Vicon and House of Moves, the company's motion capture service division, announced the opening of a new 25,000-square foot facility in Los Angeles. The studio brings together House of Moves' motion capture production services with Vicons world-leading hardware and software development, product support and consulting to uniquely provide film, games and television customers end-to-end motion capture resources and services under one roof.
Located at 5419 McConnell Ave. in Marina Del Rey, the facility offers multiple stages for real-time simultaneous full-body, hand and facial capture with Vicon MX40s, the state-of-the-art in motion capture cameras. Stage 1 measures 150 by 70 feet with a 25-foot ceiling and is designed for large-scale, high character count realtime capture. The stage is currently set up to provide a 45 by 35 foot capture volume and can be expanded beyond 100 by 50 feet for massive volume motion capture.
Stage 2 is of the same size and is being designed to record studio-quality audio during performance capture sessions, capturing face, finger and full-body motion of multiple actors simultaneously and at high resolution. Client confidentiality is completely maintained between the two main capture stages. In addition to the Vicon and House of Moves motion capture production services team, Vicon product developers and engineers are also on site, guaranteeing access to the very latest technology and industry knowledge.
"The stakes are higher than ever for the film, television and game industries, said Gary Roberts, vp of production for the Vicon Feature Unit and House of Moves. Motion capture is becoming a huge integral part of today's movies, game titles and commercials, all of which are demanding multiple actor, realtime pre-visualization and complete performance capture. Customers and prospects at the new studio will reap the benefits of a facility where manufacturing, development and production are steps away from each other and there is no such thing as a camera going down. Clients can work with a company that is completely professional in a studio that is built with production in mind."
The building offers an array of customer-focused amenities such as dedicated client areas, green room, client offices and workspaces, separate wardrobe rooms for talent, wireless and wired secure Internet access, complete kitchen and food preparation facilities, screening room and conference areas.
For customers interested in acquiring a Vicon system, the new facility provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate, use and test on a production scale prior to purchasing something other motion capture companies simply cannot provide. Added Jon Damush, vp/gm of Vicons entertainment division: "Potential customers will have the chance to capture data in a production environment and talk to production and development staff to better understand how Vicon solves their own production challenges. We are also able to offer our customers the ability to use our stage when their own capacity is exceeded."
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, California. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
