Autodesk announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that it has licensed its HumanIK middleware to Electronic Arts (EA) for use in next-gen games. The customized development library enables animated game characters to interact more realistically with digital environments and has already been used in conjunction with Autodesk’s Maya and MotionBuilder on such EA ttitles as DEF JAM: ICON, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt.
Built from the HumanIK character technology found in the Maya and MotionBuilder software, Autodesk HumanIK middleware is provides an on-target intelligent inverse kinematics (IK) animation system. It is designed to allow game developers to control character animation at run-time for a higher degree of realism. HumanIK also reduces artists’ reliance on integration programmers, who typically port the game data into the game engine.
“EA’s DEF JAM: ICON, FIFA Soccer 07 and NBA STREET Homecourt titles feature sophisticated animations that are impressing the industry and consumers with their realism and fluidity of motion,” says Marc Petit, VP of Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division. “Next-gen games are visually stunning. But, if a game’s animation quality doesn’t match the quality of the game’s still elements, the illusion of realism is quickly shattered. With HumanIK, Autodesk is helping game developers add credibility to their games by offering a customizable solution for realistic human motion.”
Glenn Entis, EA’s chief visual and technical officer, says the partnership with Autodesk has enabled the game maker to achieve a new level of character animation. “With HumanIK, the character behaviors we created remained intact when exported to the video game engine,’ he says. ‘That was a huge benefit; it eliminated the usual time-consuming and costly tweaking and toggling between the development software and the game engine. Autodesk HumanIK is the ideal solution for our next-generation game development.”
Developed by EA Chicago, the hip-hop fighting game DEF JAM: ICON is now shipping. NBA STREET Homecourt is has been available for Xbox 360 and has just arrived in stores for PlayStation 3.
Win a Funko X Lilo & Stitch Prize Pack!
