What you need to know about 3D motion capture
Close your eyes and go back… back in time. Picture Jar Jar Binks or Polar Express, movies that put the “Uncanny Valley” on the map. I know these aren’t pleasant memories, but new technology like motion capture (mocap) can be… awkward in its youth. Now, let’s forget all that and move forward to a time when the tech started hitting its stride — from Lord of the Rings’ Gollum to Avatar to The Avengers’ Hulk. And let’s not forget games — The Last of Us has some of the best mocap done in any medium and Electronic Arts has used the technique since Madden NFL ’94. But what is mocap, exactly, and how is it done? Will it ever replace live actors or put 3D animators out of business? To answer all that, let’s head back in time 100 years.
WHAT IS IT?
You probably get that motion capture involves performers prancing around in tights that have ping-pong balls attached. But what the heck is going on, exactly? Simple: The producers of a game or film want to transmit the complex motion of the performer’s body (and face) to an animated character. The process doesn’t even need a computer. Animator Max Fleischer invented “rotoscoping” in 1914, a method of creating cartoons like Out of the Inkwell by tracing live-action footage, frame by tedious frame. The first use of rotoscoping in a feature film was in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937.
Even when animators are creating character movements by hand, they often reference video footage, study someone acting out a scene or even look at themselves in a mirror. Creating digital animation by hand is known as “keyframing” — or filling in the movement of a character between different “keyframe” poses over time.
To automate that process, animators looked to motion capture. Bio-kinetic researchers like Simon Fraser University’s Tom Calvert were breaking new ground with mechanical capture suits. One company created “Waldo” face and body capture devices (shown above), used by an actor to drive a Nintendo Mario avatar who interacted with crowds at tradeshows. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed its LED-based “graphical marionette“: one of the first optical motion tracking systems. An early animation exploiting that tech is the infamous, creepy Dozo music video from pioneering firm Kleiser-Walczak (seen below).
Early on, mocap was a studio-only process where tight-suited actors were alone in barren sets surrounded by special cameras and lights. Avatar introduced “performance capture,” that added multiple performers, facial expressions and lip movement. Games like L.A. Noire also drastically improved realism by combining facial and full-body capture. Lord of the Rings, meanwhile, brought mocap out of the studio and onto the set, allowing pioneering mocap actor Andy Serkis to interact with other actors as Gollum. On-set performance capture (including the face) is now the norm for feature films with digital characters, as seen below in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (yes, that’s Serkis again — he’s pretty popular).
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Motion capture transfers the movement of an actor to a digital character. Systems that use tracking cameras (with or without markers) can be referred to as “optical,” while systems that measure inertia or mechanical motion are “non-optical.” An example of the latter is XSens MVN inertial capture suit worn by Seth Rogan playing the alien in Paul. Other tech has emerged lately, like Leap Motion’s finger-tracking depth camera system and MYO’s wristbands, that detect muscle activity in the hands and wrists. Project Tango from Google is being used mostly for mapping, but with Kinect-like depth sensors, also has the potential for mocap.
Optical systems work by tracking position markers or features in 3D and assembling the data into an approximation of the actor’s motion. Active systems use markers that light up or blink distinctively, while passive systems use inert objects like white balls or just painted dots (the latter is often used for face capture). Markerless systems use algorithms from match-moving software to track distinctive features, like an actor’s clothing or nose, instead of markers. Once captured, motion is then mapped onto a virtual “skeleton” of the animated character using software like Autodesk’s MotionBuilder. The result? Animated characters that move like real-life performers.
