How Motion Capture Works in Video Games

[@Glitchwick]

I like the concept that inside gaming now has videos about the inner workings of games. Looking forward to more!

[@rolandorivera2366]

Same bro

[@canyouplease]

Inside gaming really do be inside gaming 🔥

[@hito157]

indeed, truly inside gaming.

[@ItsJustMe0585]

As an animator for AAA games, I was ready to come down here and go nuts with corrections, but you nailed it! :) Great job explaining a relatively complex system in 5 min!

[@Evan_Campbell]

Holy crap. Thank you. I know I glossed over so much and the order of things a little bit might be off... and I know there is probably like 10 different software I could have mentioned but yeah originally this video was supposed to be two-ish minutes and it quickly turned into... "oh crap... how do I get this under 5?"

[@ItsJustMe0585]

@@Evan_Campbell Only thing I would have changed is that "fx" aren't done via mocap. Also, much of the editing we do is to fit the animation within given timing that is set by design (hit reaction timing and distance, hit frames/anticipation so you have a tell on that attack is about to happen, hit frames for consistency, between combos) Humans move a lot slower than you think. Most mocap is sped up anywhere between 30-60%. Trying to do that without losing the subtlety of motion is an art in itself. As for software, much of the initial clean-up is done in motion-builder by the tech-animstors, then we edit it in Maya (for most studios), and then do a final edit pass in-engine (time-scaling for upgrade mechanics, transitions between each animation clip, blending multiple animations together, camera, lighting and fx, all that good stuff).

[@ItsJustMe0585]

@@Evan_Campbell If you ever want to ask things about animation, tech-anim, or gameplay systems design when you make these videos, let me know how to reach out to you, and I'll be happy to answer whatever I can. I've got 15 years experience and am now a Sr Animator. I love content like this that teaches the masses about what we do. :). Cheers!

[@Evan_Campbell]

​@@ItsJustMe0585 i just might take you up on that. twitter is the best way to get at me usually (@darthburrit0). i have a few ideas I want to do for videos around debunking the "lazy devs" bs we always see.

[@waalter3356]

can i contact with you in insta or twitter please, have a few questions about animation in games

[@missitheachievementhuntres560]

I never thought about this and I’m not an actor, but it looks like a lot of fun to may play game scenes for motion capturing.

[@cabalura]

Love these type of videos, very informative! I think my favorite mocap performance will always be Gollum. Andy Serkis and the whole mocap team did a fantastic job.

[@lindvi0r]

I got so tired of not being able to watch movies on netflix so I came back to one of your videos KNOWING expressVPN would be the sponsor HAHA.

[@kernel2684]

Diehardman last scene in Death Stranding was probably the most intense motion capture I've seen in gaming to date.

[@joshk9226]

I remember they were talking about this in one of those RWBY behind the scenes, in which you can’t just slap a character model onto the mocap data, the animators have to make sure it still looks right. They said the hug scene in Volume 5 was pretty complicated cuz of the motion-tracker balls being blocked

[@ItsJustMe0585]

I work in game dev. Generally for romance scenes and such, our poor actors basically snuggle and spoon on hard tables to prevent that. Not very romantic in the middle of a giant room, with onlookers judging and directing your every move. Now with the advent of Xsens suits and the like, this is becoming less of a problem because the sensors do not need cameras. They don't have great of data output, unless you go crazy expensive and have prop joints, a ground markers (otherwise you have no sense of height being tracked), finger markers... And even then it's not super accurate. Nevertheless, our company has both. Xsens for specific situations, temporary prototype stand-ins, and super fast data capture, and traditional mocap for when you bring in stunt actors and NEED to get the best data on the first take.

[@joshk9226]

@@ItsJustMe0585 very informative!

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

This technology is older than a lot of people think. It was being used for movies way-back-when and even some 90s video games had it. Now Rockstar have apparently patented some system based on machine learning, which seems to reduce time spent doing mo-cap because the engine is able to predict what comes next and is able to adjust the skeleton without anything needing to be recorded. It cuts down on a huge amount of studio time and makes everything so much more flexible because you don't need to record every single scene and movement. At least I think that's what's happening. I haven't actually read the patent but I'm led to believe it's something of that bent.

[@redsyn]

Woah! Ethan looks way different with his hair cut short. It's like him & Brian exchanged hair styles.

[@MrYoursomesanta]

I miss having up to date new gaming news

[@BILLIB1993]

Maaan if only these videos were out daily, that'd be amazing ❤️

[@yukimoniwa1]

No detroit become human footage? That was a beautiful piece of work

[@cinnahum]

Loving these vids of how things work in video games. Awesome work folks. Looking forward to more of these

[@Evan_Campbell]

thanks

[@yotatta]

Just a note: IMU means Inertial Measurement Unit, not ‘internal measurement unit’. More precisely it should be told that it is a IMMS that is Inertial and Magnetic Measurement Unit since MoCap suits usually incorporate magnetometer technology which is does not work as inertial.

[@juicewarrior2501]

Thank you for such great information.

[@jgon12]

I really loved that scene with behind the scenes on the new resident evil where the little puppet is act by a women and she is so cute and makes the movements of the puppet so good

[@mangacraz00]

The behind the scenes on RE Village is so cool. I’m so so glad they released the behind the scenes. I definitely understood a lot more about how the game was made.

[@Evan_Campbell]

I originally had a much longer clip of that scene cause the performer nailed those doll movements for sure but it didn't fit as well with the explanation right there. I probably watched it like 20 times though.

