Art Direction





Hi guys,

My name is Lynell Jinks and I am the Art Director for NBA 2K10. I am
going to be talking to you guys today about many of the cool graphical
additions this year so you know what to look out for when you start
playing your game in October. All of the things I'll go over illustrate
that our game has been given the artistic assets and coding structure
to create the most realistic player models and arenas ever, while
giving you the deepest customizable CAP options in our game's history.



Image Metrics – Facial Animations

I want to first get into what makes our graphics more innovative than ever: Image Metrics.
Before this year, we only used a maximum of 3 different blend shapes
per head, which would limit the type of emotion you see on the players'
faces. The end result had the players looking more robotic than human
when running around or even in doing simple actions such as blinking.
Now, with the help of Image Metrics the facial animation goes beyond
what we've ever been able to capture before. An actor is actually
recorded with a camera connected to their face to capture how facial
muscles work and better document a facial animation. Now, simple
animations such as blinks are not so much just moving the eyelids, but
rather the cheekbones, muscles, and so much more. We took it a step
further and sent Image Metrics the actual NBA footage of the players
with signature expressions and signature intros, so that way we
actually have the facial animation to match the body animation. We are
not limiting this to the players either. Coaches, assistant coaches,
and others will have better facial models and animations to bring the
most realistic looking characters to any sports game you've ever seen.







Of course, many of you are familiar with Image Metrics because of
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto . They generated hundreds of animations for
the dialog and narrative of the game. But taking that technology and
adapting it to about 1000 different characters in the NBA was a bit of
a challenge. It's created a really sophisticated system to get our
facial animations and builds in the most realistic way possible.
Combining animation generated by their proprietary capture process and
the advanced head rig, we were able to give the players the ability to
emote. You'll be able to see them breath heavily and search for an open
position as they dribble back down the court. Occasionally, they'll
check the score or cheer on the crowd. That being said, everyone will
be doing something with their face. Go into replay and you'll see what
I mean. On that note, you can look for more than a hundred guys with
signature facial animations . Watch Vince Carter as he kisses the
basket, Garnett pouting or screaming, or Yao disputing a foul. These
are just a few examples of our signature animations.



Player Models

I want to share a couple things about player models this year. We have
completely rewritten our skin shader -- the skin actually looks and
behaves like skin, something we really struggled with in previous
years. Once we saw the potential of this new skin shader, my Lead
Character Artist Jon Gregory made it a huge priority to create new
hi-res normal maps for each player and coach in the game. The amount of
detail you can see in their faces is truly amazing, like the wrinkle on
the back of Kobe's neck, or the wrinkles on Greg Oden's forehead read
so much better now.







We got a ton of feedback about players being scaled inaccurately last
year. Well, we made it a priority to have the players be better scaled
to the court. You will notice that they seem more life-size compared to
their surroundings and each other. This has improved the look of the
gameplay, since now game reactions are more realistic.



Animations

Throughout the summer, we were hard at work on bringing in a ton of new
animations and addressing areas of the game we had never looked at
before. The result is an incredible number of new animations packed
into the game. Let me give you an idea of what you should be looking
out for.



Let's start with the crowd. There is ten times the amount of animations
previously allotted to the crowd, and it's never been more reactive to
what's actually happening in the game. Often, in previous years, you
would see a huge play happen and the crowd failing to react that
strongly to the highlight or picking up several seconds after the
action. That is no longer the case. You will see a highlight play
illicit the proper reaction to a huge play right on queue. NBA crowds
generally don't sustain a constant frenzy, so our first fix was to tone
down the natural state of the crowd from last year. There is a more
standard regular buzz that will be met with huge responses when the
situation calls for it. We had to get this right graphically to match
up with our huge audio reactions per the recent Audio Insight. Just know that there will be more peaks and valleys with the crowd, and that no highlight play will go unnoticed.



