I was curious to ask this august body which video games they thought had the best facial animation. It could be cut scenes, it could be in game, just which games did you notice the faces and the lip sync and eyes looking good. For me, I would have to say the new GTA stuff looks good...way better than the lip flapping Oblivian stuff.... DD
I thought RE5 was pretty nice in that department. And despite being a little jaggy and old by this point, while technically they may have not been the best, but the facial expressions in Mass Effect were extremely subtle and well done, and there was a huge variety of them. Definitely looking forward to ME2
Not released yet but <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Zfl36IiYkJo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Zfl36IiYkJo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
Haven't really thought about it much, but Heavenly Sword is probably one of the best, if not the best, in this area. FYI, if you watch the show Fringe, Nariko might look a little familiar.
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That's what I was going to say. That reminds me I need to redo Mass Effect to have a good character ready to carry over when the sequel comes out.
from what I remember, Half Life 2 had some great lip sync. I've played a few games lately, where the syncing is horrid. Just flapping around.
Yeah, it reminded me to do the same as well...with so many games coming out, not sure how thats going to be possible.
I posted this going off of my memories of the game 2 years ago. Decided to check out some videos of the game, and it actually looks better than I remember. Was going to post one of the better videos, but they're pretty much all spectacular. Here's the opening (bunch of gameplay mixed in, but you can skip ahead to the cutscenes): <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVBzU_a-EvU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TVBzU_a-EvU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> As mentioned, Mass Effect was pretty good, and the latest FF XIII trailer was pretty impressive to me, especially for a Japanese game. Uncharted and the R&C games are pretty good: <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ancrxy5gpHM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ancrxy5gpHM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JDq2nI-8liQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JDq2nI-8liQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> (Obviously, R&C goes for the "Pixar" look as opposed to realism).
Also Uncharted <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_hluArzOwTA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_hluArzOwTA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
Caught a bit on the radio about U2 wanting to do Guitar Hero but being unsatisfied with the animation. The trend from 'Real Life' to video game format may be where your facial lip sync stuff thrives. (Or possibly the long overdue feature film remake of Scooby Doo and the Harlem Globetrotters).
It's not a video game, so maybe I'm out of topic on this, but the movie Dragonheart used some really great techniques (back then at least) to animate the dragon's face in sync with Sean Connery who provided the voice. There are moments when you can actually see Connery in the dragon, which is weird, but it was done that well... again, at the time. ILM won the 1996 academy award for Best Visual Effects, and I think that was the main reason.
