"Uncharted 4" character animations received a big compliment as Annie Awards praised the game's detailed facial and action-oriented animations.
Naughty Dog's latest "Uncharted" game released on the market back in May 2016 and has already received multiple awards since then. Months after its release, "Uncharted 4" is still garnering praises from prestigious awards shows.
"Uncharted 4" nabbed another award just recently, this time from animation-centered awards show Annie Awards. According to Gamespot, the action-adventure game earned a Outsantding Achievment in Character Animation award.
Naughty Dog's latest masterpiece has beaten other notable nominees such as "The Witcher 3" and "Titanfall 2." This award adds up to "Uncharted 4's" other noteworthy awards.
"Uncharted 4's" accolades include Games Critics Award for "Best Console Game", Golden Joystick Award for "Best Playstation Game of the year" and The Game Award for "Best Narrative." The "Uncharted 4" character animations and facial models were so realistic that it literally takes cues from real life.
According to GamesRadar, the game's facial models come from every detail and construct of a person's face. This is mostly evident in the "Uncharted 4" protagonist Nathan Drake.
Nathan Drake's voice actor Nolan North explained that every wrinkle on the protagonist's face is his. Motion capture technology isn't anything new per se, but the one used in "Uncharted 4" is different.
North shared that this technology maps his face onto his character's head in real time. By doing it this way, characters in the game appear to look like a splitting image to their real life counterpart.
While traditional motion capture only uses motion as a reference point, Naughty Dog stepped it up a notch by translating everything into the game. This is how Nathan Drake received every wrinkle and facial expression of his courtesy of Nolan North. This technology alone clearly aided in the realism of the "Uncharted 4" character animations which eventually won the game an Annie Award.