Vicor MX: CoD3’s motion capture system

We love grenades. They’re not just a terrific way to clear a room (with the exception of using week-old gym socks), there’s this strange, maliciously gratifying feeling to watching your AI opponents fly into the air, arms flailing, the instant after your Potato Mmasher/Pineapple goes “BOOM” in their face. It’s not just that we get kicks from blowing stuff up – it’s also fun to see how realistic the rendered movements are, especially in a game like CoD 3, where authenticity plays a major role in this WWII FPS.

If you feel the same way we do about the game’s body-realism  (flying bodies and bullet flinching included), you can thank Activision‘s in-house motion-capture equipment. Vicon‘s MX motion capture system, a recent acquisition for this game developing bigwig, was responsible for the fluid and realistic movements we’ve been enjoying for the game.

The 48-camera motion capture system allowed Activision‘s development teams to record up to eight people simultaneously as they went about doing movements that were to be encoded for the game interface and also allowed for more complex props and water effects to be included in the recording sessions.

Activision’s Director of Motion Capture, Matt Karnes mentions that he “likes the focus of Vicon; I like its hardware, its software and its people. I like the fact that they are production minded and have product development paired up with real-world production. The way data is captured with the Vicon MX cameras is flawless. In the five months since weÂ’ve had the Vicon system, a team of two of us produced over 20,000 character animations – more than IÂ’ve ever done in a year!”

So there you have it – Vicon. Activision. Motion capture. Grenades. Flailing arms. It all connects.

We love grenades. They’re not just a terrific way to clear a room (with the exception of using week-old gym socks), there’s this strange, maliciously gratifying feeling to watching your AI opponents fly into the air, arms flailing, the instant after your Potato Mmasher/Pineapple goes “BOOM” in their face. It’s not just that we get kicks from blowing stuff up – it’s also fun to see how realistic the rendered movements are, especially in a game like CoD 3, where authenticity plays a major role in this WWII FPS.

If you feel the same way we do about the game’s body-realism  (flying bodies and bullet flinching included), you can thank Activision‘s in-house motion-capture equipment. Vicon‘s MX motion capture system, a recent acquisition for this game developing bigwig, was responsible for the fluid and realistic movements we’ve been enjoying for the game.

The 48-camera motion capture system allowed Activision‘s development teams to record up to eight people simultaneously as they went about doing movements that were to be encoded for the game interface and also allowed for more complex props and water effects to be included in the recording sessions.

Activision’s Director of Motion Capture, Matt Karnes mentions that he “likes the focus of Vicon; I like its hardware, its software and its people. I like the fact that they are production minded and have product development paired up with real-world production. The way data is captured with the Vicon MX cameras is flawless. In the five months since weÂ’ve had the Vicon system, a team of two of us produced over 20,000 character animations – more than IÂ’ve ever done in a year!”

So there you have it – Vicon. Activision. Motion capture. Grenades. Flailing arms. It all connects.