Do telltales use motion capture? characters look so real.

whereisLee

I'm not talking about 'high-resolution'. We've already seen many games having 'real-like' graphics such as 'skyrim' 'fallout' 'batman' etc,. I think their graphic resolution is far better than TWAU. (frankly)
But I'm talking about detailed facial expressions and body gestures.

Well, since breathing life into 3D characters is hard, even in 'saints row','Batman','Fallout', characters looked like paper dolls, not human. (...Batman was good though)

But people in TWAU and TWD, though they have cartoon faces, they look human. They show actual emotions, their bodies move like real people, it's amazing.

I don't know how telltales do it, even to my untrained eyes I don't think it's motion capture, are they just good at animations?

Drawing 2D characters is easy, making 3D characters is a bit hard, but making 3D characters look like 2D cartoon, it's whole different story.
Giving emotions to 3D characters(who have 2D faces) is not easy work. (See 'final fantasy', yuk.)

When Bigby glares in darkness with his eyes changing into wolf's, the facial expression is priceless.

Oh, 'borderlands' uses cartoon rendering too, but...I wasn't much impressed with the animation.

DaveTheArakin

I think too much realistic emotions from game such as Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls makes it seems too much, dull, cold and in some cases fake. Not that it is bad, I think it is very impressive.

The emotions in Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us are simple facial expression that we can quickly identify. When a character smiles with a uplifted eyebrow, we know that they are genuinely happy. When a character is in sorrow and grief, we know they are because they are crying with wide open eyes and their lips shakes because it is too much. Telltale are masters at that.

whereisLee

I thought telltales are using special graphic techniques, but now you made a good point, maybe it was not about techniques, but about how to 'work' with basic things.

Final fantasy is famous for using newest technology and so are many other games,
but I think--as you said--telltales are masters at creating right expressions that can be easily comprehended.

Maximus123458

They've got a set of self-made animations that they use in the game, i don't think it has anything to do with motion capture. You'll probably recognize a bunch of animations that get reused, like the one from The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 4, where Kenny explains how the boat won't fit everyone on, and he starts walking around with hands on hips. That got reused a couple times in The Wolf Among Us. They basically assign the animations out of the many they got in the game files to a character, and it works like that. Hope that explained everything.

Clem_is_awesome

That's because they got an amazing art team.

AusZombie

TT is able to completely avoid the uncanny valley by having a stylised aesthetic and thankfully they have some very talented individuals working on facial expressions.

ArthurV

We do not use mocap. We're fortunate to have amazing animation and choreography teams to breathe life into our characters. :-)

whereisLee

Wow, great, characters in TWAU are so cool I love them,

Wait a minute..I've got an answer from staff!!!!!!! I've got an answer from staff!!

Maiden_Ty_One

I think too much realistic emotions from game such as Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls makes it seems too much, dull, cold and in some cases fake.

Too much realism can make things look fake....Ok, if you say so....0o

Maiden_Ty_One

I'm gonna have to disagree with everyone here, I find the re-used, clunky animations in TWD to be the worst aspect of the entire games. People keep saying you don't need mo-cap to tell a good story or convey emotions, but I find it incredibly distracting when in the middle of an incredibly powerful and emotional scene, I'm pulled out of it by a character's jerky and totally unrealistic - and even funny - movement.

I don't think they need it in the facial animations, it's just the walking, running and general moving around that I think the game suffers from lack of mo-cap.

I really do hope that for season 3 they decide to throw out the stock animations and go for proper, realistic motion capture for the movements. I can't see it happening, but nonetheless it's what I hope for.

papai46

Too expensive, and their animations are really good! Not jerky at all.

Piggs

Reused animations can get kinda annoying, but jerky? Do you have any idea of what that word even means? Telltale's animations are smooth as shit.

kinewolf

In these games we get connected to the characters in it, we understand them and make ourselfs get involved in the story so much it feels real. We have to pay attention to everything because we have to make so many choises. And the animations are really good, i love the style telltale uses. It's new and different, and it works. With the toon-like animations it's easier to show the characters facial expressions.

MayorMilk

Yeah, Telltale's Character's expressions are great, but the game i've played with the best expressions is The Last Of Us- though they did use motion capture..

DaveTheArakin

Considering Telltale don't use motion capture, it is quite impressive.

kinewolf

Then it's very impressive.