Motion Capture for the Arts

Motion Capture used to be – and still is, in some ways – a technique used primarily at the high end of the games and SFX industries. Whether its the success of the Wii, or simply the inevitable mainstreaming of new technologies, the possibilities for using motion capture aren’t just reserved for the biggest productions.
At least that was part of the message I got from a seminar I attended at Cambridge University on Friday, where a number of academics, artists and technologists had got together to play around with motion capture in a creative way. So what is motion capture? I think we’ve all seen pictures of people “wired up” and then their movements replicated on a computer – there’s something very “Tomorrow’s World” about it! The main purpose of it is to improve realism. So when you see a character like Andy Serkis’s “Gollum” in Lord of the Rings, the realism is partly a result of motion capture. New films and games will become ever more realistic as motion capture is used for capturing not just facial or hand movements but interaction between individuals. Ninja Theory’s game “Heavenly Sword” was one example that was given at the seminar.
For the arts, there’s clearly an interest in how “real time” motion capture can be utilised – allowing the perfromers in a show like “Monkey: Journey to the West” to interact “live” with lights, music, and computer images. Its that sort of “immersive” experience that we’ll see more of in the future.
Facilities such as Salford University’s Centre for Virtual Environments are key to enabling smaller companies and individuals to have access to high-end technologies. At the moment the global film and game industries will tend to go where there’s the best facilities and the best people such as Weta, in New Zealand, used by Peter Jackson in his movies. As New Media City comes to fruition, the production facilities it will need will be changing as we speak.
Outside of the games and film industries, I’d love to see more use of techniques that see interaction between “live” and “virtual” – experiments with blue screens and “Second Life” are one thing, but more importantly is using technology to make interactivity easier for the performers and producers.
If anyone’s doing anything in this field in Manchester, I’d be interested to hear about it.