[@WunderWulfe]

there is also motion capture for VR that should be mentioned as well as how affordable it could be nowadays to record motion capture live with VR equipment and body trackers and even simulate the environment around the actor wirelessly

[@Max86421]

Nice! Motion Capture technology improving... 💯%

[@BigSteve1997]

As someone going to school for animation this is very helpful

[@ZackRToler]

I think the first time I saw mocap acting was in some clips in Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition back in the PS2 days

[@MurCurieux]

This channel always captures my attention… I’m sorry I had to.

[@Zack_Wester]

depending how the quality of the recording and how much after work you want to do. just getting some Xbox 360 Motion capture (kinect) cameras putting them on a some chairs or step ladders or anything appropriated in a room and you got yourself a full motion capture studio. or just a heck of regular web cameras as long as it got a okey resulution I think you could get away whit like 640 or 800pix as long as the space to act on was not larger then 2x2x2 meter or so. sure there was a lot of work afterwards but if your on a shoe string budget that will work (note we could get the cameras for like 1-2USD each by scrounging second hand store and the bargin bins everywhere plus what ever junk you had back home (from a group of 10 odds are that you almost had enough cameras just from bringing your own). sure you probably spent like a hour each day just getting that darn thing to recalibrate whit the measuring stick every time you wanted to use it.

[@fluffy_preacher]

Would love to see some of this with resident evil village

[@yumri4]

They most likely did use for the vampire mommy boss and the normal libraries based off of the extending back in time files made from mo cap back then which is still used now for the rest of them. The hard part most likely was when the bosses got 4 or 5 moving parts that they only seemed to be moving what a human could. That is a downside to motion capture with humans. You only can capture what the subject can do.

[@Evan_Campbell]

@@yumri4 actually i found a GDC talk for animations in that game Dauntless and that guy was saying he mapped human motion capture to the beasts in there by targeting muscle groups or something. I didn't have time to watch it all but it seemed like he was using part of the human capture for reference and then manipulating the data somehow to get good keys for the monsters.

[@yumri4]

@@Evan_Campbell Really besides for her all the others moved like the enemies did in other games. So i feel sorry for the guy who tried to make it different. Maybe this studio didn't have access to the same libary of files as the Warner Brothers did as their monster in the lord of the rings shadow of war and mordor games moved about the same. Comparing them together RE8 and the lord of the rings series Resident evil 8 had slightly better movement for the bosses while more generic for the rest of them.

[@WHaaaTT]

Some People think that When Motion is captured all the work is done the animation is done 🤦‍♂️😂

[@pixelslinge682]

I have a question in an interview Lady Dimitrescus VA said that they couldn't put the lipstick close to her face because it would mess with the recording would this happen to all Motion Capture or just the ones used by RE8

[@TheCreepypro]

motion capture in video games has always impressed me everything else not so much but they are getting there....

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Move like this pls. Very interested in how games are made.

[@ThisHandleIsInteresting]

Are vo’s captured separately?

[@dungeonquesting8075]

Pretty informative

[@the_solo_ghost_]

I still want to do this.

[@hzjake]

I dare! I double dare anyone to mention them as VOICE ACTORS again.

[@JeskidoYT]

Imagine if all next gen games had motion capture. All of them

[@yumri4]

Well most big budget games already use premade libraries of mocap files. That in part is the reason why you still keep clipping and unnormal movements in games as the library file was made using a different mesh. Not all characters have the same mesh for their body so the file has to be modified a little which has lead to bugs happening. This is also why everything is loaded in a T-pose position before it goes into the pose the player sees. The reason why all of them don't make new animations every time is like why sounds are not reproduced every time nor are texture files reproduced every time. It would cost more to entirely remake the entire supporting asset files than to reuse what is already there. This is also part of why it takes so long to get the newer tech in games. We already have shadow maps which look almost real to the point that unless you are looking for it in games that care about shadows they are about the same always from ray tracing shadows and ray tracing lights on to ray tracing shadows and ray tracing lights off. Yes in most engines you do have to change the lighting to get not ray tracing to look right. To this the 3D modelers for lighting have worked a lot to get the lighting to look real while not using it for ray tracing but using it to calculate premade map textures on other objects. The part of mocap that is hard with no motion capture things is how indie content can look the same as Triple A content now so Triple A studios have to work at it harder which leads to the part of having or dots on the people who do the motion capture and making no libaries for motion capture to out do the HTC VIVE and other software used for face tracing software. less money about the same result.

[@JeskidoYT]

@@yumri4 okay let's go back to non-mocap games then

[@Lobos222]

Yet writing good stories which only needs a pen and paper tech seems too hard for some gaming companies. /sarcasm

[@forkmasterderp919]

Disappointing lack of footage of Melina Jurgens and ninja theory, who are on the cutting edge of video game Mocap

[@Evan_Campbell]

yeah. i should have put more in for sure.

[@jfbrizzy6682]

That explains why Everything looks so realistic these days

[@gavansimkin5685]

#InsideGaming What? Was the very first Game to ever use MoCap in it?

[@HeyyItsNick]

Finally, something about about inside gaming and not a bunch of frat boys with air horns attempting to crack jokes while telling “news”

[@Grace-g8k2x]

Here bc of "The Real Kenshi Reacts to Mortal Kombat 1"

[@redsands1001]

Weird. Was just thinking about bts videos for hellblade

[@conkyvsricki4710]

wow someone isn't so shaggy lately.

[@SuperMan-gb3zp]

I don’t get it. Looks hard to understand.

[@mercuraz]

I saw that CodeNiko chick and I had no idea that she was in a mocap suit! I criticised her for it too. It looked awful. Be a human, not an AI

[@Uknown291]

i'm pretty sure everyone knows how motion capture works

[@albinodino5050]

Then why’d you click on the video?

[@Uknown291]

@@albinodino5050 bored lol

[@lickmyloafbruh]

But not EVERY detail tho, I didn’t know how complicated it was tbh.