No. The character models in MK9 were really well done. I don't care much for a lot of the designs, but the detail in the faces and animation is great. I don't think there would really be much to gain from going back to the MK4 days of slapping real facial textures on a model.

However, it might be interesting if they did the kind of work that was done in Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire, where they based the faces off the actors doing the motion capture and acting. Perhaps that's what you meant and I missed the point.

Eh, the facial animations looked good, but the faces didn't really have any personality, and a lot of them had many of the same characteristics from being modeled by the same person or team. I wasn't being specific in terms of who the models were made after, be it the actors or someone who they think's face fits the role. I'm on a different side than you though, because I think the faces in MK9 looked really cartoonish and bad.

I don't think that digitized actors/actressess are necessarily a bad thing if they are to the quality of MK1. The authenic feel that the original game had set a benchmark for other games. On the flip side though, I really appreciate the animation work and graphics of MK9. The animations were as close to Tekken as you could get, which I consider about the highest quality you can get in terms of video games. I think whatever method that would allow the most detailed animations in terms of specialty moves, fighting mechanics and realism of the overall game should be implemented.

I'll say that again, I think the animation and graphics method employed should be the ones that would allow the best visuals in terms of specialty moves for the characters in the game, the closest details in terms of fighting mechanics, and realism for the overall game.

I'd definitely say they need to base the characters' faces off of a specific person (which they sort of seemed to do with a few VAs.)

I remember laughing at a tournament stream when the commentators asked why every male has the same nose in the game (at least in versus poses.)
I thought the facial animations were pretty good.

On second thought, I think that although the digitized actors wouldn't be a bad thing. I think that the animation work that MK9 would give the developers a means to expand on the creativity development of the different characters in the game for the following reasons...

- A actor can implement moves for different characters that wouldn't be traceable to the same actor. For example, a character who does muay tai or a certain displine of fighting can implement a series of moves without be linked back to the same actor as opposed to a character who is digitized would be more easily spotted for the physical appearance unless playing a character who had a covered up appearance such as a ninja like character.

- The animations and graphics would match more close the animations of the characters. When using digitized graphics with actual actors, the animations run the risk of not matching or seeming unrealistic the realistic aspect of using real actors in the game.

- You also limit the plane of your creativity when only using digital cues from the actors as opposed to animations, where you can add on various theatrics and graphics that wouldn't neccesarily could capture into the digital frontier.

- Working with animation artists and a team of graphic developers can expand the horizions on what you can revamp in terms of backgrounds, characters, fighting mechanics, theatrics, music, features, animations, and other aspects of the game.

So overall, I think the developers should utilize the animations of MK9 and the fighting engine that MK9 had with maybe just tweaking the fighting mechanics of the fighters and expanding the specialty moves in terms of their gameplay and insertion of new characters, their development, backstories and personalities.

I agree that the faces in MK9 were less than realistic. I mean, Liu Kang's jaw is absolutely awful, I'm sorry. I think that it's important to base faces on real people, especially in 3d, because it's damn hard to make ultra-detailed faces from absolutely nothing. Like someone else mentioned, just look at the noses.

I also think that they need a female motion capture martial artist. It's less evident in MK9 than it was in, say, MKDA, but it's clearly a male skeleton under the female meshes, and it looks extremely awkward. That and almost all of the characters are the same size/height/musculature.

I personally loved the photo-texture-scanning from MK4 and other games of that generation, to be honest. Obviously I don't know how that translates nowadays, but Mime's pictures from LA Noir are fabulous.

To follow up on that point, I think it would a great if they used digitized actors and actresses for the motion capture on each of the characters' biographies and "Choose Your Fighter" and "Vs." Screens. In that sense, I think MK would give a greater sense of realism conveying and emphasizing the details in each other characters especially when a video game player who might be new the franchise and overall game might form an opinion on their first impression of the character.

I think the character models are getting more realistic./appropriate for the MK genre, to the point that digitized actors won't really be necessary anymore. Creating good costumes, finding and actor who looks the part, and actually capturing the movements seems like a lot of work.

However, I wouldn't mind if the character models were tweaked a bit. Different characters could have different sizes, proportions (although it shouldn't be overdone), muscle mass, ect. In MK9 I saw a little variation, but for the most part they all seemed pretty similar.

It's just my own personal hunch, but I don't think that we'll see another MK game this generation. So if you're talking about next gen MK, then it's hard to say how much real actors/actresses will be needed. If you look at NM's scans of LA Noire, image what the graphical quality of the next generation will be. Will facial mapping even be remotely needed at that point?

I like Ninja_Mime's suggestion of modeling the faces after actors like in Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire. I was actually going to suggest something like that myself. It can help give the designers a better idea of how to model the different characters.