ANIMATION | BUILD
In developing the Speech Graphics service into a tool, GUI design has been of upmost importance
and his colleagues, and something the team can plug into by automatically generating animation for incoming speech content. “We are also following trends in facial modelling, as we believe even the most accurate dynamics are lost on poorly rigged facial models,” says Berger. “Part of our expertise lies in knowing how the face naturally deforms during speech, so we feel we can have a major impact on the industry by guiding development of facial models that are well-suited to speech.
We feel we can have a major impact on
most relevant customers. Those bigger studios have a greater hunger – and perhaps need – for visual polish. And in particular it is the triple-A games that, like Skyrim and Star Wars: The Old Republic, shower the player with spoken dialogue that Hofer sees as best suited to the company’s ability. “However, mobile and browser-based games are fast improving in graphic quality,” offers Hofer. “Our solution will be ideal for that market as well, especially when we release a software product that can be used by a large number of developers. “In addition to game developers, we also
work with other animation companies that service the games industry.” Speech Graphics is also forming
partnerships with motion capture studios with a view to offer joint services based on its relevant technologies.
THE SOUND OF POTENTIAL In working its service into a tool, and through collaboration with companies in related specialties, Speech Graphics is to bring facial animation to lower-budget games; a fact that will chime with those who have long predicted the emergence of triple-A on mobile and browser. And as the convergence between mobile,
social, and console games increases, Speech Graphics is striving to keep pace with the technological frontier so as to make sure its services and technology match current needs. Hofer highlights the on-going content delivery required for online games as an example of an area closely watched by he
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
the industry by guiding development of facial models that are well-suited to speech.
Michael Berger, Speech Graphics
Despite all the enthusiasm and optimism on Speech Graphics’ behalf, challenges remain in turning a service into a tool, even for a company so confident in its product. As Speech Graphic’s current in-house tech is standalone software, managing import and export vis-à-vis the major animation packages in order to interface with clients, has proved a trial that has taken a huge effort on the company’s behalf. “A bigger obstacle was dealing with client facial models that are not suited to speech, which required a good deal of effort until we arrived at an ideal method for facial model adaptation,” admits Berger. “This problem must also be handled in a user-friendly way for any software tool we subsequently release, whether standalone or plug-in. In addition, in GUI design for these tools we need to visualise important information about the speech signal that can be used to optimise output.” Looking forward, there are other challenges, but most are not Speech Graphic’s sole responsibility. Together, a collective pan-industry effort is underway to address the fact that, according to Hofer,
facial animation remains some way behind other aspects of games technology. “This is partly because of the complexity of
faces, but also because of how we perceive them,” Hofer suggests. “As humans we innately scrutinise faces and respond on a very deep level to facial expressions. A title like L.A. Noire shows that you can make a successful game where some of the main game elements centre around our innate ability to read faces.” “However, the push for greater realism in
faces – combined with a continued rise in face-centred spoken dialogue –makes it crucial for developers to acquire new technologies for facial modelling and animation pipelines,” adds Berger. “We believe there will be continued convergence between facial modelling, procedural facial animation and the use of data-driven techniques such as 3D or 4D scanning.” It’s an enchanting vision of the future, and one that Speech Graphics is doing everything it can to be a part of, be it as a tool or as a service to artists and animators.
www.speech-graphics.com
SOUND LOGIC
With a multitude of animation services jostling for the attention of developers of every size, why would a studio choose Speech Graphics’ audio solution? The service provider’s CTO Michael
Berger is quick to answer. ”In two words, quality and scalability,”
he says. “The amount of speech and dialogue in games is increasing dramatically. This has made it extremely difficult for developers to keep up without sacrificing quality, leading to lip syncing that is poor and distracting, especially in the context of high-quality game graphics. As the lines of dialogue in a single game increasingly creep into the thousands, Berger says solutions like manual keyframing or motion capture become prohibitively expensive. “Because our solution is audio-driven and 95 per cent automatic, it scales to these volumes,” he says. “Because it is based on 15 years of R&D in speech animation, we can achieve reliable and controlled results with unprecedented quality.”
MARCH 2012 | 59
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