MOCAP; You’ve heard the term, played the games, watched the films and trailers and for some reason, STILL can’t get that commercial out of your head. But what really goes on behind the scenes and what does it take to put a motion capture masterpiece together?
Part 1 of our Behind the Scenes look at the processes involved in the mocap biz.
Written by Phil Elliott
Publisher, GamesIndustry.biz
While motion capture technology has generally been regarded as a luxury reserved for the bigger budget games, there’s no reason why the animation technique can’t be incorporated into smaller games – and at some point in the future it could well be used in iOS or browser-based games.
That’s the view of Audiomotion MD Mick Morris, who told GamesIndustry.biz that he’d like to be able to offer more of the company’s services to indie studios and start-ups.
“We’ve positioned ourselves – although niche – as working on the big budget titles, like Brink, Killzone, F1 and so on,” he said. “They’re all big titles that are using our services, and that’s ongoing, but it is a slight worry to see the smaller developers being pushed out.
“You’ve got casual and iOS coming up from the bottom, and I think you could detect this at GDC – the youngsters are full of enthusiasm, and they see the bold, new frontiers. Whether that’s a hint of naivete about how hard it is to create money-making titles, who knows?
“But there’s a lot of enthusiasm from indie and small teams, with some uncertainty in the middle. And then there are the big players at the top who are as bullish as ever, and they’re working on franchises anyway.”
Specifically Morris has seen a strata of the games industry – the segment that some would label ‘double-A’ – decline and while he’s happy that the company is currently “as busy as ever,” he’d like to see more diversification.
“I guess the other worry is that the industry’s always been a bit risk-averse – and I think it’s going to carry on being risk-averse,” he said. “A $20 million title is a big risk now – we know it’s a hit-driven business.
“So we’d like to see more start-ups, we’d like to be able to see the indie guys having more success, and if there’s anything we can do to help there, we will. We’ve done it in the past – we’ve had enquiries from little teams who don’t have money for a full-blown motion capture, but can we help them out?
“Once we’ve qualified that and seen that they’re not bulls***ting – that they’re passionate and really do need a bit of a hand, then we’ll step up and do that. We’re just wondering now whether that’s something we should be doing more of.
“We always find ourselves with one or two days in the month where the studio’s empty, so why don’t we use that time and give the young indies – or companies who thought in the past that they couldn’t afford mo-cap, or thought it was beyond their reach – time in the studio. Maybe it’s a little intro to the game, or help polish the animation… but giving something back in that respect.”
And, he added, the perception of motion-capture being too expensive for smaller games will change, following work the company completed for one iOS game from Natural Motion.
“It’s not going to be too long before iOS developers are saying they should be using motion capture, that upping the quality of their character animation is doable,” he explained. “And likewise I think it’s going to be doable for browser-based titles as well.”
Audiomotion has worked on a long list of key titles and films in the past, most recently Killzone 3 and the Dead Island trailer.
In preparation for 2011 Masters Golf Tournament next week in Augusta Georgia, we revisit our golf mocap session featuring poster boy, Rory McIlroy for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
We caddied our mocap system to Celtic Manor, home to the 2010 Ryder Cup, for an exclusive mocap session with the golf star and EA Sports.
Donning our infamous lycra mocap suit and Audiomotion cap, Rory set to work demonstrating his world class technique – from practice swing to ball address, swing and follow-through.
EA Sports caught up with Rory after the shoot for a quick interview…
Having just received a Game BAFTA award for the Best Family Game, we salute Rare’s Kinect Sports by celebrating the mocap stars behind the motion. From Table Tennis, to Boxing, Bowling, Volley Ball, Football and Athletics, we’ve captured just about every discipline imaginable and we couldn’t have done it without our mocap stars – the very best in young British talent – all upcoming and recognised international sportsmen within their field.
Early last year, Andrew Baggaley, Olympic Ambassador, a two-time Commonwealth champion and triple national champion took time out of his training schedule to let us motion capture his movements for the game. Rare, the developers behind the game, caught up with the young champion to find out what it was like starring in Kinect Sports and how his plans for the future are shaping up.
Games have received a lot of flack in the recent press so it’s refreshing to hear British Prime Minister, David Cameron, praising the charity SpecialEffect for its efforts to make videogames and technology more accessible to those with disabilities.
Since 2008, the Oxfordshire based charity have been running a loan library, making specialised games technology accessible across the country. SpecialEffect Director, Dr. Mick Donegan, his volunteers and supporters work tirelessly to promote their work and help disadvantaged young adults and children by adapting, developing, modifying cutting edge technology.
