Mainly a performer in the suit, I have been the actress for many projects at the University of Applied Sciences in Breda. I have been part of the MoCap Team for 2 years now, first training to become a senior member and now training new recruits in handling the equipment and what it takes to optimally carry out a performance.
I have a background in acting and dancing which helped a lot in finding my way with the suit. Rhythm is not only important in dance; but also in gameplay and e.g. looping animations. I pick up new information quickly and adapt the way I perform to best suit the needs of the capture and the game / sequence we capture for. There is always a practise day before a shoot day (to minimize time spent in the suit and make sure my performance is in accordance with the director's needs and vision), and besides going through gameplay moves and shoots correctly and efficiently, I learned a lot about the technology too; e.g. recording and processing the data.
We work with Xsens inertial sensors: rotation based instead of location based. This means we can record in wide range (not being confined to a camera rig). In the last video you can see a livestream that we did with one of our biggest shoots during the pandemic. Its purpose was so any peers and new recruits could see how the process works, the issues we encounter and learn about the system and the suit.
Process Specifics
Xsens suits (inertia based) with MVN software for recording and processing.
FaceWareTech for facial capture and their softwares for processing data.
Autodesk MotionBuilder for characterizing, retargeting and cleaning up the processed data.