Vicon has added several new games industry customers validating its position as the predominant provider of in-house motion capture systems and outside motion capture services for game development. More than 800 Vicon MX40 cameras have been installed since June of last year at leaders in the field ranging from Ubisoft and SQUARE ENIX to Electronic Arts. These companies expand a prestigious roster of Vicon games clients worldwide that already includes Epic Games, Microsoft Games, Midway Games, Quantic Dream, Sony Computer Ent. of America, Capcom, Konami, NAMCO, Nintendo, Sega and many others.
Vicon MX systems provide unprecedented accuracy, scalability, performance and ease of operation for capturing and directing simultaneous facial, hand and full-body performances of actors, athletes, stunt people, dancers, musicians and props in realtime. These systems, along with Vicon iQ software, are allowing games studios of all sizes and scopes to meet the needs for new realism in game cinematics and gameplay.
This year has been huge for Vicon in games, said Jon Damush, vp, Vicon Ent. Whether games customers are building their own in-house motion capture stages or tapping into the motion capture services and incredible 100-camera setup at Vicon's House of Moves Studio, everyone has gravitated toward the quality, ease of use and reliability that is Vicon MX. The process for capturing and producing 3D data has become efficient and streamlined with this technology while allowing the artists at the same time to focus on their trade: creating compelling content, not cleaning up MoCap data.
In the past, optical motion capture has always been associated with deep pocket mega-studios or productions with huge-sized teams, noted John Root, lead animator at iD Software. People to this day still seem to think it takes a swarm of highly skilled technicians scurrying about in white lab coats to yield decent motion capture data. Thats just not that case. In fact, motion capture, largely thanks to Vicon, has never been easier, cheaper, faster and of higher quality than it is at this very moment.
Eurocom Ent. Software, a leading U.K. indie game developer, is using Vicon MX for a variety of next-gen action/adventure and sports games: Weve been able to adopt our own Vicon MX system to meet the demands of next-generation consoles, added Tony Wills, Motion Capture manager, Eurocom. We are very pleased with the quality of the data and our productivity levels. In our first week of shooting, we captured over 1,700 motion capture clips!
In addition to strong system sales, Vicon saw the motion capture service business also booming this year in games, with House of Moves working with numerous customers to meet their custom specifications for motion capture recording and data delivery. Titles created with motion capture produced at House of Moves include GUITAR HERO for Harmonix Music Systems/Red Octane, which is nominated for two 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards, including Best Game.
Vicon has provided dedicated capture systems and support for games production for over a decade. In that time, the technology has gone from allowing single-person offline capture of 50 or so moves using a small number of cameras and markers to enabling multiple-person total performance capture for thousands of moves with hundreds of markers and cameras in real time. As new console development and the demands for ultra-real motion increase, Vicon continues to be dedicated to providing the most market-leading hardware and proven tools.
Vicon Motion Systems (www.vicon.com) is a subsidiary of OMG with global headquarters in Oxford, U.K., and U.S. headquarters in Lake Forest, California. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images. Since 1984, Vicon has been providing professionals with the latest tools to accurately capture the subtleties of three-dimensional human motion for research, medicine, sport, engineering, game development, broadcast and film.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