You will also see a ton of new things on the sidelines and bench. As
you have seen from some of the screens, players now will wear a variety
of warm-ups before getting checked into the game. But there are also
more than 200 new ambient bench player animations to check out . These
include new celebrations, dejections, anticipations, and general
observing animations as well as a set dedicated for the coach in a
huddle. But that's not all! You'll see your team cheerleaders and
mascot performing new animations as well. The cheerleaders will have a
ton of new dance moves and team mascots will more accurately represent
their real life counterpart. You will see a wide array of random
animations as well. Want an example? One of your players can now run
into the mop boy! These animations are all something to look out for
while playing the game that just brings our presentation to another
level.







Of course, most of the focus is on the thousands of new game play
animations. Besides needing all of these packages for Draft Combine and
My Player mode, we wanted to bring in the newest and most innovative
gameplay packages around, including Isomotion, Defensive, Post Moves,
etc. We have completely retooled our blocks, post moves, and post
defense as the gameplay guys addressed a huge need here. (I'm sure
they'll have plenty to say about this in forthcoming Insights.) So we
needed to provide an entirely brand new set of animations for these
areas in the game and several hundred animations were dedicated to each
of these areas alone.



We've added more Signature Animations as well. Pay attention to the
star athletes as they shoot. Whether it is on the court or during free
throws, their moves have been re-created down to the smallest detail.



And of course, you will see ton of new dunks, a few of which were
performed by James 「Flight」 White, along with other NBA stars. Don't
expect your player to be doing many of them any time soon, (expect the
Level 0 beginner dunk status, where you'll barely be getting to the
rim) you'll have to work to become a master of the dunk.



Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention signature celebrations.
Of course we have a ton of new celebration animations, including the
LeBron chalk toss. But I'll let a future Insight get into those, I
don't want to give away everything!



Arenas/Uniforms

This was a major point of emphasis. The arenas, for the most part, all
needed to be re-tooled to be more accurate. The biggest overarching
difference you'll notice is the improved stadium lighting and pre-game
stadium introductions. The pre-game stadium look just has a greater
realistic feel, with team colors, spotlights, team PA's, etc.









We also put a huge emphasis into our uniform selection this year. We
weeded out many of the less popular ones over the years and added a ton
that you guys suggested (Cleveland in the late 70』s, etc.) We also
wanted to add jerseys that are becoming popular during theme
nights/weeks from the past couple years, such as Latin Nights and Green
Week . You will be seeing El Heat and Los Bulls as selectable jerseys
this year.







Accessories

Let's get into some things I am sure you hardcore guys are going to be
very interested about: tattoos and accessories. As you can see from the
Draft Combine video and screens, there are a ton of new accessories.
You will have the ability to colorize your shoes, including more brands
than ever before. You can make sure your character has the most
accurate and flashy kicks in the game. We have brought in a whole new
batch of tattoos to bring the players up to date. Creating those
digitally gets more unique every year, as the NBA guys keep outdoing
each other.



As you can see, there was a tremendous amount of things I could discuss
with an Insight, so I was glad to do it. My pleasure to bring you all
of our other graphic improvements, and look forward to your feedback.
Drop me a line!



- Lynell Jinks

Art Director

譯者 siqianLee

——————————

大家好,
我是 Lynell Jinks ，是NBA 2K10的藝術指導。今天呢，我就想跟你們聊聊你們10月份即將玩到的這款遊戲中大量很酷很炫的寫實動作。我們將給你們帶來的是最最逼真的球員以及最最精彩競技體驗，同時還有我們的遊戲歷史上最最深入的個性化定製選項。
Image Metrics（打造GTA逼真面部表情的工作室） – 面部動畫
首先我想來談談是什麼使得我們的貼圖比以前都要強大了呢，那就是Image Metrics工作室的功勞啦。去年，我們的每個頭像最多只能使用三種不同的模型混合，這極大的限制了我們球員豐富的面部表情。這使得我們的球員們在跑動時或者最簡單的眨眨眼睛都像機器人一樣僵硬。現在，在Image Metrics的幫助下，面部表情上將完全超越前作。演員的整個面部的每一下肌肉抽動都被一個攝像機完整記錄下來，再生成出來面部表情的文件。現在，細微如眨眼的動作都不再僅僅是動動眼皮子的事情，球員的顴骨，肌肉等等都會有所反應。我們甚至把真實的NBA鏡頭下記錄的球員個性表情，簡歷也發給了Image Metrics工作室。因此，我們真正做到了把面部表情更球員動作匹配起來。當然，這些還不僅僅侷限在球員身上。教練，助教，以及其他人都會有更好的面部模型和畫面效果。不要忘記，我們要帶來的是你所玩過的一切體育遊戲中最最真實的人物形象。

