FaceWare MoCap Visits Escape Studios

Jess Hiles tests out theFaceware Mark IV helmet system

Last week we had the pleasure of a studio visit from motion capture experts Faceware.  Faceware are specialists in Facial Motion Capture technology, widely used in Games, Films, TV, Commercials, and live performances. Their clients include Rockstar, EA Games, Kojima, Disney, and DreamWorks. 

Faceware provided us with an overview of the Facial MoCap workflow and their latest tech, including the cutting-edge Mark IV helmet system.

"End of The Line" MoCap Breakdown

Above is a breakdown video above for some of the shots animated by the award-winning animator and director Eren Arnold on the short MoCap project End of The Line.  The original MoCap acting was done by Lead Animator Wiktor Brodowski.  End of The Line was directed by Eren Arnold, and has already won "best Sci-Fi" at the Future of Film Awards.  To see End of The Line, follow this link. 

MoCap at Escape Studios with Clem Gharini

Wiktor Brodowski MoCap

This week our third year animation students have been experimenting with motion capture, led by Escape Studios cinematographer and MoCap expert Clem Gharini, operating the XSens Motion Capture System. 

Wiktor Brodowski (left) was acting out scenes from his new short film,  a third year Studio Project in which our students work together to create studio-quality work.

Once the acting performance is captured, the XSens data is edited and retargeted onto the production rigs, animated and cleaned up in Autodesk Maya. 

Wiktor described the experience as "an amazing opportunity to participate in mocap recordings for my current uni project. I have never "animated" so much so fast in my life.  Lots of fun! Really awesome to try this technique. Probably will be lots to fix about it anyway, but I'm eager to see how it looks in Maya".

Motion Capture Animation Tutorials at Vimeo

Our Vimeo channel offers our students online learning to supplement our classroom tuition.

We now have a series of videos on Motion Capture, and how it can be used to benefit our animation students.

Our online tutorials are intended to complement our classroom studies, allowing students at Escape Studios to recap, or catch up on work they missed, while following a tutorial in their own time. 

Our tutorials include how to animate with MoCap and how to re-target MoCap data. 

Konrad Peczkowicz MoCap Artist at ILM

Konrad Peczkowicz

Congratulations to Escapee Konrad Peczkowicz who has recently started a new position as a Junior Facial Capture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic.  Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, increasingly embedded into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

At Escape Studios, Konrad Peczkowicz was the lead animator on the award-winning short film "Slushy", and also contributed to other award-winning film projects. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX and also software development.  Konrad will be using ILM's own proprietary software for facial capture animation.