The future of video games technology is a multi-billion dollar question that a lot of companies are invested in. Is it virtual reality? Augmented reality? Artificial intelligence? Perhaps. One issue that is becoming clearer is the matter of diversity in gaming, and particularly in representation. In a survey, 80% of video game characters were found to be white and male. This is perhaps unsurprising in an industry where 68% of developers are white and 72% are male, and some games companies are timid about including more diverse characters, ostensibly out of misguided concerns over profitability. Nevertheless, things are changing.
Face Rigging Animation
Face rigging animation is the process of creating animation controls for a facial model, with an animator having an interface to provide fine control for the structure and manipulation of the rig. Character designers can weight feature points on the face, and animators can make the facial skeleton animate automatically, with motion data, or provide manual animation.
How does this contribute to the future of game development? Simply, with more sophisticated facial rigs and character animation, video game art directors can easily create a wide variety of different characters with varying bone structures, hairstyles, skin tones, eye and facial features, and expressions. We will see more sophisticated character creation options in an increasing number of games, and more diversity in generated 3D models in crowds and the like. Rather than first-person shooters with generic stubbly white male protagonists, women and people of color will be able to see themselves accurately reflected in the protagonist role, making the gaming experience more reflective of the real world’s diversity.
Genies Offers Diverse Character Models
One person with in-depth knowledge about this kind of 3D animation and character rigs is Iker J. de Los Mozos. He is Head of Characters at Genies, an avatar technology app that allows users to build and dress their own Genies: personal avatars for use in virtual worlds as disparate as mobile games, messenger apps, and social media. He recently said, “We are creating our Genies with flexibility in mind. Our systems will allow the user to customize a Genies down to a very granular level while enabling the characters to have a full range of expressions in the face and body. We are also developing our own shaders to enrich the look of all of our assets. We are using neural networks to assist us in creating all the assets we need for our characters.” Just because Genies’ 3D characters are more cartoonish than the typical video game protagonist model does not mean that they do not have things to contribute to the game design process. Even the world’s fastest selling game of all time, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, fails to offer a range of options for natural Black hair. The game’s cartoonish avatars have a similar level of appeal to Genies’ simple but charming designs.
Siggraph 2020 and New Avatar Technology
Genies is not the only company working on creating avatar technology that can be more representative of real life. Blue Sky Studios and other companies at the Siggraph 2020 conference shared their developments in a panel for other designers and developers. The future of gaming is and will be in the diversity and inclusion of characters enabled by new avatar and face rigging technology that is being pioneered and popularized by companies such as Genies.
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Source: https://www.allure.com/story/video-game-inclusive-beauty
