Destiny 2: SuperAlloy's Pre-Vis for Season of the Worthy

VFX Before and After of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Gears of War: Recreating the Cinematics Behind the Scenes

Making of The Last of Us by Naughty Dog

Animation segment starts around the 34min mark.

ILM: Animation and VFX of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Interviews with ILM VFX supervisor Pablo Helman

Andy Serkis: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Interview

Also check out
// How To Walk Like an Ape: Motion Capture and Animation

How To Walk Like an Ape: Motion Capture and Animation

// Andy Serkis interview: 'Audiences are moved by acting, not effects'

“Two things have to be understood: the authorship of a performance happens on set with a director and other actors in a very conventional live action sense. The animation process is what happens afterwards, and the skill and artistry and the brilliant work the animators do in interpolating that performance and manifesting it on screen is an art form which is unparalleled.” Then, almost defiantly, he adds: “Acting is acting and visual effects are visual effects and it’s a marriage, but the authorship of performance - everything you watch on screen that you feel and think about a character - comes from the actor.”



// Andy Serkis Vs. Visual Effects Animators: The Wrong Fight For Both Sides

"And one more thing for vfx artists: You too should stop bickering over who is the author of the performance and work with Andy Serkis — or Zoe Saldana or Jamie Bell or Ray Winstone — to get awards, even if it’s a special achievement award made up for the occasion, for a performance capture role. Because people like winning awards, and helping an actor win an award will make you more desirable for the next film that puts a big actor in a performance capture suit.

 So what if nobody says your name from the podium? At least you’ll have have a great story for bartenders and reporters."


// Where Does Andy Serkis End & Animation Begin?

“It’s a tough question, because obviously Andy gives you the heart and soul of the performance, but we also come at it with creating what you see on top of it. So there’s this hybrid and I think that the Academy… is not quite clear how to honor that combination, because this a new thing where you can take the performance and separate it from the visual image of what you see, but then it all has to come back together again as though they were one and the same to start with.”


// Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: how to act like an ape

"However, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers doesn’t cover motion-capture acting in Screen Actors Guild contracts, classifying it rather as “lower-paying background work”, according to Variety. All that motion capture does, the association says, is assist animators, who ultimately produce the final performance – and there’s no way of telling how closely the final performance matches the actor’s movements. Steven Spielberg wanted his 2011 motion-capture movie The Adventures of Tintin to be considered an animated feature, but equally, when the 2006 movie Happy Feet won the Oscar for best animated feature, having employed motion capture, many animators felt the technique either disempowering or, at worst, a cheat or shortcut."


// Andy Serkis, Star of a Movie Medium That Doesn't Need Stars
'Motion capture has a long history of second-tier kind of acting—or worse, a mere variety of animation'

Robot Film "Construct"

Here's a nice teaser and featurette for the new short film "Construct". The project looks very promising. Check out the full article and interview with director/vfx supervisor Kevin Margo over on The Creators Project.

//Robot Film "Construct" 

Simulated Bipeds That Learn

'Bipedal creatures optimize their muscles and learn how to walk, using an evolutionary strategy. No motion capture or key frame animation was used in this video.' via John Goatstream

Gollum Mocap Project by Fabrice Visserot

Here's a really nice face mocap test by Fabrice Visserot.

'This video shows a personal retargeting experiment of facial motion capture. The animation is pure motion capture with no keyframe animation added.' via Vimeo

Faceshift: Markerless Motion Capture

// Faceshift

Industrial Light & Magic: Realtime Facial Animation (TALK SLIDES from SIGGRAPH 2013)

Faculty Interview: Geometric Capture of Human Performances - Hao Li
(Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York)

FACEWARE: Free Face Rig Library

FACEWARE is a markerless face capture software for previs, live performance and video games. Check out some of their free face rigs.





// FACEWARE: Free Face Rig Library

// FACEWARE YouTube Channel

The Art of Motion Capture

This vid provides a general look at the basics of mocap.

VFX Supervisor Scott Squires on 'Acting and Animation'

VFX Supervisor Scott Squires recently posted an in depth article on his blog  concerning the ongoing debate over the relationship between animation, motion capture and acting/actors. He makes some solid points and adds  great perspective from his extensive career in vfx. It's definitely worth a read.

// Acting and Animation  
via Effects Corner 

Behind the Scenes of 'Tintin'

Here's some detailed footage of the mocap shoot from Tintin.

The Andy Serkis Mocap Performance Channel

Andy Serkis has a new Vimeo channel dedicated to video clips and featurettes showcasing some of his motion capture work. Sadly not much is mentioned about all the animation that is added to his performances in post. There's no question Andy is a fantastic actor but there are dozens of equally talented animators helping to bring these CG characters to life on the other side of the mocap camera. Below are a few 'comparison' clips from Planet of the Apes.

More clips here // Andy Serkis Channel on Vimeo

And lastly some food for thought.

// Should Andy Serkis's monkey capture a mo-cap Oscar? via the guardian film blog


// Can Peter Jackson's Weta studios allow anyone to play a gorilla? via the Independent


Andy Serkis says "At first with Gollum it wasn't even performance capture, it was motion capture and then the facial performance was shot on 35mm film. Then the animators rotoscoped – basically painted frame by frame over my expressions, matchframing every facial expression I made. "
"You don't actually get to see the visual effects until months down the line when they all start to come in and the visual effects shots begin to replace the actual thing, well after the final edit. And the animators can calibrate the character on the computer: you can dial the curvature of the spine, so you'll notice by the end of the movie Caesar's absolutely upright. He's more human in his movements."



Also, here's the Andy Serkis insert from this month's Hollywood Reporter magazine.  

 

WIRED on 'The Uncanny Valley'

On my recent flight from Houston to London I read this months issue of WIRED magazine. It featured a long article about our nemesis 'the uncanny valley'. If you get a chance grab the December issue and check it out. Below I've listed a few of the articles from this months issue recently posted on the WIRED website:

How Robotics Master Masahiro Mori Dreamed Up the ‘Uncanny Valley’ via WIRED

Mary H. K. Choi on the Trouble With Perfection via WIRED

 

 

 

Artist's Giant Warped Figures Just the Wrong Side of Lifelike via WIRED

more on the 'the uncanny valley'

// How Uncharted 3 Designers Make Faces Look Alive via WIRED

// Sculpting the Perfect Wax Doppelgänger via Wired

// Digital Actors Go Beyond the Uncanny Valley via IEEE

 

 

 

VFX of 'Immortals' from Tippett and Image Engine

 There's a great article over on fxguide featuring the VFX work of Tippett Studios. Check out the vfx/anim breakdown vid from their work on 'Immortals'.


// Immortals VFX breakdown via fxguide

// More footage of  the VFX work from Image Engine

Motion Captured Bugs!! Making of Ariel

Great spoof on motion capture heh heh Genius behind mocaping bugs!



Checkout the final music vid via CG Channel