It’s difficult to predict how an actor’s movement will translate to an animated character, so “virtual cinemetography,” developed by James Cameron for Avatar, is often used. In a nutshell, that shows the digital character moving with the actor in real time — on a virtual set — so the director can see a rough version of the “performance.” That involves plenty of math, but computers and graphics cards are now fast enough to pull it off. The video below from Weta Digital for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug illustrates the process.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Nothing to do with 3D animation is cheap, motion capture included. But, like anything digital, prices have come way down as of late. On the low end of the scale, you or I can do markerless motion capture at home with a Kinect and iPi Motion Capture software for $295. On the other end of the scale, EA’s new Capture Lab (pictured below) covers 18,000 square feet, and uses the latest Vicon Blade mocap software and 132 Vicon cameras. We don’t know exactly how much that cost them, but a two camera Vicon system with one software license is $12,500. (Bear in mind that you’ll also need software like MotionBuilder to map the capture data to a character, which runs about $4,200 per seat.) Despite those prices, doing motion capture reportedly costs anywhere from a quarter to half as much as keyframe animation, and results in more lifelike animation.
WHAT’S THE ARGUMENT?
Lifelike? Meh. Lots of folks hate mocap, plain and simple. If you’re one of them, it’s hard to beat classic Nintendo-style games and old-school, hand-animated cartoons like Spirited Away or Warner Bros. Loony Toons. Those were done by animation giants like Chuck Jones and Hayao Miyazaki, who applied an artistic sensibility — and thousands of hours of hand-drawn animation — to create memorable characters. Though Andy Serkis’ mocap performance is indelibly etched into Gollum’s schizo character, considerable work was done by keyframe animators to improve the character. Serkis, however, famously took full credit and called the animators’ jobs “digital makeup.”
For producers, motion capture might be a tempting way to save money. But most of the time, mocap data isn’t ready to be used “out-of-the-box,” and often requires considerable (expensive) cleanup. The end result may also not be what producers expect. When animation movement is almost, but not quite human-like, then you’re in Uncanny Valley territory and risk repulsing your audience. By contrast, we recently saw a video game called Cuphead (below) that charmed us using ’30s style, hand-made animations.
Yet, motion capture has its place. Modern video games demand realistic character movement to ratchet up the realism. Mocap cinema characters like LOTR‘s Gollum, Captain Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Smaug have all become classics, thanks in part to the actors who portrayed them. And that’s the essence of mocap, isn’t it? The best way to get a memorable digital character is from an equally memorable performance by a talented, larger-than-life performer.
WANT EVEN MORE?
Are you looking to get into 3D animation and/or motion capture? There’s lots of free stuff! Autodesk will let you try most of its programs without restrictions free for 30 days (students get it free for three years) — MotionBuilder and Maya or 3DS Max is a good place to start. Autodesk also has plenty of tutorials and tips in its Area section. If you have a couple of Sony PS Eye cams or a Kinect lying around, you can also play with a free trial from Ipisoft. To skip that part and try motion files that have already been captured, Carnegie Melon University has thousands of them here, and you can use a viewer like this to preview them. If you’re just a fan of 3D and mocap porn, you can check the sites for digital effects and gaming shops like Weta digital, EA’s Capture Lab, Digital Domain and of course, Industrial Light & Magic.
[Image credits: Disney Studios/JamieLeto/Reddit (Snow White rotoscoping), The Character Shop (Waldo suit), Chernin Entertainment/20th Century Fox (Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), EA Capture Lab (studio, dog)]
Filed under: Cameras, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Software
Google’s augmented reality turf war, ‘Ingress,’ arrives on iOS
Google’s Niantic Labs grew the potential audience for Ingress in a big way late last year, when it put out the finished Android version of its augmented reality game. Today, the studio is taking the next (if fairly obvious) step toward grabbing more players: it’s releasing the long-promised iOS edition. Both iPad and iPhone owners can now capture territory (“portals” in Ingress-speak) and build up their virtual skills by visiting real locations. The experience will be very familiar if you’ve played before; missions give you an incentive to keep coming back, while faction chats let you coordinate turf battles and meet fellow players. There aren’t any major tweaks or upgrades that we’ve seen. The game ultimately remains an excuse to explore new places, but that’s not a bad thing if you’re tired of visiting the same old haunts — hit the App Store if you’re willing to give it a spin.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile, Google
Source: Ingress
Feedback Loop: DOS gaming and tech-themed vacations
In this week’s Feedback Loop, we fondly remember the golden age of Sega, recommend technology themed places to visit on a vacation, share tips for getting a good deal when switching carriers and talk about the first DOS games we ever played. Head past the break to talk about all this and more with your fellow Engadget readers.
