During a talk on emotion in games at GDC, Quantic Dream’s, the firm behind Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy, CEO David Cage unvealed a new tech demo running in realtime on PlayStation 3. Named KARA, it demonstrates the studio’s ability to realize full performance capture. In other words, to motion capture in one single take the body and facial movements of actors and to record their voices, with a very high degree of precision. KARA runs on an early version of the company’s new proprietary PS3 engine.
The role of Kara was performed by the actress Valorie Curry (Veronica Mars, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2). The character model and performance capture is so sophisticated that you can see muscles moving underneath the skin of Kara’s face, and very subtle shifts and changes in the eyes. The sync between the mouth movements and the sound of the speech is perfect.
“There were 90 markers on her face, and an equivalent amount on her body,” said Cage. “She delivered the performance in one take.”
These technologies are currently being used in the development of Quantic’s upcoming project – an exclusive title for PlayStation 3 – which is yet to be announced.
