The Remedy team ”definitely learned a lot” during Alan Wake, and are trying new ways to get the ”best possible looking facials.” That’s great.
”We have a few different methods of doing facial animation - in-game using FaceFX and motion capture used in cinematics,” posted Remedy’s Maki on the official forums, reports Eurogamer.
”While I think it’ll always be possible to get “fugly” single frames out of any game we definitely learned a lot doing Alan Wake, and will try to improve the way we do things to get best possible looking facials.”
”In fact, we’re using some of the improvements in the DLC production already.” The upcoming DLC intends to add additional chapters, in episodic form, to continue the story of author Alan Wake, of whom shadows really have it in for.
”It’s not alone a matter of the method how or where the facial capture is done, it’s about the run-time animation techniques available, skeleton setup and so on. It’s a complex problem trying to dodge the Uncanny Valley.”
Alan Wake has been critically received well but its technical side has shown age when compared with other major releases recently like Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Alan Wake releases exclusively on Xbox 360 May 14th in Europe.