Forget next-gen consoles: Remember the old days?
Immersive games with open worlds and top-notch graphics are fun and all, but Frank fondly recalls a simpler time, back when Sega was king and they were making some of the best consoles on the market. Head over to the forums and share your own memories of Sega’s gaming systems.
Tech-themed vacations
After assembling a few ideas to make the most of a business trip to San Francisco, our very own Kris asks for ideas on tech-themed vacations for gadget lovers. Where would you go?
Switching carriers to find the best deals
Switching carriers is a big old hassle but sometimes we need to do it. Irishdoom recently moved to a new place and is forced to switch from T-Mobile due to lack of coverage. He wants to get the best deal possible from his new potential carrier. What tips should he should keep in mind when shopping around for a new deal?
DOS gaming nostalgia
Growing up, some kids might have had some variation of Atari or Nintendo gaming hardware, but the rest of us weren’t so lucky. Instead, we made do with boxy PCs and the DOS command prompt. But you know what? We still had fun. We’re sharing some of our earliest DOS gaming memories right here.
Other discussions you may also like:
- Share your early impressions of the new RX100 M3!
- Halt and Catch Fire S1E6: Do the cabbage patch
- I was thinking to switch to Android but iOS 8 gives me a lot of doubt on that. Help me to choose between the two.
- Making the most of a business trip to San Francisco?
Want to talk about your favorite gadget or have a burning question about technology? Register for an Engadget account today, visit the Engadget forums and start a new discussion!
Aerosmith made more money from video games than from any one of its own albums
Planning to make it big in the music industry by releasing a hit album? Dream On. A long forgotten PC Mag article resurfaced this week to remind us that the music industry had changed drastically over the last decade. According to Activision chief Bobby Kotick circa 2008, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith “generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has.” The game in question has sold over four million copies to date, droves more than most album sales in the modern market. An amazing fact, but don’t act too surprised: headlining bands have always depended on the power of their brand to move merchandise and T-shirts as much as their albums. Still, it’s a heck of a way to highlight the dilemma of the modern celebrity: who you are may be more important than what you do.
[Image credit: PhilipRood.com/Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming
Via: Vox
Recommended Reading: Google Glass in the courtroom and ‘Bill Walsh College Football’
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you’ll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read.
Today’s Tech: How a California Personal Injury Attorney Uses Google Glass
by Nicole Black,
Above the LawPocket!function(d,i)if(!d.getElementById(i))var j=d.createElement(“script”);j.id=i;j.src=”https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1″;var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);(document,”pocket-btn-js”);
We’ve seen everyone from medical school students to airline staff using Google Glass. Heck, even lawyers are jumping on board. California attorney Mitch Jackson is using Glass in his practice to record witness interviews and depositions to be viewed later. Jackson touts the potential of Google’s spectacles in the jury selection process, especially when his consultant is across the country, and how useful the Evernote add-on is for easy case-file notations.
