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Animation Tool Puts You in the Game

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Mon Mar 12, 2007 02:08 PM
from the what-fun-is-that dept.
Technology Entertainment Games
Matthew Sparkes writes "A new technique could take a simple body scan and allow a user to upload it and use it as an avatar or game character. Previously an animator would have to create a skeleton inside the model and describe movement capabilities manually. In tests, an inexperienced user could produce the animations in less than 15 minutes."
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  • /me makes the obligatory joke about how most Slashdot readers would probably not want a real body scan of them used as their avatar in games.

    • Yeah, because then the next thing you know World of Warcraft servers will suddenly be overpopulated with dwarves.
      • Very fat dwarves, at that.
          • Yep. I'm in the same boat. BMI of 16.5. Shopping for clothing is very depressing, since I'm not fond of suspenders. I do, however, buy a lot of long socks.

            Not too many years ago, the skinniest sizes were for people in the bottom half of the range considered healthy. How I long for the good old days...

            (And don't tell me to go see a doctor. I live with one.)
            • You're even worse off than I am. According to a quick BMI, I'm at 21.1 - 21.9 which is supposed to be a healthy number for my height and weight.

              What's really annoying is when I see a 40x29 pair of pants but can't find a 30x29 pair. In other words, if you look like an inverted pear, you're fine. If you're fit and trim, too bad.

              For years (at least 10) I've been trying to get stores to increase their selection size, including writing to their respective HQs. No luck. So I've given up going to these stores
          • Try the jeans at Old Navy.
          • ..|.

            I hope you can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can!
          • Go to the little Korean guy three block over, with the sign in the window tha says Alterations....I hear he makes a killer Levis knockoff.
    • I don't think its just Slashdot readers who wouldn't want their real body scanned for an avatar. I can imagine overweight people with slim avatars making fun of overweight people with overweight avatars because of the dual identity thing. What would be funny would be requiring good-looking people to use ugly folks' images and then get made fun of.
      • When you get asked "Honey, do you think my avatar's ass looks too big?" NEVER say 'yes'.
        • 99.9% of the time people who are depressed have only one person to blame -- themselves. They could simply work every day at making changes to their lifestyle, relationships, and brain chemistry to be happy. It's not any less true than your fat line, but it's not an opinion most people would be proud to express.

          I'm not saying fat people shouldn't work to improve their situation, but failing to sympathize *at all* because it "their own fault" is a little extreme, particularly if they are working to improve th
    • Most of them will probably just make a character from their genitals.....
      • Most of them will probably just make a character from their genitals.....

        Indeed. Didn't one game already try this for faces and end up with a lot of penis- and vagina-faced avatars running around?

        If you let the end-user upload the data, you don't know what alterations he'll be making to that data. You could end up sitting behind someone with goatse for a head in the virtual cinema.
    • Mario Kart Arcade GP [ign.com] already scans just your face and slaps it on a character model, "putting YOU in the GAME!".
    • Possibly, but if I could see an avatar with my big gut and butt running, jumping and fighting orcs... that'd be pretty funny.


      I think the product/item/service will sell as long as people can modify their scans: tummy tuck, butt tuck, chest lift, etc.

      I'd be happy with pasting my face onto a model in WoW. At least then my guild would know the face behind the paladin.

    • Fat basement dwelling Geeks need not apply. Unless your mom says it's ok.

  • The real question is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Reason58 (775044) on Monday March 12 2007, @02:11PM (#18320667)
    When will this technology be applied to pornography?

  • hmm (Score:4, Funny)

    by User 956 (568564) on Monday March 12 2007, @02:12PM (#18320689) Homepage
    A new technique could take a simple body scan and allow a user to upload it and use it as an avatar or game character. Previously an animator would have to create a skeleton inside the model and describe movement capabilities manually.

    This sounds like a complete Serkis.
  • What about scans for the portly gentleman?

  • "a simple body scan" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TodMinuit (1026042) <todminuit@EINSTE ... minus physicist> on Monday March 12 2007, @02:15PM (#18320751)
    We've come a long way, haven't we?
  • Or light cycles. Gotta ride the cycles...

  • Missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Belgarath52 (121024) on Monday March 12 2007, @02:23PM (#18320911) Homepage
    If I had the figure of a muscle-bound warrior I'd be out partying at clubs and getting girls, not playing WoW. The point of online games is to experience a different reality.

    Next step: if you don't actually know how to fight, your character can't either.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by BarrilPrime (1021153)
      I don't see this really being the situation. Sure, you could upload your own person as an avatar, but that doesn't mean you cant modify it in some way. I'm sure if they decided to put in this capability, you would be able to modify attributes of your player model.

      Even if they didn't have this capability, there are many people in the world that would like to see themselves doing things they cannot or would not be able to do.
    • If I had the figure of a muscle-bound warrior I'd be out partying at clubs and getting girls, not playing WoW. The point of online games is to experience a different reality.

      Next step: if you don't actually know how to fight, your character can't either.

      But we're moving to this, want it or not. Wii adds active physical motion to games. If you can't sit up from your chair, you may indeed incapacitate your character in the game as a result.

      We'll always have games where you're an alien worm or a cartoon duck,
  • In accordance with my latest MRI.

    My avatar will bitch and moan and lay down a lot and take pills and flake on people and blame it on his back.

  • Reverse the technology, make more money. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Radon360 (951529) on Monday March 12 2007, @02:42PM (#18321221)
    Something tells me that there would be more of a market for technology that makes people in real life look more like their avatar, instead.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Reason58 (775044)

      Something tells me that there would be more of a market for technology that makes people in real life look more like their avatar, instead.
      They already have this invention. It's called running shoes.
    • Something tells me that there would be more of a market for technology that makes people in real life look more like their avatar, instead.

      We can't do that yet. The easiest way for us to develop that tech, would be to have display glasses that would overlay others avatars when you see them. Problem with that is that it only works for those that have the VR glasses. What we'd really like is the genetic engineering/body mods to make any fully grown human adult look like "anything" out of any of the various on
    • The last thing this world needs is more 40-year-old men dressed up as sailor moon or female elves. I think we've managed to restrict them to anime cons so far...
  • Not literally YOU, right..? Or is there a "simple" way of scanning yourself that I don't know about?

  • kiosks (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Raccroc (238757)
    I've always wondered why we haven't had this type of thing in "photo booth" style kiosks in shopping malls and arcades. It always seemed to me that facial scans (and now 3d models) would be a great addon for both arcade and home based games.

    1. Charge people to get their face/body scanned at kiosk
    2. Place images on a data card (CC for arcade readers and/or console compatible device)
    3. Sell DEV Kits for adding scanned work into your digital programs
    4. Sell Consumer Editing Kits for editing images (more R
  • I seem to remember something similar. They'd do a 3-D scan of you for $35, and give you some sort of file you could use in Quake 3, etc.
  • Back when Quake was the hot game, I took scans of my wedding photos (I'd gotten married recently) and created textures for myself and my best man.

    It was both cool and extremely creepy to see myself running around the quake levels in a tux and a rocket launcher.
  • Amazing to live in an age where we see science fiction [imdb.com] morph into science fact, isn't it? (PS: anyone else remember this movie for something other than Susan Dey's pert, freshly scanned nipples? :-) )
  • well... not entirely, but you can do a scan of your face with the live camera and it creates a VERY close representation of what you really look like (face at least)

  • Why not just use your Mii on your Wii? (Score:3, Informative)

    by WillAffleckUW (858324) on Monday March 12 2007, @04:56PM (#18323311) Homepage Journal
    I mean, seriously, how detailed do you need your online character to be? Do you really want that extra 10 pounds of fat - being generous - or your geeky eyes or hair you inherited from your mom?

    Besides, they already do this in Japan.

    • Re:Character Hacks (Score:5, Funny)

      by Radon360 (951529) on Monday March 12 2007, @02:47PM (#18321311)
      In a similar vein, I was thinking that the next iteration of such development would calculate and assign strength, agility, stamina, etc. values for your scanned profile. Either it would encourage a movement towards improving physical fitness, or give birth to a black market for scans of people who are already physically fit.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by WillAffleckUW (858324)
      You have no idea ... in fact, one of my characters is in WoW's Femme Fatale guild ...

      It's all pixels, boys.

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