DevJournal – Playing with Motion Capture
As we continue to explore more ways to create better gameplay we tested out our Neuron motion capture suit on our favorite developer, Mike.
Mike getting suited up for motion capture
Suiting Up
Mike "Suiting up felt like a mix between dawning battle armor and being fitted for a dress. There were many adjustments to the suit I felt I could have performed myself, but my helpers took charge and handled everything. So, I kicked back allow the pampering to proceed."
Calibration
Mike "Once the suit was on and after a bit of trouble shooting, the suit needed to be calibrated, which was more than apparent due to my arm appearing to protrude from face on screen. Calibrating was surprisingly simple consisting of striking a few predefined positions including: T pose, A pose, squatting, and sitting."
Mike and Damon calibrating the Neuron motion capture suit
Testing, 1, 2, 3…
Mike "With everything ready to go, I began to play around with my now digitized skeleton performing dance moves, testing the limits of my flexibility, and recording a few animations for our upcoming game. Overall, wearing the suit was a great experience and I am excited to wear it again in the future."
Kevin "Our first experience with the mo-cap suit was pretty damned funny! When Mike was hooked in, it was really cool seeing the figure move right along with him. Then we tried having it drive our Goat character and… well… it appeared as though demon spawns of Hell were were possessing her! I say we leave it! 😜"
Damon "Testing out the motion capture was fun. None of us had much experience with full body motion capture. Our initial import tests looked… a bit scary. The motion capture had stretched the goat model to fit Mike’s bone structure. The result was like the goat version of Slender Man. Everything was stretched out to ridiculous levels. It was almost like Mike gutted the goat, stepped inside it, and was moving around like a mad man while wearing the stretched out goat corpse as a suit. On top of that, the quick test job on the rigging also meant things like the sides were stretched out to the arms, giving it a flying squirrel type of appearance. Funny, yet horrific."
