The Quarry development used the same special effects tech from Avengers

It seems like The Quarry has something in common with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it used the same facial animation tech that was used in the Avengers.

Motion capture for games has obviously gotten increasingly common over the years. It’s just easier than hand animating, and means you can get some impressive detail in facial animations.

And now it seems like The Quarry has been borrowing some tech from the film industry. As The Quarry used the same tool that helped build Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.

Love or hate the character, it’s hard to deny that the CGI work on Thanos is incredibly good. That’s thanks to a piece of technology called Masquerade, which captured actor Josh Brolin’s likeness and performance as Thanos. And in 2020, Digital Domain, creator of the tool, announced Masquerade 2.0.

This new version of the tech had broader options, allowing it to be used outside of feature films. Like in a video game, for example. 

the quarry
Credit: 2K/Supermassive Games

how did they do it?

In a report from The Washington Post, the piece explains that Digital Domain made facial scans of the cast of The Quarry. The actors were filmed in full performance capture suits, with their movements and facial expressions mapped in Masquerade 2.0. And then all of this was given to developer Supermassive to use in The Quarry.

Apparently these recording sessions took 42 days, resulting in over 32 hours of footage. Making it sound like they essentially shot a feature film, which isn’t surprising given The Quarry’s obvious cinematic influences.

Clearly all of this paid off. In our 9/10 review of the game, we said that the actors “shine in their facial capture performances and delivering well-written dialogue for both the game’s light-hearted and frightening moments.

It will definitely be interesting to see how this tech is used going forward. And if anything as good looking as Thanos can be done once again.

You can buy The Quarry from £47.95 at the GameByte Shop.

Featured Image Credit: Supermassive Games

Source: The Washington Post