Call of Duty: Finest Hour to get help from Jim Henson's Creature Shop
by
Kit
Tuesday, May 11 2004
Animation experts will help bring realism in movement to Call of Duty expansion.
Spark has enlisted the Academy Award-winning talents of Jim Henson's Creature Shop to provide character animations to the newest installment in Activision war series, Call of Duty: Finest Hour.
The WWII first-person action game is the first console video game to utilize the Henson Digital Performance Studio(tm) (HDPS) to animate in-game characters by digitally performing them live. Call of Duty: Finest Hour is in development by Spark, which is comprised of more than 30 individuals who have worked on the Medal of Honor(tm) series.
Utilizing the Creature Shop's award-winning digital performance technology, Spark animators are able to capture Henson puppeteers digitally performing the actions of the Call of Duty: Finest Hour characters live in-game on a virtual set. In doing so, the performers deliver an amazing level of emotional realism and lifelike authenticity to the game's cast of gritty, war-torn characters, never before seen on a console title. The Creature Shop's technology also allows the Spark team to record and implement the preferred "takes" or cuts into the game in only a few hours, compared to the typical weeks of time required for character animation through traditional game development. Additionally, within the system, the animators can also link up with pre-recorded dialogue and lip sync to better capture spoken cues for each character, resulting in a greater emotional connection and an overall compelling gaming experience.
The newest installment in the award-winning Call of Duty series, Call of Duty: Finest Hour features all new missions.
