Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) hosts the inaugural Motion Capture Performance Workshop at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. The actors participating gained invaluable knowledge and cutting-edge acting skills necessary to perform in a motion capture environment. The two-day workshop – the only one of its kind originating in the United States – was produced by the College of the Arts Office of Educational Outreach and hosted by the School of Film, Media & Theatre and the CMII. Leaders of the workshop included Mary Emily O’Bradovich, professional actor with People Store and academic professional at Georgia State focusing on movement and acting, James C. Martin, professor of practice at Georgia State teaching virtual reality (VR) production and VR/AR Asset Creation, and Michelle Ladd, motion capture director, fight director and stunt performer with RE:Action Stunts and Broad-Motion Entertainment.
Motion Capture Acting Workshop Video Wrap-up
The actors were given direction on motion capture acting that included sessions on honing their acting while being exposed to realtime production and live capture using Reallusion iClone, Motion Live and the Xsens Awinda motion capture suits. Actors broke out of their acting classes and into the studio to get in the Xsens suits and start capturing their performances with live witness monitors to allow them to see their capture on the 3D characters while they perform. Actors were given individual capture and dual capture sessions to practice capturing interactivity between two characters. Following the two-day workshop actors were provided with their performances on USB drives rendered and ready for inclusion in their demo reels featuring work in a professional studio. Along with the mocap demo reels, actors also left with real-world knowledge and experience of what it takes to be a motion capture actor and with the booming film and TV productions ongoing within Georgia, acquiring this skill can help them get more auditions.
Videos of Select Actor Performances from the Mocap Workshop
“15 actors, learning mocap techniques and developing a scene with character interaction…in 2 days. Go! What tools did we turn to, to accomplish this? The iClone real-time animation pipeline, utilizing Character Creator for our avatar generation, Motion Live plugin accompanied with the XSens profile for full body mocap, with actors and actresses suited up in 2 XSens Awindas. Realtime avatar personification allowed performers to quickly and effectively take the perspective of the character rigs and learn to provide VFX animators and motion capture technicians more precise motion takes. After gaining the knowledge needed to properly calibrate in XSens MVN Studio Pro, their individual body types were tracked in real-time and broadcast via data stream directly into iClone. This makes my job as Mocap Supervisor more collaborative and offers an on stage solution bridging the artwork to the artist motion and instantly to the technical artists at the brain bar. VFX Sups, EPs and Directors can have direct and effective input on what the performance should be, saving time and money in the long run.
Actors and actresses in attendance were provided with 2 demo reel elements in a fully rendered video format, showcasing their “Idle” motions in a single performance, with a witness camera side-by-side composition. Also, for a second addition to their personal demo reels, they received the dual capture performance of the scene they developed in the stage-acting portion of the workshop. This was accompanied with virtual set design, custom lighting scenarios and camera work in a fully animated iClone project. Whether they chose to be an Alien or an Alligator, 15 new motion capture Actors and Actresses were the end result of the Motion Capture Performance Workshop thanks to the Reallusion ecosystem of tools and the iClone pipeline.”
– James Martin, CMII, GSU professor of practice
For information on upcoming workshops, visit the Georgia State University Office of Educational Outreach at https://thearts.gsu.edu/educational-outreach/mocap/ or CMII at https://cmii.gsu.edu/