Week #12

Blog post # 12 - The Art of Motion-Capture (Batman: Arkham Origins)

Most of you have seen how "new" motion-capture technology has helped to create worlds like in James Cameron's AVATAR (2009)  or even as recently with Bruce Banner / the Incredible Hulk in 2012 with Marvel's the AVENGERS. Motion-Capture allows the production team of a film set up and recreate human--like fluidity and movement which transfers to CGI. Instead of animators having to create these movements and actions themselves, motion-capture technology gives the animators a frame with which to work from that creates photo-realistic images on the computer from an actor's movements or facial expressions. With a reference camera, a 3D-camera, and a motion-capture camera, the actors (in suits fixed with dots on major points to transfer information back to a computer) can actually act out scenes without makeup or costume or set, and yet still be in the movie. The game Batman: Arkham Origins is the 3rd installment of the "Arkham" series of Batman games. The first two games were made by Rocksteady, a video game company. Although easily one of the most critically acclaimed video game series of their respective years, a new company stepped in to create the newest one. Warner Brothers Montreal decided to use motion capture technology to really step up the graphics in this game to set it apart from the first two, and I could tell the change in fluidity of the characters while playing the game first-hand. This video shows how motion-capture was used in the making of the game, and shows how well the final product came out. I absolutely love this game, and can't wait to be animating future Batman games one day.