Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

February 26, 2009

The Long Island Business News has a feature on Perspectives Studio of Glen Cove, New York.

Described as "the largest 'motion capture' studio on the East Coast," Perspectives did the mocaps for Grand Theft Auto IV:

If you don’t know what motion capture, or “mocap,” is, then think of the Grand Theft Auto video game series, said Nelson, studio supervisor for Perspectives. The eerily lifelike movements in the phenomenally successful games... were shot at the Glen Cove studios.

The mocap process begins with actors and stunt people rehearsing scenes... including highly choreographed fights with guns, knives, whips and other objects... The real people are then dressed head to toe in what looks like Velcro wetsuits where silver markers, about the size of gumballs, are stuck to 53 locations on the suits...

40 cameras set along the studio walls at various heights record the action, picking up points of light from the markers attached to the suits. The movements are then mapped onto a digitized 3-D model, and a skeleton of every character and object in motion is created. Later physical features, clothes and backgrounds are filled in to create animated sequences.

Since Perspectives has an exclusive relationship with Rockstar for GTA games, naturally  we can't help but wonder whether the infamous Hot Coffee scenes were shot there...?

“We’ve done sex. Simulated, of course.”

Bingo!

Comments

Re: Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

What a country!

Re: Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

Nothing truly different from what the movie studios do....

Re: Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

Wow. 

I mean it makes sense that someone would have motion captured sex by now, but still...I hope they at least wash the mocap suit afterwards .

Re: Meet Rockstar's Motion Capture Studio

I'm sure they didn't go THAT realistic, Liekos. I'm sure it was at the level of what many movies do, probably equated to dry-grinding.

An interesting question though:

How awkward would that be, simulating sex with someone you work with? Haha.. Even worse, what happens if there weren't any Women availible to play that part? ><

Cold Coffee

In the article it doesn't necessary say that the sex scene was got GTA or for Rockstar for that matter. They say they also do commercials, movies, and movie trailers. Perspective Studios was founded in 2002 and San Andreas was published in 2004 (Meaning they Rockstar North probably worked on it from the time of Liberty City's release in 2002). It is possible that Rockstar would use a new motion capturing studio for a major game like San Andreas, but I kind of doubt it.

IMDB also has Alex Horton, as Navid Khonsari as the motion capturing directors for GTA:SA. They are not a part of Perspective Studios

So all in all, the quote was taken out of context and the author of the article didn't bother to check their facts.

The full quote is here:

“Almost every car you see in a commercial is 3-D animation,” Finestone said. “And that Burger King commercial, where the king hands someone a sandwich? The sandwich is mocap. That’s why when you go to Burger King it doesn’t look the same. It’s not perfect.”

Recently flats were constructed that rose off the studio floor stretching toward the ceiling. “It was for a mountain climbing sequence,” Nelson  said. “We’ve done sex. Simulated, of course.”

And those motorcycles? An Austrian company will send in a script, a director and actors and Perspectives will shoot a mocap of a chase scene. The executives in Austria will observe the whole process in real time via Webcam technology.

www.katamaridemocracy.com

 

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