當然，說起Image Metrics，你們更熟悉的應當是Rockstar公司的俠盜獵車手4。他們為了整個遊戲中的對話和敘事製作了數以百計的面部效果。但是把他們的這項技術運用於有大約1000名不同球員的NBA中來說，絕對是個挑戰。他們創造了一個強大，精密的系統來獲得我們的面部效果，並儘可能真實地在遊戲中反映出來。結合由他們的專利動作捕捉系統和先進的面部設備生成的臉部效果，我們可以讓球員的感情完全地展現出來。你將看到他們運球到前場，然後深吸一口氣，找尋空位的場景（好栩栩如生……）  偶爾，他們還會抬頭看看記分牌，或者對著觀眾歡呼。也就是說通過他們的表情，你就能猜到他們在幹嘛。進遊戲回放瞧瞧，就知道我說的了。不要被震精，你將看到超過100個傢伙有著各自不同的面部神態。比如看看卡特親吻籃筐時的神態（應該是賽前引體向上時順便親下，如果是比賽中……），KG生氣了，甚至怒吼；在或者姚明找裁判理論時的神態（這是姚明的性格？還有，難道2K10里會有T？）.這些只是我們個性面部神態中的一些例子而已。更多的，等遊戲到手慢慢挖掘吧
球員模型
我還想分享下今年人物模型的的一些東東。我們對重做了皮膚著色……這些皮膚效果不管看上去看是動起來都跟真的沒啥兩樣，我們前幾年一直被皮膚的效果所困擾。有次，我們看到了現在的新皮膚著色技術的潛力後，我們人物部門的頭頭 Jon Gregory 大大就著手為每個球員和教練都重新設計全新的高分辨率貼圖。超多的細節讓我再次完全地震精，看看科比脖子上的褶皺，或者奧登大叔額頭的皺紋，都比以前真實多了（更老了？）。

去年，我們得到了很多關於球員比例不准的反饋。所以，今年我們優先考了球員的比例問題，你將發現他們現在的與周圍事物的比例是那麼地河蟹，也因此，遊戲更加真實了。
動作
整個夏天，我們都在為了全新的面部神態以及無數前作所忽略的細節而辛勤地工作，結果就是你遊戲更新了無法想像的大量全新面部神態。還是讓我來指點下你，告訴你該期待些什麼吧～
還是先從觀眾說起吧。觀眾的神態將是前作的10倍。他們會有跟現實中完全一樣的反應。在幾年前，你經常會看到一個精彩的配合達成，觀眾卻冷場，木有掌聲是多麼滴悲劇，直到回放的時候，或者反應之後好幾秒鐘。這些都已經成為歷史。即便是NBA的觀眾通常也承受不起連續不斷的吶喊吧，所以我們首先就降低了正常狀態下觀眾的聲音。當形勢需要時，正常狀況下的嗡嗡聲將變為巨大的反響。我們需要把這些與我們的聲音系統完美結合。總得來說，觀眾的感情會是跌宕起伏的，當然，他們不會再錯過任何一次精彩的進球。
你還會在底線以及板凳席看到一系列全新的東西。就和你從一些視頻中看到的一樣，球員在不上場比賽的時候將會穿著訓練服。同樣，板凳球員同樣會有超過200 種的全新球員動作，包括慶祝，沮喪，期待以及正常關注場上情況的的動作，甚至是湊在一起聽教練講解的細節。當然這些還遠遠不夠！你會看到啦啦隊隊長跟吉祥物也都會有全新的動作。啦啦隊長會有一系列全新的舞蹈動作， 吉祥物也會更加形象滴模仿他們對應的動物。你會發現還想的You will see a wide隨機動作。舉個例子？你的球員可能會撞上拖把男，這些動作都是你能留意到的細節，他會讓我們的現場感更上一層樓。

