The Hidden Cost of Bad Data
The cheapest capture session is rarely the least expensive production. There is a calculation that experienced animation supervisors and VFX producers make instinctively, but that first-time buyers of performance capture services almost never make explicitly: the cost of a capture session is not the cost of the session. It’s the cost of everything that follows from the quality of data that session produces. […]
How to Choose a Motion Capture Studio—What to Ask Before You Book
Using the wrong studio, even if their bid is less, will cost more than the right studio bid. In fact, using the wrong studio could shelve your production. Choosing a performance capture studio is one of the highest-leverage decisions in a production pipeline. The implications of that choice echo through every phase of work that follows, from the initial quality of data captured through cleanup, retargeting, animation, and […]
Real-Time Performance Capture and Live Broadcast
What happens when the captured performance is the broadcast. Most discussions of performance capture focus on the production pipeline: capture, clean, deliver, animate, render. The assumption is that the gap between capture and final output is measured in weeks or months. Live broadcast performance capture operates on a fundamentally different timeline. The gap between capture and output is measured in […]
Animal Capture in Performance Capture Production
Dogs, cats, horses, camels—what we’ve learned from capturing animals at production scale. Performance capture for human performers is a mature discipline with established workflows, standard equipment configurations, and a large pool of experienced practitioners. Animal capture is a different story. The workflows are less standardized, the technical challenges are more variable, and the margin for error is smaller because […]
How to Plan a Multi-Actor Performance Capture Session
The difference between a productive multi-actor capture day and a costly one is almost entirely in the preparation. Single-performer capture is relatively forgiving. If something goes wrong, such as a tracking issue, or a performance that needs to be rethought, resetting is fast. Multi-actor capture is an entirely different discipline. When you have six, ten, or twenty performers suited and on stage, […]
What Makes a World-Class Motion Capture Stage?
After designing and building over 30 stages, we have a clear answer. Most people evaluating a motion capture facility focus on the obvious metrics: camera count, volume dimensions, and the names on the client list. These matter. They’re also the easiest things to overstate and the hardest things to verify without operational experience on the other side of the […]
Performance Capture for Film vs. Games—What’s Actually Different?
House of Moves has worked across both disciplines for over thirty years. The technology is largely the same. The productions are not. Performance capture is a discipline that serves two very different masters—game development and film production. From the outside, the equipment looks identical. Inside the production, the requirements diverge in ways that matter enormously to the final result. Understanding those differences helps producers […]
What to Expect When Booking a Performance Capture Studio
Whether you’re producing a AAA game cinematic, a feature film performance sequence, or a commercial shoot, performance capture is one of the most technically complex production disciplines you’ll encounter. If you’re booking a studio for the first time, or working with a new facility, knowing what to expect before you walk in the door can save significant time, budget, and frustration. Before You Book: The Consultation Every […]