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Bill Walsh College Football Review The lawsuit over using the likenesses of college football players in EA’s videos games has been discussed on this here site, and this week, SB Nation posted a review of 1993′s Bill Walsh College Football. For the unfamiliar, the title infamously used player likenesses, all-time-great team rosters and school color schemes while only naming teams after their city or state to avoid having to pay extra for licensing. That means you certainly won’t find any official logos here. Pocket!function(d,i)if(!d.getElementById(i))var j=d.createElement(“script”);j.id=i;j.src=”https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1″;var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);(document,”pocket-btn-js”);
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How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will We’ve already discussed the demise of a former DC-area restaurant due to what its owner claims was a malicious inaccuracy in a Google Maps listing. This piece from Wired takes a good long look at how folks who update Mountain View’s crowdsourced venue info can completely destroy businesses that don’t keep a watchful eye on that all-important online presence. Of course, there are also tales of troubleshooting errors before they cut into profits, too. Pocket!function(d,i)if(!d.getElementById(i))var j=d.createElement(“script”);j.id=i;j.src=”https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1″;var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);(document,”pocket-btn-js”); |
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Shut Up and Spend: Inside the Electronic Music Money Machine Electronic Dance Music, or EDM as those in the biz call it, has taken hold in the US and infiltrated pop radio with the sounds of dubstep and more. It also happens to be a billion dollar industry. “EDM has become the first ‘voice of a generation’ that openly accepts a partner all other types of music bristled at: unabashed capitalism,” writes Trent Wolbe. Pocket!function(d,i)if(!d.getElementById(i))var j=d.createElement(“script”);j.id=i;j.src=”https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1″;var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);(document,”pocket-btn-js”); |
Visions from the Edge of a Genre Hardly any of the staff here at Engadget HQ were even thought about in the late 1960s, but we share a fondness for all things sci-fi and its lineage. During those years, a collection of films began to take key aspects of the genre that it saw fit, not looking to fit the mold entirely. In this installment from “Laser Age” at The Dissolve, such films are discussed, including 1968′s Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime from Alain Resnais and French sci-fi author Jacques Sternberg. Pocket!function(d,i)if(!d.getElementById(i))var j=d.createElement(“script”);j.id=i;j.src=”https://widgets.getpocket.com/v1/j/btn.js?v=1″;var w=d.getElementById(i);d.body.appendChild(j);(document,”pocket-btn-js”); |
[Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Misc
Playdate: We’re livestreaming ‘Divinity: Original Sin’ on PC! (update: on pause)
Welcome, ladygeeks and gentlenerds, to the new era of gaming. The one where you get to watch, and comment, as other people livestream gameplay from PCs and next-gen consoles. Because games! They’re fun!
Click. Click. Click. Wait. Click-click-click. That might sound familiar to anyone that spent a good chunk of their youth crawling through dungeons and slaying orcs and hewing skeleton skulls on their PC in role-playing games (RPGs) like BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate, and that’s what Divinity: Original Sin is all about. When the project hit Kickstarter last March, developer Larian Studios’ plea was simple: help us make an awesome old-school styled RPG. Well, the audience responded to that and over 19,000 backers collectively pledged $944,282 — more than double the project’s initial $400,000 goal. How did the game turn out? Come back here at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT and find out for yourself as I broadcast it live!
Update: Due to unexpected technical difficulties, we’re postponing our stream. We’ll update you through Twitter when we’re ready to stream again.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Twitch
GameStop promises it won’t interfere with game development
It’s understandable if the news of retail giant GameStop getting in on game development made you nervous. The potential of a store with vested interest in exclusive content dictating what goes into a game from its inception is more than a little frightening. It turns out those fears, however, may have been unfounded. Company CEO Paul Raines recently told Time that we won’t see the outfit involved with the creative process, nor essentially mandating parts of a main game be blocked off for those who only buy it through his store. “We love to play games, and unlike our competitors all we do is gaming. But we will not be involved in the artistic or creative process. That’s not really our domain.”
Rather, he says that this would be an extension of what it’s doing already: offering superficial exclusive things like liveries or powered-up weapons for games should you be part of its loyalty program, and pre-order a title. “I think the day you see us in the creative side is when you can tell me we’ve officially lost our minds,” Raines says.
