Courtesy of ArtToday.

Sometimes our clients bring in a director or we direct. The directors have to somehow be conditioned to understand the limitations of motion-capture. For the talent, it helps if the person has a theatrical, athletic, comedic, mime sense, and sense of timing. Ideally, you want an imaginative person, somebody who can listen to direction, improvise and add something to it, and who ultimately turns themselves into that character. As a director, you don't always want the performer to be watching the character but you want to be able to let them see what they look like and you want to be able to play back a move for them so that there is a collaboration between the performer and the director. Better than the script is to provide the performer with a sound track so that they get a sense of the meter, attitude and where things change in time.

Keith Robinson
President, Modern Uprising Motion-Capture Studios

We rarely direct the talent, rather we consult with a client on directing. The best case scenario for us is to have a director who is familiar with motion-capture and who knows how to direct talent. We have a 16 camera real-time system which allows the data to be processed instantly. With this system, we can also output skeletal data and apply a model to it in a 3D animation package, thus, allowing the director and client to view the virtual performer while a performer is moving.

Good animators are actors too! Sometimes we use the animator as talent. In the last video game we captured, one of the animators was one of the characters, not only because of his talent, but because his body and movement matched the design of the character.

In video games or features, you are capturing the nuances of the performers' motion. There is no need for a performer to exaggerate unless that is called for. For example, we have had someone sit in a chair, and our motion-capture process picked up the subtle nuances from just the way the actor was breathing.

Mary Ann Daniel
Motion-capture and live-action actor

The design of the body, the structure of the body, the emotional context, the colors, everything about the character dictates tome how I should move. One of the most important components is to hear the timing of the voice-track and memorize it. As an actor, I have to go through each line and each inflection because that makes a difference in how the body responds. My background as a dancer, actress and musician informs how I hear the rhythm of the voice-over track and interpret its musicality. It's the same as phrasing in a dance.

A motion-capture actor has to marry what the voice-over talent has done and bring originality to it too. It's as if two actors create one character.

As a motion-capture performer it is helpful for me if the director has both a working knowledge of the actor's process and an understanding of the technical aspects of motion-capture.

Lorenzo Music
Voice-over talent for commercials and animation, including the voice of Garfield the Cat and Carlton the Doorman

There are basically two kinds of voice actors. Frank Welker is one of the prime examples of an actor who has the gift of being able to make many different sounds come out of his face, from machinery to people, to animals. I am the kind who can act many different characters using basically the same voice pattern sound and head tone -- whether it's playing any type of character. My musical ability has had an affect on my voice-over work. I was a folk singer in the `60s. I mostly direct myself unless someone directs me first. A creative director can pull things out of an actor that aren't in the natural read of an actor. Many times directors ask for something that they don't know how to identify. In that case, I try to intuit what they want to end up with. Even if the voice actor and director are not speaking the same language they need to speak the same ideas. There is a very easy way to direct voice-over actors for animation in my opinion. This is what I respond to: rather than giving motivation and history and all kinds of psychology, I say tell me you want it older, younger, faster, slower, smarter, dumber, softer, louder -- just the dualities. Ask for the affect. Don't talk about process. The actor is in charge of process. When it comes to directing a voice -- from my standpoint for a first time director -- let the actor read the piece, and if you want something different, ask for it in terms of dualities as the base. All the action and all the possibilities are within the dualities. If the subtext is not in the text then you can discuss it with the director.

Judy Lieff earned her M.F.A. in dance and experimental film/video from the California Institute of the Arts following a career as a professional dancer. She has performed as an animatronic character in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and as motion-capture figures for Raven Software and Sony's 989 Studios. Judy has taught "Movement for Animators" at CalArts, New York University, Royer Studios and Pratt Institute amongst others.