Black Ops: Adam Rosas Interview

[Undeadwolfy]

Sauce: http://www.blackopszone.com/news/black_ ... z138TXSpce

We've got a great interview for Black Ops Zone. Here's an in-depth interview with Adam Rosas, Treyarch's Lead Cinematics Animator and Motion Capture Director. Find out how all the awesome cinematics in Black Ops came to life.

Q: What has your role been in the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops?

I am the Lead Cinematics Animator and Motion Capture Director. As the Lead Cinematics Animator, I, along with a group of amazing animators, was responsible for all in-game storytelling scenes, acting scenes and unique level vignettes.

On Call of Duty: Black Ops, the story and the way it was told was a main focus and I worked closely with writer Craig Houston to insure the animation and story department were on the same page. We knew that in order to tell a deeper and more compelling story, our game characters needed to show emotion better and have more fidelity to their performance.

In order to increase the animation quality we developed a few new techniques to bring our characters to life in a more believable manner, two of which were Full Performance Capture (FPC) and Tension Maps. FPC is a technique that captures body and face motions while recording the actor's vocal performance all at the same time. This is beneficial because previously we would record in three passes (body motion first, then record sound, then animate the face) and FPC enables us to capture all at once, thus maintaining the actors' quality of performance.

Another breakthrough technique, Tension Mapping, was developed to show character lines on the faces such as crow's feet, forehead wrinkles and the creases around the mouth and nose. These lines help define the emotional state each character is in, and add to the believability of the performance.

Directing Motion Capture on Call of Duty: Black Ops was a blast, but it was not without its challenges. Being that Motion Capture involves scores of cameras tracking the actor who is wearing a suit with tiny reflectors, a typical Motion Capture stage is very barren with very little "props” allowed on stage. I would set the scene for the actors and describe the action coming and going from the scene to help them understand the action and find the appropriate motivation. It's very important I understand the design and story progression for each level in order to be able to answer any question the actors may have and properly describe the scene. I was fortunate to work with talented actors that brought so much emotion and quality to the scenes. We also worked with amazing stunt and physical actors that understand game development well. Every actor gave 110% every day and the ones that were new to this process did a great job opening their minds to a new "stage” that is game development.

Q: You brought on US Army Major John Plaster and former Soviet special forces operative Sonny Puzikas as consultants. How did they assist with the game's look and feel? Did they add any motion capture to Black Ops?

Meeting Major John Plaster and Sonny Puzikas was an absolute honor and pleasure. They both have unique perspectives and approaches to combat but it made for a fantastic juxtapose between the two. Meeting with them gave us an authentic perspective of battles, psychology and tactics.

Major Plaster didn't suit up for motion capture but he did give us an insight to the amazing men he served with. These soldiers were the best of the best and were very intelligent, quick thinking tacticians with extraordinary discipline. They had a strong bond and trust in each other that truly inspired us all. Major Plaster's insight and stories gave me a better idea on how to direct the actors on stage. Being able to paint a picture of motivation and background from both his perspective and the MACV/SOG stories gave the actors' performance a quality of authenticity. The emotions the actors were able to tap into was due to having an understanding of Major Plaster's world.

On the cinematic side, Sonny Puzikas played a key role in helping us understand the actions and motivations unique to Spetsnaz which, in directing the actors, aided me to paint an appropriate picture. Sonny's input on Russian Special Forces helped me establish a good basis for the mentality needed for the actors to fill the more unsympathetic and mysterious roles.

Q: The story of Black Ops deals a lot with psychological warfare. What was it like capturing scenes focused on the battles within the characters own minds? Did the use of Full Performance Capture make that process easier?

When getting inside the mind of a character, the challenge is for the person playing the game to feel what the character on the screen is trying to portray. To make this connection possible, Full Performance Capture (FPC) was essential in telling our story.

FPC enabled us to capture every detail that the actor was feeling for these psychological and emotional scenes. As described earlier, being that we did not have to break the action into three parts, we could get to the depth of the scene and focus on game play mechanics so that our players feel they are completely immersed.

Q: What's been your most memorable experience in the months leading to launch?

A memorable moment for me was when I played our game in its entirety for the first time—I got caught up in the excitement! For a while, there were many components and levels being developed in parallel and the game was not completely assembled. But when the levels and all their components were stitched together, I was able to play the game from beginning to end and I got lost in the fun. I felt honored to be a part of something so special. The brotherhood and camaraderie the team shared as we got closer and closer to the end was inspirational. Yes, the intensity and stress increased as we got closer to the finish line, but this team has an amazing bond and because of this, every day you could see significant growth in the game.

Q: Anything in particular you'd like to say to all the Black Ops fans out there?

This one is for you. We never lost sight of our audience and we worked hard to create a game that is compelling, fun and long lasting.