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The latest developer diary from Hellblade studio Ninja Theory offers a closer look at the impressive live character performance the team put together last week.
During Epic Games’ Unreal press briefing at GDC in San Francisco, Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades introduced a performance-captured cutscene, showing Hellblade protagonist Senua arguing with a demonic disembodied voice. The demonstration was shown using in-game graphics on two screens, while a third showed the real-time interactions of actress Melina Juergens.
At the end of the demo, Antoniades revealed that the scene had actually been performed live with Juergens not only in the room but fully kitted out with motion and performance capture tech. As the two continued to interact, the on-screen Senua mirrored her movements.
As someone watching the performance live, I certainly thought this was impressive tech and definitely a highlight of Unreal’s keynote.
Check out the video below, which goes into more detail:
