Life Through Motion

Using Motion Capture for Animations Kisetsu is a game focused on traversing the world through various means, with the aid of powers and abilities. Therefore, movement must look and feel immersive enough to the player in order for the game and characters come to life. Having access to the Vicon motion capture studio from our school, our team choose to utilize this technology to record and create the animations our main character, Sueko. We started with an asset list of all the animations that are needed for our game; then practiced and blocked out each animation with our actor, team artist Kaylee. Rehearsing the feel and intent of each animation before we began recording made her time in the suit more efficient Recording Day A skintight suit with small ball markers placed over the entire body that reflect infrared light back and forth between the cameras create the data of body and movements in the software.

I directed each animation, much like a stage director for a play or movie. After each recording, we reviewed the animation and discussed whether anything needed to be changed or tweaked in her performance . Having a team member as our actor made the most of their knowledge about the gameplay to support their performance. Kaylee, as Sueko’s concept artist, understood the player character’s personality which positively influenced her movement and acting.

Many of the animations in game will feature interaction with a game object, such as pushing a boulder or climbing up a ledge. Since we do not have those game objects in real-life, we needed to find other ways to get the desired effect with generic props that are invisible to the cameras.

For the ledge climbing we maximized the extension on a sit-to-stand desk. In a similar fashion, for the boulder push, I used my own body as the prop, which gave the recording the desired exertion and tension that you see from pushing and pulling a heavy object in real life. The motion capture truly breathed life into our game.

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Author: Andrew Hirl