The entire interview is pretty interesting even in addition to that. Raines waxes nostalgic about the company’s genesis, its Kongregate platform and even goes deep on how the outfit’s physical goods focus is shifting to accept the digital future we’re inching closer to every day; make sure to check it out.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Via: Joystiq
Source: Time
Final ‘Halo 3’ Easter egg is actually a birthday wish
Okay, so you’re probably wondering why we’re talking about Halo 3 almost seven years after it originally released. That’s natural, it’s essentially a lifetime in the world of tech and video games. Well, here’s the deal: Halo 3‘s developers at Bungie were super-keen on tucking all manner of secrets away within the game and apparently the final one has only just been found. As Beyond Entertainment tells it, a few members of the Halo YouTube community have been following the breadcrumb trail of clues that Bungie’s been leaving for the past few years, and this Easter egg is a bit more personal than monkey people hidden in the game’s opening jungle level. In fact, it’s a birthday message for former senior-engineer Adrien Perez’s wife.
The catch is that this only appears on December 25th (or on a console with the system clock set to Christmas Day), and only after clicking in both analog sticks on the Xbox 360′s controller during a level-loading screen. Let’s be realistic, though, you probably traded the game in for pre-order credit at GameStop a long time ago — maybe even for that Halo 4-themed Xbox 360. In that case, we’ve embedded video of the action just below.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Via: BeyondEntertainment, Polygon
Source: YouTube
MSI’s latest gaming laptop brings a more grown-up design, a couple big-ass fans
It seems like just yesterday we reviewed MSI’s beastly GT70 Dominator gaming laptop. Indeed, that was only a month ago, but it seems MSI has already moved on: The company is now showing off the GT72, a redesigned version with a slightly thinner profile, an improved cooling system and a less dorky aesthetic. We’ll get to that last bit in a minute, but first: the fans. MSI apparently took a lot of flak for the GT70′s single-fan setup. Not effective enough, according to some hardcore users. Well, in case that wasn’t heavy-duty enough for you, MSI has stepped up to two fans, with the vents taking up pretty much the entire bottom side of the notebook (have a look at the photo after the break if you don’t believe us). Only time (and review-testing) will tell if the new setup is quieter, but MSI says if nothing else the heat management should be better this time around.
Those gigantic fans aside, the GT72 otherwise has a more streamlined look, with fewer plastic elements, a glass-composite palm rest, discreetly placed multimedia buttons and a seamless trackpad that doesn’t flex or bend as you press down on it. The bottom meanwhile is covered by a single piece, sealed by a handful of screws in the corners. Hopefully that’ll make in-home upgrades a little easier the next time you wanna replace the RAM or storage. Finally, the whole thing is slightly thinner and lighter than the last generation, measuring in at 48mm, or 1.9 inches (down from 2.1). Make no mistake, this thing’s still pretty cumbersome. But then again, this is a 17-inch gaming laptop we’re talking about and also, NVIDIA’s current-gen 880M GPU requires a bit of space for the heat sink, anyway. (The more you know!)
Lest you think the all-black design is too safe, MSI is keeping the same backlit SteelSeries keyboard used on the GT70. And that’s a good thing: Not only are we suckers for programmable LEDs (aren’t you?), but this is also one of the most comfortable keyboards we’ve tested on a gaming laptop. This time around, too, the perimeter of the touchpad lights up, sort of like Dell’s older Alienwares. Also intact: the DynaAudio speakers. Which is great, because we loved the audio quality on the last-gen model. Not something that needed to be changed, in our humble opinion.
On the inside, the GT72 makes do with last season’s specs — at least for now. At launch, it will ship with a 1080p display and either the NVIDIA 870M or 880M, though an MSI rep told us it will update the specs as NVIDIA and Intel announce fresh chips. As before, MSI will offer the GT with what it calls “Super RAID 3″ — basically, three solid-state drives arranged in a RAID 0 configuration. As for connectivity, MSI says this will be the first to ship with Killer’s DoubleShot Pro setup combining an 802.11ac WiFi radio with 1Gbps Ethernet, which you can use at the same time.