當然，你們估計還是更想瞭解海量的全新籃球動作吧，我們不僅僅把這些都打包進了選秀聯盟以及一球成名模式，我們更想給大家帶來最新的最勁爆的遊戲動作，包括運球，防守，背打等等等等。我們依照玩家們的建議，已經完全重新設計了蓋帽，背打，地位防守等動作。（我很肯定，他們對這些改進一定會很興奮）所以我們需要為這些細節提供一套完全嶄新的動作以及同時，每個方面都會有幾百個專用的動作。
我們同時也添加了更多的個性動作。、注意球星們的投籃動作吧。無論是在場上還是在罰球，他們的一舉一動的微小細節，都經過了重新的設計。
同時，你會看到許許多多全新的扣籃動作。其中一些是根據James White的動作採集來的，也還有很多NBA球星的動作。不要期待你的球員能在任何時候都做得出這些動作。（如果你是0級的扣籃菜鳥，你的彈跳只能讓你勉強摸到籃筐），你需要努力地打起，才能成長為一個扣將。
哦，我差點忘記介紹專屬慶祝動作了。我們顯然是準備了虛火的慶祝動作，比如老北京的撒麵粉。再比如？就此打住吧，我全說完了，你們就沒新鮮感了！
球場/隊服Arenas/Uniforms
這也是我要強調的重點之一。球場，作為很重要的一部分，我們也做了很多的調整，最大的改善應該就是球場的燈光以及賽前的比賽介紹了。球館跟真實的還有什麼兩樣？球隊的哦配色，耀眼的聚光燈，球隊的廣告聲，等等。


我們還在今年球服的選擇上花費了很大的精力。我們淘汰了很多甚少出現的球服，並根據你們的建議，加入了許多新的球服（比如70年代末的騎士球衣）。我們甚至還想加入一些近年來在主題夜或者主題週末中流行起來的球衣，比如Latin Nights 還有 Green Week。你今年會看到 El Heat以及Los Bulls 的字樣出現在球衣上。（文末有網上搜到的相關資料）

護具
最後讓我說點你們這些骨灰級玩家一定感興趣的東西吧：紋身和護具。如你從選秀聯盟視頻中看到的那樣，配飾也增加了很多。  你將可以選擇完全定製你的戰靴的顏色，同時還會有更多的品牌可供選擇。你的球員可以穿上你挑選的最酷最炫的球鞋，出現在賽場上。我們還給你們帶來了一整套全新的紋身，供你們挑選。 NBA的球星們，每年可都在製造著獨一無二的全新紋身呢。
如你所見，我今天說了很多很多，我也很樂意說這些。給你們提供更好的遊戲體驗是我的榮幸，我也很樂意去這麼做。期待你們的反饋，記得回信喲（話說，遊戲都弄得差不多了，再回饋也只能在2K11里改進了唉。。終於翻完了）～

「拉丁之夜」計劃：這個計劃是NBA新出的壹個市場計劃，為了賺更多的錢，推出壹個「拉丁之夜」計劃(Noche Latina)–NBA的某些球隊將會在本月其中幾個晚上比賽時穿上西班牙文的球衣來取代英文的球衣來比賽。這種球衣還提供在網上銷售。比如說，尼克斯 Knicks的主場隊服會叫做「Nueva York」，公牛Bulls的會變成「Los Bulls」，熱火Heat會變成「El Heat」，小牛Mavs會變成「Los Mavs」，而湖人Lakers則會變成「Los Lakers」馬刺會變成「Los Spurs」，火箭Rockets會變成「Los Rockets」等等。  「拉丁之夜」計劃最初開始實施於2006-07賽季，球隊球衣的名字會被改為拉丁美洲的流行叫法，當然也不是完全逐字翻譯過來的。能有資格穿上這樣拉丁美文球衣的球隊必須是西班牙和葡萄牙語系國家中最受歡迎的球隊。NBA官方選中的球隊有湖人隊、熱火隊、太陽隊、馬刺隊、小牛隊、公牛隊和尼克斯隊