Asian Fusion. (cover story)

BIOWARE Corp.; VIDEO games; COMPUTER-generated imagery; XBOX video game consoles; COMPUTER art; FILM characters

The article reports that BioWare Corp., a game developer in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, blended martial arts and digital arts in the action-RPG Xbox title Jade Empire, for Microsoft Xbox console. Jade Empire unfolds in an ancient, mysterious world based on mythical China, as a player assumes the role of a young warrior training under the watchful eye of a master while learning powerful martial arts skills and mystical powers. Once BioWare approved a final concept for the characters, the art team began building the models by hand in Autodesk Media and Entertainment's 3ds Max. Meanwhile, the group hired actors and actresses whose likenesses would correspond to all the major characters. The team originally designed Zu as a portly, good-natured, optimistic monk whose diplomacy skills would enable him to assist the player as a Follower. Each character has a custom voice set, unique appearance, and a combination of fighting styles. To deal with the sheer number of files and to get the best acting possible from the game's characters, the team created an automated system to generate its lip synchronization and another for its facial animation data. INSET: Myth Versus Reality.