Beyond: Two Souls. Coming soon

Artec scanners have helped to create surprisingly realistic models of the main characters of the new game for PS3 "Beyond: Two Souls", which should appear for sale in 2013.

Since December 2010, French company SolideXpress, which specializes in prototyping and 3D scanning, along with the studios of Quantic Dream and Sony Computer Entertainment, have been working on a new game for PS3 called Beyond: Two Souls, expected to go on sale in 2013. In many respects the game is unique. For the first time, the name of the principal actress – Ellen Page, who played in such films as “Juno” and “X-Men 3” – appears on the game posters just like on the poster of any Hollywood blockbuster. This isn’t the first time famous actors have participated in the creation of a computer game, but never before have their names appeared on the posters.

Image courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment

Besides Ellen, several other well-known actors are in the game, including Willem Dafoe, known for his role as a villain in “Spiderman”, Kadeem Hardison, whom we know from the series “Different World”, and Eric Winter, who played in the comedy “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” But the most amazing thing is that the actors in the game look just like they do in real life. After watching the trailer for “Beyond: Two Souls”, you can’t shake the feeling that what is happening on the screen isn’t a game, but a real horror film, the actors and their actions look so realistic. And it’s particularly noteworthy that the trailer shows real moments of gameplay, not a specially created 3D video clip.

Such realism has become possible thanks to the development of motion capture technology, the power of which we were able to feel for the first time in the film “Avatar”, as well as the technology of 3D scanning. The company SolideXpress has long been a client of Artec and uses the Artec MH scanners in its work. It is the 3D scanners that made it possible to create higher-quality models of the actors more quickly. Previously, the studio Quantic Dream used photogrammetic scans to create models of faces, which was quite time-consuming. Now they obtain much better results in much less time.

You can say that we are witnessing a truly unique event – the computer games industry is gradually merging with the film industry. Soon such games will be quite common, and Artec 3D scanners are playing a significant role in the process.

Here you can watch a short video clip about the process of creating games and an interview with the heroine and the head of Quantic Dream.