How Motion Capture Works in Video Games

From the PS5 to the Xbox Series X and PC the world's best video games and now even Hollywood blockbusters are all using motion capture to create believable performances across the ever-growing world of digital entertainment.

We have all seen the funny suits and the memes but have you ever stopped to think about how motion capture actually works?

In today's video, we are doing a very brief and basic breakdown of how motion capture techniques are used to make some of your favorite scenes from games and movies alike.

We have reduced this down quite a bit so feel free to share any extra insight or resources in the comments below.

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SOURCES

[YouTube] CodeMiko

[YouTube] RE Village BTS

[YouTube] How to fight like Kratos

[YouTube] Last of Us Part II Behind the Scenes

[YouTube] God of War [2018] Documentary

[YouTube] Avengers End Game BTS

[YouTube] Professor Hulk BTS

[YouTube] Death Stranding BTS

[YouTube] Mortal Kombat 2011 BTS

[YouTube] Intro to Motion Builder

[YouTube] Real-time motion capture in Unreal

[YouTube] - iPhone Facial Tracking Tutorial

[Gameace]

I like the concept that inside gaming now has videos about the inner workings of games. Looking forward to more!

[ItsJustMe]

As an animator for AAA games, I was ready to come down here and go nuts with corrections, but you nailed it! :)

Great job explaining a relatively complex system in 5 min!

[missitheachievementhuntres]

I never thought about this and I’m not an actor, but it looks like a lot of fun to may play game scenes for motion capturing.

[cabalura]

Love these type of videos, very informative! I think my favorite mocap performance will always be Gollum. Andy Serkis and the whole mocap team did a fantastic job.

[joshk]

I remember they were talking about this in one of those RWBY behind the scenes, in which you can’t just slap a character model onto the mocap data, the animators have to make sure it still looks right. They said the hug scene in Volume 5 was pretty complicated cuz of the motion-tracker balls being blocked

[lindvir]

I got so tired of not being able to watch movies on netflix so I came back to one of your videos KNOWING expressVPN would be the sponsor HAHA.

[BILLIB]

Maaan if only these videos were out daily, that'd be amazing ❤️

[kernel]

Diehardman last scene in Death Stranding was probably the most intense motion capture I've seen in gaming to date.

[redsyn]

Woah! Ethan looks way different with his hair cut short. It's like him & Brian exchanged hair styles.

[MrYoursomesanta]

I miss having up to date new gaming news

[halfbakedproductions]

This technology is older than a lot of people think. It was being used for movies way-back-when and even some 90s video games had it.

Now Rockstar have apparently patented some system based on machine learning, which seems to reduce time spent doing mo-cap because the engine is able to predict what comes next and is able to adjust the skeleton without anything needing to be recorded. It cuts down on a huge amount of studio time and makes everything so much more flexible because you don't need to record every single scene and movement.

At least I think that's what's happening. I haven't actually read the patent but I'm led to believe it's something of that bent.

[ZackRToler]

I think the first time I saw mocap acting was in some clips in Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition back in the PS2 days

[jgon]

I really loved that scene with behind the scenes on the new resident evil where the little puppet is act by a women and she is so cute and makes the movements of the puppet so good

[cinnahum]

Loving these vids of how things work in video games. Awesome work folks. Looking forward to more of these

[yotatta]

Just a note: IMU means Inertial Measurement Unit, not ‘internal measurement unit’. More precisely it should be told that it is a IMMS that is Inertial and Magnetic Measurement Unit since MoCap suits usually incorporate magnetometer technology which is does not work as inertial.

[yukimoniwa]

No detroit become human footage? That was a beautiful piece of work

[pixelslinge]

I have a question in an interview Lady Dimitrescus VA said that they couldn't put the lipstick close to her face because it would mess with the recording would this happen to all Motion Capture or just the ones used by RE8

[fluffy_preacher]

Would love to see some of this with resident evil village

[MurCurieux]

This channel always captures my attention… I’m sorry I had to.

[Max]

Nice! Motion Capture technology improving... 💯%