Look for these to ship soon, with prices ranging from around $2,499 to $2,899 to start. Over time, though MSI plans to add more configurations at both ends of the price spectrum. And, of course, there are new chips a’coming. So best to wait, even if you do choose to check out the hands-on pics now.
Cuphead: Bringing 1930s style to 21st century games
Every June, the game industry descends upon the Los Angeles Convention Center for its blockbuster-focused trade show: the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). And traditionally, just ahead of that show, the big three console makers — Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo — hold press briefings focused on the Call of Dutys, Assassin’s Creeds and Halos of the world. They’re big, blustery affairs aimed mostly at the 18-35 male demographic. And hey, that’s totally fine: We dig shooting aliens just as much as the next 18- to 35-year-old.
But this year, we didn’t come away from Sony’s or Microsoft’s presentations talking about the next triple-A title from some huge studio. With Sony, the most important game on stage was from a small group of British devs: No Man’s Sky. With Microsoft, you’re forgiven if you missed the highlight of the presentation: Cuphead, a gorgeous game from a small Canadian studio, was only briefly teased during a clip of indie titles headed to the Xbox One. So, let’s fix that!
First and foremost, you need to put your eyes on Cuphead in action. The game is gorgeous:
Sold, right? It doesn’t take much of Cuphead to see it’s a standout. Yet, despite hearing glowing praise from nearly every journalist I spoke with at E3 2014, coverage of Cuphead has been surprisingly limited. “It is a little odd,” Studio MDHR co-founder and “the guy who draws Cuphead” Chad Moldenhauer told me in a phone interview last week. “We’re kind of an unknown; maybe that’s part of the problem.” He and his brother Jared lead the development team at Studio MDHR, the folks creating Cuphead.
Though the brothers Moldenhauer have been developing games for many years while working other jobs — Chad in web design, Jared in construction — this is their studio’s first official game. Together with a programmer friend in Romania (Cosmin Chivulescu), a childhood friend handling music (Kristofer Maddigan) and an additional animator in Brooklyn (Smo), the Moldenhauer’s are attempting 1930s-style animation in a 21st-century video game. And they’re nailing it.
ANCIENT HISTORY (The early 2000s)
Chad and Jared got started in game development back when the first Xbox came out. Here’s how Chad tells it:
“We’ve dabbled in games our whole lives, but mainly just for our own fun. And back in the early 2000s, when Microsoft first announced … I can’t remember what the program name was called, but for the original Xbox they had an indie program, and we just built a PC to the exact specs that they were sending out to devs, and started trying to make a few games. Back then, we still loved the idea of a run-and-gun, so that’s what we were working on.”
If you’re rubbing your face and wondering how Chad speaks so casually about “dabbling” in game development, rest assured that you’re not alone. He told me that it’s a measure of growing up around folks who were both “hardcore into games” and into films as well. “Since probably 13 or 14, we’ve been studying and analyzing within our own groups, critiquing games and trying to break them apart and understand why certain elements work and others don’t. And that just helps as we come into game design,” he said.
It also helps being friends with a “wicked” programmer. “Like it was painting a picture,” he said. “We just jumped into it, you know?” Uh-huh. Sure.
CREATING CUPHEAD
“There haven’t been any even medium-scale projects that use this style in the last 20 years.”
Chad and Studio MDHR’s contract artist, Smo, are creating all of Cuphead‘s beautiful art. The game looks the way it does in motion specifically because of how it’s being created. Chad specifically cited famed cartoonist and inventor Max Fleischer, and Disney’s classic Silly Symphony series. Here’s “Funny Little Bunnies,” from 1934:
Beyond the artistic influence, it’s the way those cartoons were drawn that Chad’s interested in. This requires some background on the history of cartoon animation. Chad explained:
“[In the 1930s], they didn’t know how to cut corners to make similar visual styles, so a lot of the older animation is actually 24 frames per second. When you make a fast drawing, you can do it on ‘ones,’ which means you draw one frame (one image per frame). To get one second of animation, you need 24 frames. But as they got smarter, in the late ’30s and ’40s, they realized you can get away with a lot of stuff on ‘twos,’ which means you halt that drawing for two frames, and then you only need to draw 12. But, there’s still something very weird and surreal to see every frame drawn, and that’s why it seems not traced, but almost like just a very surreal motion to their animation. And because we’re dumb, we’re copying that [first] style of … more work.”
