Embark Studios is updating how Celeste looks and sounds in ARC Raiders, bringing the character closer to the performance of Diana Gardner, who has voiced her since the project began.
In an Oct. 4 announcement, chief creative officer Stefan Strandberg said the studio is expanding how it captures Gardner’s performance. Celeste’s previous facial animation limited her expressiveness, making it harder to communicate the stakes of some story moments. The new process uses full motion capture, including more detailed facial capture, to map expressions and emotion. Read Embark’s official announcement.
When players will see the change
The first look arrives Oct. 6 in the Frozen Trail trailer. Strandberg says this is the first time ARC Raiders has used full motion capture, including the more detailed facial work. Celeste will then receive the update in-game when Frozen Trail launches Oct. 8. Embark says her revised face will look more like Gardner, with the character’s face and voice matching up for the first time.
More characters planned
Embark says it plans to bring more characters in line with their real-world actors in future updates and will continue improving its capture technology. The announcement doesn’t name the next characters or give a schedule for those changes.
For players, Oct. 6 is the cinematic preview; Oct. 8 is when the revised Celeste arrives in-game.