Steve Lall Teaches Performance Capture

Steve Lall teaches MoCap at Escape Studios

Our Second year animation students are back at Escape Studios, and are now tackling their Animation Specialism module.

In this module we bring a variety of tutors in to the classroom to explore different parts of the animation pipeline.

Today and tomorrow our students will get a masterclass in Performance Capture animation, taught by our very own Studio Assistant Steven Lall.

Performance Capture, aka Motion Capture, aka "MoCap", is a growing part of the animation industry. It's something our students need to be able to work with effectively, as many animation studios - and especially games studios - rely heavily on MoCap for their animation pipeline.




MoCap with Norman
Steve will demonstrate to our students how to use MoCap data, carefully cleaning up the original curves but, at the same time, not losing the essence of the original performance.

Watch the video above, and you can see how Steve has used After Effects to create a "B panel" in the top right hand corner, showing what the original raw MoCap data looked like, in this case re-targeted onto the free Norman rig.

The advantage of this approach is that it shows the animator's work process - any potential recruiter can see for themselves the original performance, and also understand what Steve has done with it to improve the animation and bring it to life.

As Steve put it: “Performance Capture is a really exciting area for animators to explore. Mocap is often used in Films and Games, and although Mocap can seem like it replaces a lot of the traditional animation technique, it's a process that's fascinating and fun.”


Above is some MoCap work by 2nd year animator Sebastian Kuder, completed in Steve's 2018 class.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link.  To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here.  For the next 12 week animation course, click here. And to apply for the next evening class in Producing Animation, see this page.