2006-06-30 14:44:15 Rainbow Six Vegas - Developer Diary

http://www.totally360.com/gameinfo.php?gameid=135&...

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas - Developer Diary
By Neil Vaughan - 30 Jun 06
Ubisoft have just sent us the first developer diary clip for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.

Click here to view the video clip.

1/ Presentation + Background

My name is Aaron Gilman. I'm the Animation Director on Rainbow Six: Vegas. I've been a Character Animator and Animation Supervisor for over 5 years. Prior to coming to Ubisoft to work on my first game, I was working on feature films with Tippett Studio in Berkeley, California.


2/ For the gamer at home, what is the benefit of doing MOCAP instead of traditional animation?

Rainbow is all about realism. For that reason it was critical that we create the most fluid and realistic animation possible. Motion Capture allows us to go straight to the source of human movement. Rather than relying on key frame animation, the process of creating motion from scratch, mocap technology allows us to capture and integrate movement performed by trained actors.


3/ How many different animations will be created? How does this compare to the Rainbow Six games?

With a substantially larger memory budget for next-gen games, we`ve been able to create custom animations for virtually every character type in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Right now we`re pushing about 4000 animations including story driven events, whereas older Rainbow games, like Rainbow Six: 3 for example, used approximately 800 animations.


4/ Is everything in the game MOCAPed?

No. Approximately 35% of the game content is key framed (created by hand), and 65% is mocap. With mocap you have to pick your battles. Those types of moves that require complex sets, and that we need to have the freedom to revise and modify on the fly throughout the length of the game's production, we generally reserve for key frame. For example, rappel and take cover are 100% key frame.