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A Look At the Tools Used To Make Metal Gear Solid 4

Posted by Soulskill on from the building-snake dept.

Soft Image is running a detailed story about the making of Metal Gear Solid 4. They explain the game's development cycle, from the art direction to the animation of characters to the building of models and textures. "In terms of bones used for constructing the bodies of characters, about 21 joint bones were used that contained animation data and were activated through these data. But many auxiliary bones were also used to supplement movements such as the twisting of knees, elbows, legs and arms. These were not activated by animation data. Rather, they were linked to the values of the basic joints that were activated by animation. ... They also used a tool to automatically generate the rig for controlling eyeball movement and the muscles around the eyes. Because the area around the eyes is also controlled using both shapes and bones, when the eyeball locator is moved, the muscles move smoothly just like they do for the mouth. Further, even if the shape is edited to redefine the eye edges, it does not spoil the blinking or brow furrow expressions at all."

2 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. What's next? by arizwebfoot · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    P0rn games?

    How about Quincy, ME - from your TV to your XBox?

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
  2. Re:Covering everything BUT ... by WDot · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Recipe for +5 Insightful:

    1. Find a topic discussing the technology of a recent game.
    2. Ignore the fact that you are a geek, and deride said technology.
    3. Justify said derision by arguing that this new technology does not make the game "more fun."
    4. Ignore the fact that fun is (oftentimes) more reliant on the creativity and imagination of the game designers than the work done by rendering engine programmers and artists.
    5. Hand in your geek card, because for some reason you don't think attempting to approach Pixar-quality animation using commodity hardware is totally awesome.

    (Note, I do not have a PS3 and have never played any of the Metal Gear series of games. However, this is an interesting article about the nuts and bolts of game development. Treat it as such, not as a soapbox for your opinions on how fun or not fun particular games are.)