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MillimeterAnimating Action Man
Nov 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Audrey Doyle
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Mainframe Entertainment, the seven-year-old Vancouver-based studio known for creating such popular Saturday morning series as Beast Machines, Reboot, Beast Wars, Transformers, and Weird-Ohs, is producing another TV series, Action Man. This time, however, the studio has added motion capture to its toolbox.
The new series, based on Hasbro's Action Man, follows the adventures of a young, athletic thrill-seeker who travels the globe participating in heart-pounding sports competitions while trying to avoid the evil Dr. X. Mainframe is creating 26 all-CGI, half-hour episodes of the show, which had its US debut this August on Fox Kids.
Action Man stars characters who are completely human, whereas the other shows that Mainframe has worked on have all featured creatures or characters that are either "cartoony" or half-man/half-machine. Because of this, the studio is animating 20 to 30 percent of the new series using motion-capture technology. "From a creative standpoint we determined that motion capture would be the best way to animate the bodies of these characters - especially their action sequences," says Casey Kwan, head of visual effects and lighting.
"It really is an excellent way to attain a natural look on whole-body movements," adds Chuck Johnson, head of animation.
To create an episode, the Mainframe team begins by examining the script to determine what models need to be built. Artists then design the characters and sets. After the client approves the designs, the modeling team builds the show's elements in Avid's Softimage.
At this point, the animation team determines what should be animated with motion capture and what should be keyframed. As the keyframe crew begins animating its elements in Softimage, the mo-cap crew receives its shot list and begins capturing the necessary data, using a Motion Analysis optical motion-capture system. "The actors go through a few rehearsals beforehand so that they will be less reactionary to the dialog and more proactive," says Johnson. "This helps us get the most realistic movement from the actors." After the Mainframe artists capture the motion, they send it to Kaydara's Filmbox for editing, import it into Softimage, and then assign it to the characters.
While this occurs, the keyframe team begins animating the characters' faces and mouths using Mainframe's Grin software, which lip-synchs the characters' mouths to the scenes' recorded dialog. The animators then put the finishing touches on the animation, light the scenes in Softimage, and render out using Mental Images' Mental Ray.
According to Johnson, the most challenging part of creating this series has been integrating motion-capture technology into the workflow. "We've never done it before, so it's basically new to us," he says. "We've been sure to use it only as a creative tool and not as a technological crutch. Overall, we've found it to be a successful way to animate these characters."
So successful, in fact, that the studio has already begun using its motion-capture system on a new series that it is developing for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Scheduled to air in January, Heavy Gear will feature a 50/50 mix of motion-capture and keyframe animation.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
