Naughty Dog’s animation work is often a tier ahead of the rest of the industry, and this Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End mod demonstrates the insane production values on display. The clip, taken from the beginning of the game as Nathan and Elena Drake eat dinner, has been captured from the perspective of the half-tucked hero – and his wife borders on photo-realism.
This cut-scene was always impressive in its original form, but it’s elevated to a whole new level from this unique camera angle. Even more amazing is that the Californian developer is stepping things up in the animation department for its next project The Last of Us: Part II – it’s just in a completely different league to everyone else right now.
[source youtube.com, via resetera.com]
Comments 21
This is incredible.
Insane. And it's "old" by now... As the article points TLOU2 will be something else.
@get2sammyb lol i don't like first person for some reason : sometimes gettting motion sickness if game don't have FOV slider to decrease
i won't buy TLOU 2 if it change to First Person.. it would be stupid if i pass on it
@porhawj2016 it won’t be. This is just a tech demo showing the detail on their character models. They’ve already shown it to be third person.
Naughty Dog are the kings of facial animation and expressions.
As much as I like Chloe, Elena is always my number 1 gal in Uncharted. She's every year's model.
Say what you will about the Uncharted games or Naughty Dog as a whole, but you gotta admit the animation is top notch. The facial animation is one of the best. Elena seems so very real. Now whatever was in their bowls there, some kind of pasta with a marinara type sauce, was definitely not intended to be focused on as it looks like cardboard. 😂
It's always the little things that blow me away with Naughty Dog's animations that make seem so real. This stuff doesn't always make or break a game but it gets very noticeable when it's bad (see Mass Effect Andromeda).
I think it's also allowed Naughty Dog to do much more subtle storytelling as well. Uncharted 4's ending played into this beautifully (before the epilogue) cos it called back to an earlier scene between Nate and Elena.
Naughty Dog's work is always impressive.
There was a lot of incredible animations highlighted before Uncharted 4 even released and more around the time too. Seeing Drake rub his jaw line and the skin deform under his fingers for example is no different from seeing the nose deform as Ellie kisses in the Last of Us 2. Anyone who has seen my posts on Uncharted/Naughty Dog will know I am great admirer of their attention to detail. Even the 'small' things that you almost take for granted are realised by ND.
This does show though a few of the 'issues' that weren't apparent because they didn't matter in third person - clipping issues for example with Elenas thumb on the bowl, the PS1 controller cable and table. Elenas Jaw looked a bit 'rigid' and clunky in a couple of scenes but I expect these were things that were obscured in 3rd person and so not 'important' in that scene - better to use the 'power' on the the areas we do see and not worry about things (like cable physics and the table) if that's not 'visible' to the player.
If you have seen any 'Breakdowns' of how ND have created their games - like the classic train section - you will know that they are 'masters' of working with limited resources to create much 'greater' impression. If you have 'Drake' in 3rd person with quite a 'stable' image occupying say a third - just his back, a third of the screen with a stable environment, much of the 'power' can be used in the other 'third'. They don't have to worry about rendering Drakes' face if all you see is the back of his head. ND have been doing things like this for years. Its not a criticism - its smart use of resources to maximum impact in areas that matter, in the areas we 'see'. It sounds obvious, like an Artist only draws what they see in front of them, not the stuff that's hidden from view but Games are built in 3D using 3D models and so those 'objects' are still 'drawn' - maybe not fully rendered with full textures and lighting applied but the basic model is still there. If you see half a car with the other half hidden behind a wall, that whole car is drawn but only the half you see will be fully rendered. There are many 'tricks' to reduce render to ensure performance - sticking a tree or bush in the foreground for example can reduce draw distance and positively affect performance - ND will do things like this to ensure not only a high visual presentation but consistent performance too.
All this means is that ND are masters and being a 1 platform developer, can tailor there game specifically for the hardware. It doesn't matter if they change the environment to make the game run better where as it would be noticeable if other games had different environments. Look at Wolfenstein 2 where extra 'walls' are used to reduce draw distance in at least 1 area on Switch to keep performance more consistent.
Anyway, we know ND are masters and raise the bar with their talented development of games
It is impressive and amazing but better than Hellblade’s Senua’s animation? I’m not so sure. It’s HL2 that impresses me the most, almost 14 years old and it still even holds up to today’s standard.
@MaccaMUFC I’m sorry hellblade was a decent to good game but Uc 4 and def tlou part 2 animation is easily better than hellblade
@ztpayne7 yeah i know after i watched demo of TLOU 2 on Sony E3 conference
@MaccaMUFC Hellblade is good but there’s only one person on the screen.
The pacing in Uncharted 4 is absolutely textbook, and arguably the best thing about it, but the subtle animations run a second. This is fantastic.
they waiting TLOU2 to make the same mod? hum, waiting for 6.0 HEN lol
Really impressive. Can’t wait for The Last of Us 2.
When Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog I thought the work would take a hit. I see now that the whole team makes things work in that studio. Always amazing no matter who’s at the helm.
Elena is how dev should make female game character looks pretty & realistic. Not just make them more masculine.
@ApostateMage She is a awsome character. 😁
L.A. Noire >
Tap here to load 21 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...