Animation

The DirectX 11-based Luminous Engine can ape the visual fidelity of digital photographs, while a suite of development tools called Luminous Studio will feature advanced cloth and fluid simulation, realtime reflections, animation and AI, and will apparently reduce development costs by up to 30 per cent. More >

At this week's Siggraph computer graphics festival in Vancouver an animation award was given to Namco Bandai for the opening movie to the upcoming Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The sequel to the PlayStation 2 launch title was originally set for release in Japanese arcades this summer, but was postponed following the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March and is now due this autumn. Namco Bandai is yet to confirm a console release, though Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue will form part of the PS3-exclusive Tekken Hybrid collection that is due before the year is out.

Speaking in the latest issue of PSM3 - passed on by CVG - the Team Bondi head claims that Rockstar is "looking at" using MotionScan, the ground-breaking facial animation tech used in LA Noire, in the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto. "I think they're looking at it for every game," he said. "Grand Theft Auto is huge, so you've got all the problems of how big the cast would be and how many lines would you have to record and all that stuff. They're more than welcome to use MotionScan… Rockstar will make those decisions. They generally make the right decisions."

Axis Animation's astonishing Dead Island announcement trailer has won gold in the Internet Film category at 2011's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The trailer was one of 41 films shortlisted from a list of hundreds. "We are overwhelmed to see the Dead Island trailer pick up an award at an event as prestigious as the Cannes Lions" said Axis executive producer, Richard Scott. "It goes to prove that the dedication shown by director Stuart Aitken and all of the Axis team has really paid off. I also want to give great credit to all the Deep Silver team because without their daring strategy and belief in what we could do, this project could have been so different."