Gaming powerhouse Electronic Arts (EA) has purchased an 86-camera Vicon MX 40 motion capture system. EA is one of the most prolific users of motion capture content, and has been employing MoCap techniques as part of its game development pipeline for more than 10 years.
After evaluating different motion capture solutions on which to base the companys future motion capture workflow, EA selected Vicon MX 40 for its unprecedented 4 mega-pixel grey-scale camera resolution, its highly flexible and automatable post-production toolset and the resulting ability to produce immense volumes of high fidelity data quickly and efficiently.
EA is a force in game development and publishing with more than $3 billion in annual revenue and 6,100 employees. EAs in-house motion capture stage is located in a brand new, state of the art studio in Vancouver, Canada. The new Vicon MX 40 rig will provide a new level of capture detail, along with simultaneous full body and facial capture from a single or multiple actor performance for game production for all current and forthcoming gaming consoles, including Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
As a creative technology developer, it is your customers and what they achieve that drives you to excel. We couldnt imagine a more stellar new client in this space than EA, said Robin Pengelly, business development manager, Vicon. We designed the Vicon MX 40 systems to meet the stringent performance demands of our entertainment industry clients. EA truly sets the pace for innovation in gaming.
Motion capture solutions from Vicon include high-resolution, high-frame-rate cameras built by Vicon specifically for motion tracking. Vicons next-generation Vicon MX realtime optical motion capture systems usher in ultra-high-resolution, true gray scale processing, virtually artifact-free capture with Vicon MX 40, the worlds first four-million-pixel gray scale motion capture camera. Vicon MX dramatically raises the quality, flexibility and ease with which motion capture data can be applied to real-time and off-line applications in film, television, video games, virtual prototyping, biomechanical analysis and more.
Vicon Motion Systems (www.vicon.com) is a subsidiary of OMG plc with global headquarters in Oxford, U.K., and U.S. headquarters in Lake Forest, CA. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images.
Electronic Arts Inc. (www.ea.com), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
