What’s up, everyone!  In April we announced that skateboard icons Tom Asta, Tiago Lemos, Evan Smith, and Brandon Westgate would be playable pros at launch in Skater XL. We couldn’t be more excited to have some of the biggest names from this era of skateboarding involved in the game. 

While most people only see the finished product of the characters implemented in the game, there is a lot of work that goes into transforming a real life human into a digital one. That journey begins with photogrammetry.

The photogrammetry process involves taking shots of a person and clothing items on a rig of over 100 DSLR cameras which are then processed via several steps into three dimensional digital objects.

The 3D objects are then “skinned” to the underlying skeleton of the character, a process that involves telling all the points on the 3D object how to bend and move as the underlying bones of the character are animated. This makes sure joints, fingers, clothes, etc. all retain a realistic shape and volume throughout the range of motion of skating.

The outcome, as you can see in this video, creates an incredibly lifelike character, with super realistic skin, hair, and clothing textures that can bend and move around.

Check out this video and go behind the scenes of the photogrammetry process to learn a bit more about our pro characters. Check out Skater XL when it drops on Xbox One on July 28. Visit www.skaterxl.com for more information.