Audiomotion Studios deployed a record number of Vicon cameras to capture hundreds of stunt moves which were later transformed into thousands of zombies for Paramount Pictures' World War Z.
Oxford, UK -- Audiomotion Studios has revealed its involvement with the recently released World War Z from Paramount Pictures. Audiomotion has disclosed it deployed 160 of its Vicon cameras on location at Shepperton Studios, creating one of the world’s largest ever motion capture stages -- certainly the largest ever created in Europe. The 50’ x 85’ volume was used to capture hundreds of stunt moves which were later transformed by The Moving Picture Company and Cinesite into thousands of zombies.
Starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster, World War Z revolves around an ex-United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. The film also stars Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.
Mick Morris, managing director at Audiomotion Studios states: “Once the vast motion capture volume was in place, we set to work capturing the performance of the stunt crew, meeting the creative vision of the fluidity of the infected hordes - filling streets and alleys, swarming over vehicles, climbing and falling like a mass of insects. We then delivered the assets to MPC and Cinesite for the teams there to work their magic. The final shots look absolutely amazing.”
VFX producer Robin Saxen said, “World War Z required us to have humans move in an unnatural way. Mick and his team at Audiomotion helped us to compile a series of actions that allowed us to create that signature Z motion. It was a real pleasure to work with Audiomotion on World War Z.”
Adam Davis, global head of crowd simulation at MPC states, “Audiomotion was involved right from the beginning of the show, from early pre-production motion studies and test shoots, through to organizing the main shoot which was the largest capture volume that we have ever worked in. “For some of the moves on World War Z, we needed so much space that we ended up hiring out one of the largest stages at Shepperton Studios, where Audiomotion set up its systems using a significant number of cameras and creating a very impressive volume. The shoot itself turned out to be just as successful as we had hoped for: the volume was large enough to encompass the moves we needed, and the shoot went as smoothly as many of the sessions we have executed in the past.”
Audiomotion’s work on World War Z is the latest in a long line of world-class motion capture for major movie projects, including the Narnia series, the Titans series, the Harry Potter series, Golden Compass, The Watchmen and Gladiator. Audiomotion’s ongoing work in pushing the art of motion capture forward is helping to maintain the UK as an essential hub in the special effects industry.
With a state-of-the-art facility in Oxford, UK, Audiomotion provides HD-resolution capture data for every aspect of any physical performance. The company prides itself on continually developing and refining its techniques and technology to provide a true ‘state of the art’ service, and is looking to expand its facility in 2013, including opening a new, much larger capture volume that will allow for a huge increase in the scale and sophistication of capture sessions.
Source: Vicon
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
