Mocap operator at Solid Anim: seeing the other side of the data
Three months on a capture stage, learning what happens to motion capture data before it ever reaches an animator.
Time to get into it: motion capture, and the dark side of motion editing, as a mocap operator at Solid Anim.
Solid Anim is where I cut my teeth on processing motion capture data. It didn’t add anything to my reel, but it was hugely instructive. At Ubisoft, we received motion capture animation to improve: that’s motion editing. At Solid Anim, I got to see what happens before those animations ever land on your desk.
Retarget that for me
Tracking, retargeting, markers: all this jargon became part of my vocabulary. I also learned new software such as Vicon Blade, and I got to watch mocap shoots being set up.
A little-known film
Over the three months I spent at Solid Anim, I helped set up previsualisation scenes for the film Cendrillon au Far West. It was fun, because I didn’t have the script to hand and kept wondering what Cinderella could possibly lose for the Prince to find her again. A cowboy boot?
I also lent a hand tracking eye and body movement, then pushing it onto the characters in MotionBuilder. All of that animation was then sent on to Delacave, who handled the motion editing.