficiently with motion capture data. Maya also recently became a part of the workflow to help artists create facial animation for the game’s singer characters.
“3ds Max has long been my favorite workhorse package, as it does so many things that we need in one application,” said Ryan Lesser, art director at Harmonix. “Integrating Maya and MotionBuilder into the workflow has allowed us to stretch out a bit and work more closely with out-of-house partners.” Rock Band 2 is currently available for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 game consoles. It is also expected to be available on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii game consoles in late December 2008. |
Mortal Kombat® vs. DC Universe
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Midway recently released Mortal Kombat® vs. DC Universe for the Xbox®360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. For the first time ever, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and the Mortal Kombat warriors battle with Batman, Superman and other popular DC Universe Super Heroes. The Midway team used 3ds Max and Maya to create art assets for the game, and MotionBuilder for character animation.
Many More
Several other game developers used Autodesk solutions to create games that shipped this holiday season, including:
- CCP Games used Maya in the creation of EVE Online: Quantum Rise, and has licensed Autodesk® Kynapse® artificial intelligence middleware for an upcoming production of EVE Online
- Silicon Knights used 3ds Max and MotionBuilder software to create Too Human
- Ubisoft used 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, and Autodesk® HumanIK® animation middleware in the creation of Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding
- For Wheelman™, TNA iMPACT!™ and Blitz: The League® II, Midway used both 3ds Max and Maya as its primary art packages, and MotionBuilder for character animation. As well, Midway integrated Autodesk Kynapse artificial intelligence middleware into the game engine of Wheelman, to give non-player characters spatial awareness.
- Lionhead Studios used XSI in the creation of Fable 2.
Autodesk, Face Robot, HumanIK, Kynapse, Maya, MotionBuilder, Softimage, XSI, and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.