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Characters of Myst
The Myst series of adventure computer games deals with the events following the player's discovery of a mysterious book describing an island known as Myst. The book is no ordinary volume; it is a linking book, which serves as a portal to the world it describes. The player is transported to Myst Island and must unravel the world's puzzles in order to return home. Myst was a commercial and critical success upon release and spawned four sequels—Riven, Exile, Revelation and End of Ages— as well as several spinoffs and adaptations.
While the player, referred to as a Stranger, remains faceless and unnamed, Myst and its sequels introduce a variety of non-player characters. The inhabitants of Myst include the explorer Atrus, a writer of many linking books, and his wife Catherine and their children Sirrus and Achenar and Yeesha. Other characters introduced in the series include Gehn, Atrus' power-hungry father; Saavedro, a traumatized victim of Atrus' sons; and Esher, a member of an old civilization whose motives for helping the player are ambiguous.
The first Myst titles used pre-rendered graphics, and digitally inserted footage of live actors into the backgrounds. For Myst V: End of Ages, a different approach was taken: a special camera recorded actors' faces and mapped the video onto digital models. The characters of Myst have been generally praised in each installment. Reviewers found that the live action characters increased immersion, while the digital body language and spoken conviction in End of Ages endeared the characters to the player. Dissenting reviewers considered Myst's acting melodramatic and overwrought.
When the first game in the franchise, Myst, was created, all the characters were created from footage of live actors. The actors were filmed on a bluescreen, then added to the pre-rendered backgrounds via chroma key. Due to a limited amount of time and money, Myst's creators, Rand and Robyn Miller, took on roles in the game themselves.
The Ages of Myst were occasionally seen as lonely by players and reviewers. As a result, Cyan added more characters to the sequel, Riven. Villagers scurry away as the player approaches, and major characters such as Gehn and a rebel band known as the Moiety address the player and give or take items away from him or her. For the first time, Cyan directed the live action actors for Riven's scenes; the designers, including Richard Vander Wende, were apprehensive about how the characters would fit in the finished product. Rand Miller reprised the role of Atrus due to fan expectation, even though he hated acting.
Later Myst titles improved on the integration of live action sequences in the prerendered environments of the games. Myst III: Exile's developers filmed all the scenes using standard definition cameras, which producer Dan Irish looked back on as a mistake; by not using high definition video cameras, the video did not look crisp at high resolutions. For the next game, Myst IV: Revelation, Ubisoft allowed players to move the game camera and interact with the video while it was playing through the use of the ALIVE game engine.
Myst V: End of Ages was developed so that players could freely navigate Ages rendered in real time, which meant that the digital insertion of characters into the settings was not feasible. The models for End of Ages's characters were instead computer-generated. A special device was created that captured video of the actors' faces while they spoke their lines, as Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters. Motion capture was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff worried that the audio syncing for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results.
Atrus is the main non-player character in the Myst series, appearing in all five games of the main series; he also narrates the opening of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. He is a member of the ancient D'ni civilization, though his only D'ni inheritance is through his paternal grandfather. The D'ni perfected a craft known as the Art, which allowed them to create portals to other worlds known as Ages by writing a descriptive "linking book". After the fall of the D'ni civilization, Atrus' father, Gehn, teaches him the Art and Atrus creates many linking books, surpassing his father's skill in writing. Atrus comes to understand his father's power-hungry nature; as punishment for defying him, Gehn traps Atrus on K'veer, an island off of the main D'ni city, with a book leading to Gehn's Age of Riven as the only escape.
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Characters of Myst
The Myst series of adventure computer games deals with the events following the player's discovery of a mysterious book describing an island known as Myst. The book is no ordinary volume; it is a linking book, which serves as a portal to the world it describes. The player is transported to Myst Island and must unravel the world's puzzles in order to return home. Myst was a commercial and critical success upon release and spawned four sequels—Riven, Exile, Revelation and End of Ages— as well as several spinoffs and adaptations.
While the player, referred to as a Stranger, remains faceless and unnamed, Myst and its sequels introduce a variety of non-player characters. The inhabitants of Myst include the explorer Atrus, a writer of many linking books, and his wife Catherine and their children Sirrus and Achenar and Yeesha. Other characters introduced in the series include Gehn, Atrus' power-hungry father; Saavedro, a traumatized victim of Atrus' sons; and Esher, a member of an old civilization whose motives for helping the player are ambiguous.
The first Myst titles used pre-rendered graphics, and digitally inserted footage of live actors into the backgrounds. For Myst V: End of Ages, a different approach was taken: a special camera recorded actors' faces and mapped the video onto digital models. The characters of Myst have been generally praised in each installment. Reviewers found that the live action characters increased immersion, while the digital body language and spoken conviction in End of Ages endeared the characters to the player. Dissenting reviewers considered Myst's acting melodramatic and overwrought.
When the first game in the franchise, Myst, was created, all the characters were created from footage of live actors. The actors were filmed on a bluescreen, then added to the pre-rendered backgrounds via chroma key. Due to a limited amount of time and money, Myst's creators, Rand and Robyn Miller, took on roles in the game themselves.
The Ages of Myst were occasionally seen as lonely by players and reviewers. As a result, Cyan added more characters to the sequel, Riven. Villagers scurry away as the player approaches, and major characters such as Gehn and a rebel band known as the Moiety address the player and give or take items away from him or her. For the first time, Cyan directed the live action actors for Riven's scenes; the designers, including Richard Vander Wende, were apprehensive about how the characters would fit in the finished product. Rand Miller reprised the role of Atrus due to fan expectation, even though he hated acting.
Later Myst titles improved on the integration of live action sequences in the prerendered environments of the games. Myst III: Exile's developers filmed all the scenes using standard definition cameras, which producer Dan Irish looked back on as a mistake; by not using high definition video cameras, the video did not look crisp at high resolutions. For the next game, Myst IV: Revelation, Ubisoft allowed players to move the game camera and interact with the video while it was playing through the use of the ALIVE game engine.
Myst V: End of Ages was developed so that players could freely navigate Ages rendered in real time, which meant that the digital insertion of characters into the settings was not feasible. The models for End of Ages's characters were instead computer-generated. A special device was created that captured video of the actors' faces while they spoke their lines, as Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters. Motion capture was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff worried that the audio syncing for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results.
Atrus is the main non-player character in the Myst series, appearing in all five games of the main series; he also narrates the opening of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. He is a member of the ancient D'ni civilization, though his only D'ni inheritance is through his paternal grandfather. The D'ni perfected a craft known as the Art, which allowed them to create portals to other worlds known as Ages by writing a descriptive "linking book". After the fall of the D'ni civilization, Atrus' father, Gehn, teaches him the Art and Atrus creates many linking books, surpassing his father's skill in writing. Atrus comes to understand his father's power-hungry nature; as punishment for defying him, Gehn traps Atrus on K'veer, an island off of the main D'ni city, with a book leading to Gehn's Age of Riven as the only escape.