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".

Using Live Action to Create Great Animation at Vimeo

Edward Muybridge led the way in the 1850s

The Escape Studios Vimeo Tutorial Channel is our main hub for our animation and VFX video tutorials, making it easy for our students to find tutorials to support their classroom studies.  

One challenge for all of our animation students is how to use live action reference to create great animation - as well as MoCap animation. 

Below is a list of our animation tutorials showing how live action reference and MoCap can be the animator's best friend.

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. 

Steve Lall Teaches MoCap Tuesday 11 Jan

Motion Capture with Steven Lall

We're delighted to welcome back Escape Studios' Studio Assistant and occasional tutor Steven Lall, who will teach a class in Motion Capture Animation to our Second Year animation students at Escape Studios on Tuesday afternoon.  

Our second year students are tackling CR5001,  the Animation Specialism module, in which students begin to focus on one particular skillset within the animation pipeline.

Alma Best Short for Youth at Kinodiseea Fest

Alam Wins Short Film for Youth at Kinodiseea Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Alma", which has won an award in the category of International Competition of Short Films for Youth (15-18 years) at the Kinodiseea International Children Film Festival.

"Alma", is the first fully motion capture CG short film created at Escape Studios; it was directed by Rola Hafez and produced by Emmanouil "Manos" Zervoudakis, and has won many festival awards.  

Simone Costa MoCap Animator at ILM

Simone Costa

Many congratulations to Escapee Simone Costa who has joined Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as a Motion Capture Animator.  

Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, increasingly embedded into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

At Escape Studios, Simone contributed to four award-winning animated shorts: Kiwi's Dream, Malloe, Animal Lover and Nefertiti. 

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

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.  

Tendai Mande MoCap Artist at ILM

Many congratulations to Escapee Tendai Mande, 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. 

While at Escape Studios, Tendai contributed to the short animated film "Street Ratz", which has won multiple festival awards.  Tendai worked on the film as Editor, Second Director, and Lead Pipeline Supervisor. 

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

Piotr Noworyta Junior MoCap Animator at ILM

Piotr Noworyta

Many congratulations to Escapee Piotr Noworyta who has just started work as a junior facial capture artist at ILM. 

Piotr took our integrated MArt in the Art of 3D Animation, and has now joined one of the world's leading animation and visual effects houses, a global leader responsible for hits such as the Star Wars series and the ground-breaking dinosaur animation on Jurassic Park.

Piotr is now a facial capture animator at ILM.  Performance Capture is a growing part of the animation pipeline, of which we are doing more and more at Escape Studios. 

Amedeo Beretta Webinar on MoCap Animation

 
Escape Studios animation tutor Amedeo Beretta joined us on Tuesday for a brand new webinar on Motion Capture animation.  Amedeo's webinar explored the motion capture workflow, showing animators how to control animation when dealing with MoCap data in Autodesk Maya.  Of all our animation tutors at Escape Studios, Amedeo has the most experience of handling motion capture data, taking the process from start to finish so that our students have usable, editable data that can be refined and tweaked during the animation process.  

Shannon Martin Facial MoCap Artist at ILM

Shannon Martin

Many congratulations to Escapee Shannon Martin, 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, and one which we are increasingly embedding into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

While at Escape Studios, Shannon contributed to two successful student animated films: "Street Ratz", and "Home Sweet Home". Both films had successful festival runs and won multiple festival awards. 

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

Steve Lall is Back Teaching MoCap on 5th Jan

Motion Capture with Steven Lall

We're delighted to welcome back Escapee Steven Lall, who will teach a class in Motion Capture Animation to our Second Year animation students at Escape Studios, 

The second year students are tackling CR5001,  the Animation Specialism module, in which students begin to focus on one particular skillset within the animation pipeline.

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

On 5th and 7th January our students will get a masterclass in Performance Capture animation, taught by our very own Studio Assistant Steven Lall.

MoCap Comes to Escape Studios

Last week Motion Capture came to Escape Studios, as cinematographer and film-maker Clement Gharini tested out his new XSens MoCap suit on our student projects. We're delighted to be working with Clem  - the XSens system is one of the best on the market, and offers a user-friendly solution to the challenges of motion capture hardware.  MoCap expert and Escape Studios tutor Amedeo Beretta was on hand to process the data - a "soup to nuts" pipeline in which the MoCap performance was successfully captured and then re-targeted onto the students' animation rigs.

MoCap with Steve Lall on 14th January

Motion Capture with Steven Lall

Our Second Year animation students are back at Escape Studios, and will be soon be tackling their Animation Specialism module, in which students begin to focus on one particular aspect of the animation pipeline.

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

On 14th and 15th January our students will get a masterclass in Performance Capture animation, taught by our very own Studio Assistant Steven Lall.

MoCap Retargeting with Amedeo Beretta

We've uploaded a new tutorial video to our Vimeo Channel - MoCap Retargeting with Amedeo Beretta.

Amedeo explains in detail the process of how to take a MoCap performance and re-target it onto an animation rig, so that the animation curves can be tweaked and polished.

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.

You can find Amedeo's tutorial here. Like all our tutorials, it is password-protected, available for our current students and Escapees.

MoCap Tutorial at Vimeo by Steve Lall

Our very own studio assistant Steven Lall has recorded an excellent video tutorial demonstrating the use of motion capture in animation, showing animators how to take a character with motion capture data and clean it up to create polished animation.

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.

The tutorial uses the popular and dependable Norman rig, which can be downloaded free here. You can find the tutorial here.

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.

RADiCAL offers Escape Studios students FREE Account Upgrade for RADiCAL's MOCAP Smartphone App

Escape Studios have teamed up with RADiCAL, a new provider of smartphone driven motion capture, to give our students free Producer accounts.

You can find RADiCAL at https://getrad.co, where they offer users a new AI driven bipedal motion capture system that our students can now run from their Smartphones.