Thanks to some exotic new AI technology, it is now possible to give your characters some degree of behavioral autonomy. Torstein Reil, CEO of Natural Motion and developer of Endorphin explains.

by Jean-Eric Hénault

Don’t you wish you could sometimes breathe life into the characters you model and have them talk back to you? Although, current AI technology may not allow you to have an intelligent conversation with your characters, it may be possible to give them some degree of intelligence through behavioral animation.

Instead of laying out footsteps in front of your character to create a walk-cycle, you just give it a destination and he’ll find a way to get there on its own, resolving problems and avoiding obstacles in its path.

This emerging field of technology will allow a new breed of characters to exist in games, especially on next-generation consoles which will have the necessary CPU to bring your creatures to life.

Behavioral animation could probably be described as a mix of procedural algorithms and AI, allowing your characters a certain level of autonomy and unpredictability. You could for example push a character down a flight of stairs and get extremely realistic motion and behavior, putting its arms in a protective position. In a sports game such as American Football for example, a tackle could be "generated" and the ensuing motion would be simulated. Traditionally, this would be done through a series of pre-recorded mocap sequences blended together. The motion would almost always be the same. The new simulated approach in comparison would generate new results each time.

Natural Motion and its Endorphin software, now in its 2.0 version, does just that. High-end film and VFX studios all over the world are already using it. Game studios are integrating the technology directly into their games for next-generation consoles.

I recently had Dinner with Torsten Reil, CEO or Natural Motion and discussed the technology and application of this exotic, and pretty fun, new tool.

CGC: First of all, Endorphin isn’t for every budget, how much does it cost and who should use it?

Torsten: A commercial endorphin licenses costs $12,795. For educational institutions, we offer a 75% discount. Most of our users are professional game studios and post-production houses. Currently, endorphin tends to be used on projects that require lots of animation data (like most games), or have shots that are hard to key-frame or motion capture. Check out our website for how The Mill used endorphin on the latest Pepsi commercial.

CGC: You have announced the release of Endorphin 2.0 for GDC. What’s new?

Torsten: Most importantly, we have introduced the ability to layer Adaptive Behaviors on top of each other. For example, you can now assign Jumping to the lower part of the body, while the upper body adaptively catches a ball. We also did a lot of work on the user interface. Among other things, you can choose keyboard profiles for the most common packages (like Maya, 3dsmax, XSI, Lightwave), so you feel ‘at home’ straightaway. Finally, endorphin now supports Alienbrain and Perforce asset management.

CGC: Is Endorphin stand-alone and how does it integrate in a production pipeline?

Torsten: endorphin is a stand-alone app that produces animation data in many common formats (FBX, BVH, dotXSI, Acclaim, CSM, Vicon V files). It does not require you to make changes to your skeleton, and imports and exports animation on your custom skeleton. In addition to synthesizing completely new animations, endorphin also allows you to intelligently modify your existing key-frame and Mocap data by layering behaviors and dynamics onto it. For example, you can add props (like a heavy weapon) to a run-cycle, and realistically modify the animation data in real-time.

CGC: How do you see this type of technology evolve in the next few years?

Torsten: endorphin's current functionality (while already very powerful, we think) is only the beginning. We see motion synthesis becoming a more and more important animation technique over the coming months and years. And while the application is currently often action-focused, it will not stay that way. Without saying too much, we will be able to provide animators with unprecedented power to synthesize real-time animations based on their unique style.

CGC: Endorphin is being used a lot in current game development. Without giving away specific names of companies or products, can you give us an idea of how it is being used and what are the key benefits?

Torsten: endorphin is in use at post-production houses (such as Moving Picture Company and The Mill), as well as many large game development studios, such as Sony, Namco or Konami. Many projects have in common that they need vast quantities of data, which are just too time-consuming to produce any other way. Also, endorphin is extremely well suited to create character-character interactions (such as tackles), which is another big area of application. The key benefits always boil down to this: increased productivity, fast turnaround times, increased creativity and hero-shot realism.

Related Links:

Natural Motion