IMAGE METRICS OFFERS NEW RIGGING SERVICE
Rigs serve as the core foundation for the character's movement and are crucial for creating believable facial animation, says Image Metrics' CEO Michael Starkenburg. "While most game developers will rig a handful of characters per game, our specialists have experience rigging thousands of characters."
Image Metrics can produce any type of rig, whether it is a bone rig, blend rig, or hybrid bone and blend rig. The rigs include support for animated normal maps, deformation maps and blood maps. As part of the services offered, Image Metrics can provide rig analysis, optimization, building and transfer. The company's proprietary rig transfer tools can help speed up or fully automate the transfer of one rig to as many characters as the studio needs.
The company recently provided facial animation services for Sony Computer Entertainment America's God of War III video game, which will be released exclusively on the PlayStation3 system.