The theory of motion capture is quite simple: an actor puts on a full body suit with reflective markers on all limbs. Several cameras in the room track these markers and relay their coordinates to a computer, yielding a perfecly accurate digital representation of the actors movement. This representation – a “bone rig” – is then dressed up in 3D-application software like 3D Studio Max, Motion Builder to make the actor look like whatever we want. This is a huge time saver and yields significantly more realistic motions than animation done by hand.
GAME’s motion capture studio covers 35m² and is theoretically capable of tracking any number of actors and props simultaneously! Here’s some photos from when Andreas Wahlman (our in-house mocap expert) first tried out multi-capping in our studio. First year students Ragnar, Jonas and Stina volunteered to assist with the swinging of swords, throwing punches and pushing each other off high cliffs. 🙂