inFamous: Second Son is particularly famous for its impressive facial tech and animation. Delsin was the main character of inFamous: Second Son, and he was modeled after Troy Baker. In their GDC tech presentation, Sucker Punch have detailed the method through which they brought Delsin to life in inFamous: Second Son.
Sucker Punch outlines what they had in mind for inFamous: Second Son, detailing their requirements for inFamous: Second Son performance capture.
The purpose was–of course–to get all of this fantastic animation in real-time, and from what we have seen, the end result was great indeed.
Sucker Punch went with data-driven facial performance for inFamous: Second Son instead of Hand Keyframed, like in Naughty Dog games. To do this, they took about 70 different facial pose scans per actor. These facial pose scans are then combined with the entire head as desired.
Motion capture takes place afterwards. Markers are placed on the face of actors and HMRs(Head Mounted Camera Rigs) are used. Face/Body/Eyes/Audio is simultaneously recorded for multiple actors during the motion capture.
It was no wonder that Troy Baker resembled Delsin, because of how they modeled the character completely after him. inFamous: Second Son has also got a pretty impressive animation system, and it definitely required plenty of hard work. Hopefully Sucker Punch can top their own work with their next game.
This article doesn’t really cover all aspects of the performance capture, to read the whole detail behind the scenes, you can read the full GDC presentation from here.
What do you think about the facial and animation of inFamous: Second Son? Let us know in the comments below.