The game is, of course, a game, so it’s being developed in the (very flexible) Unity game engine. Chad and Smo aren’t animating every single frame of animation by hand, but Chad says, “It still haunts me to think of how many frames are left to finish this game.” They’re targeting a 2015 launch.
‘TURBO SUPER MEGA’
While Cuphead‘s visual influences are more vintage than old-school, the game’s roots are in 8- and 16-bit run-and-gun shooters, like Konami classic Contra. The working title for the project that eventually became Cuphead was Turbo Super Mega — an homage to the hyperbolic adjectives of mid-’90s game consoles.
Early on, the idea for Turbo Super Mega was to create a run-and-gun game, focused on boss fights, with children’s art instead of a 1930s cartoon style. “You would start in kindergarten fighting three or four different bosses that were drawn very crude, and then you would work your way to grade one, two and, when you got to grade eight, it would be semi-detailed,” Chad said.
As a joke, he and his brother replaced some of their art with stills from Disney films, added in animation and showed a few friends. “They said we should never make our game unless we use that style,” Chad said. “Then I started crying, [because] I knew I had to attempt animation.” For the next half year, Chad studied cartoonist Richard Williams’ celebrated instructional book, The Animator’s Survival Kit, which he calls “pretty much the best thing in the world.”
PLAYING CUPHEAD
Beyond the clip shown during Microsoft’s presentation — Cuphead is currently console-exclusive to Xbox One — only bits and pieces about the game are known. First, it’s focused mostly on boss battles. These grandiose, highly animated creatures help to showcase the art style, but are also a particular passion of Chad and Jared.
“Konami and a few others have made run-and-gun levels that weren’t perfect, but near perfect. So, as we kept playing with the idea of getting back to run-and-guns, we just warped it mainly toward boss fights. That’s kind of what we love. We understand that the levels still provide a bit of easy filler for the most part, where you can just see a ton of destruction, but the core to us was always fighting a boss and that was the ‘on the edge of your seat’ gameplay.”
Second, there’s a Super Mario 3D World-style world map (seen briefly in the video below). “You can walk around and explore anywhere, so you don’t have to move from line to line,” Chad said. Which is also to say: The game isn’t linear. Cuphead “isn’t going to be boss one, boss two all the way to the end of the game,” Shadow of the Colossus-style, Chad said. You can try out harder levels, speak with various characters and explore for secrets. Not quite “open world,” but not as constrained as its run-and-gun forebears.
FUTURE CUPHEAD
The next steps for Studio MDHR are crucial. As previously stated, it’s just a small group of folks, and at least two members are investing their own savings into the project. Though Chad couldn’t go into the details of his studio’s contract with Microsoft for that console-exclusivity deal, it sounds like the agreement brings more help with press contact and event participation (think: bringing their game to E3) than anything else. “Up front is more still relying heavily on us,” Chad said, in reference to the cost of developing the game. “But we’re not as worried to dip into our savings and borrow money because there seems to be at least a decent amount of love for Cuphead right now.”
Chad and Jared are both still “semi-part-time” at their old jobs, and mostly full-time on creating Cuphead. I spoke with Chad over Skype from Brooklyn, on his first day of vacation in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was there with Jared. “We’ve kind of been talking actually while I’ve been here, and like we kinda now have to just jump in and just … there’s an opportunity here and we might as well take it.”
AIVAnet 
