VICON House of Moves, a motion capture service bureau and a division of VICON, the developer of Academy Award-winning motion capture systems, announced the company's most significant expansion to date.
VICON House of Moves (HOM) has just completed the build-out of a new soundproof motion capture sound stage for full body and facial capture that is capable of recording final audio simultaneous to performance capture. HOM has also expanded its staff with a team of 16 animators to deliver a complete slate of animation services to clients in games, film, television and multimedia.
"With these new services, House of Moves can truly help directors extend their storytelling capabilities. We have effectively mimicked the procedures of the traditional live-action set and tied them into the virtual world environment. We can replicate almost anything that can happen on a live action stage -- from the physical performance of the actors to the positioning of virtual cameras in real-time," said Scott Gagain, exec producer, VICON House of Moves. "Moreover, with the addition of our full-service animation team, we're more of a comprehensive creative resource for our clients than ever before."
The new HOM sound stage features a 30' X 50' full body capture volume designed with a rig that contracts down to a 30' X 30' volume size for tighter, detailed performance capture requirements. The stage is capable of supporting up to 20 performers at once and can be outfitted with up to 270 VICON motion capture cameras. This stage is fully enclosed, with all supporting CPUs housed in a soundproof, glass-encased room so that clean dialogue can be recorded without any interfering background noise.
In addition to the new stage, HOM also maintains a 40' X 70' X 25' high main stage, and can manage clients working on both stages simultaneously with or without first unit crews shooting alongside the motion capture cameras.
The new stage at VICON House of Moves has already been operating on test projects for game developer Naughty Dog Ent. and vfx company Zoic Studios. The stage and camera rig was designed by HOM's Head of Stage Production, Sean Stanek, formerly the motion capture producer on MONSTER HOUSE and BEOWULF at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
"Game and film clients alike can benefit from tackling both audio and performance recording simultaneously in one take, saving a lot of their production budget, especially when working with A-list sports and Hollywood talent. The stage is not only incredibly functional, but it also caters to the needs of directors and producers with a plush 'mission control' raised platform alcove for overseeing everything happening on stage in the most comfortable and effective way possible," explained Stanek.
An additional staff of 16 CG animators has also been added to deliver high quality, polished animated characters to clients -- whether said characters were conceived using mo-cap or more traditional keyframing approaches. The work of the animation team ranges from finalized cinematic animations to in-engine looping and blending and more.
The team is supervised by VICON HOM VP of production, Brian Rausch, "Oftentimes clients will want a more stylized keyframed look alongside of their mo-cap, while others may want re-targeted characters that build the power and dynamics back into high action moves that may have been impossible for the human actor to perform for safety reasons."
"Motion capture is a really valuable tool, however with the addition of keyframe animation and sound-stage quality audio we are really well equipped to provide a broad range of solutions to service our clients' specific project requirements," said Amy Calcote, Post Production Manager, VICON House of Moves.
