Live Workshops Teach Actors, Producers, Directors and Animators the Art of Emerging Motion Capture Technology Using Leading Markerless Mocap Developer’s Tools
MOSCOW, RUSSIA, May 27, 2015 – Recognizing the growing need for today’s professional actors, directors and producers to learn the unique challenges behind working with motion capture technology,
iPi Soft, makers of the leading markerless motion capture technology
iPi Motion Capture, has partnered with
The Mocap Vaults,an educational resource that offers both online tutorials and live workshops in Los Angeles, Canada, London, and other European cities.
As part of the partnership, iPi Soft is providing the latest versions of their mocap technology for use during the Vault’s live workshops and online educational resources aimed at both actors, directors and development/production teams where participants learn the subtle art of tailoring their performances or production shoots to a mocap setting in a very hands-on immediate way.
Note: On June 13-14 in Los Angeles, iPi Soft is sponsoring The Mocap Vaults' “Motion Capture Summit,” a two-day intensive learning experience for actors, directors, animators and technicians. Details
here]
“As more and more videogames, feature films and other entertainment content comes to rely on motion capture to tell their stories, today's actors, directors and producers realize the importance of learning the techniques and principles for creating with this very specific technology," Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft’s Founder and Chief Technology Architect, says. "We are excited to partner with The Mocap Vaults team who have the expertise to help the range of creative professionals – from the novice to expert – learn how to work in this relevant medium."
Founded by Oliver Hollis-Leick, a 13-year mocap acting veteran that has worked on over 80 videogame and movie titles, with roles in such films as "Iron Man 2," "Stardust," "Total Recall," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Godzilla," "Hercules," "Fred Clause" among many others, The Mocap Vault’s goal is teach today’s actors and filmmakers the techniques that comport with the animation constraints of videogame and feature films production and post.
Hollis-Leick explains that mocap-created character motion is nowhere near as intricate as human movement, and to compensate for that actors have to learn to use physicality as their primary tool for expression. Having the ability to actually perform motion capture with iPi Soft software means that he and the other Mocap Vault teachers can easily show students the ‘before and after’ process.
"We will be using iPi Motion Capture primarily to demonstrate the way that acting performances can be tailored for specific mocap settings," Hollis-Leick says. "We also want to use different character models and rigs to show how characterization is important. If you are playing some kind of mythical creature or an animal then you need to physicalize that performance to fit the animated model that you are working with."
Additionally, Hollis-Leick is currently in the process of finishingan instructional film about motion capture performance, created entirely using iPi Soft, that will be available on The Mocap Vaults
site soon.
"For Mocap Vault users to be able to express themselves using motion capture in a matter of minutes has proven essential to the learning process," Hollis-Leick says. "iPi Soft is a powerful tool that is revolutionizing the motion capture world."
Hollis-Leick also notes that a professional mocap reel is soon to be standard issue for any actor or director serious about working in the medium.
"We want to create a new wave of mocap superstars that are trained, prepped and ready for the job," Hollis-Leick adds. "Given that currently it's nearly impossible to create a mocap showreel without access to a big visual effects studio, using iPi Soft's toolset allows us to provide this easily to our participants. We're proud to be partnering with them.”
About iPi Motion Capture:
iPi Motion Capture is a markerless motion capture software tool to track human body motions to easily produce 3D animation. The scalable system is capable of tracking of up to 3 actors and is compatible with first and second-generation Kinect sensors working at the same time on one or several computers to capture complex motions, including 360-degrees turns. It also supports other inexpensive off-the-shelf equipment such as Sony PS3 Eye cameras.
The software is also compatible with many leading game engines, 3D software applications and animation rigs, including MAXON Cinema 4D, Autodesk 3D Studio Max / Maya / MotionBuilder, Unity, Valve Source Filmmaker / Source Engine, DAZ Studio, Poser, iClone, Unreal Engine, and others. iPi Motion Capture supports motion transfer and export to popular animation formats including FBX, BVH and COLLADA.
About iPi Soft:
Moscow-based developer, iPi Soft, LLC, develops powerful markerless motion capture software technology that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company's software is used by creative professionals and prosumers around the world to digitize the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it expressive in 3D characters for video games, computer generated films, as well as for medical, military and other applications. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing, product configurations or a 30-day free trial please visit,
http://www.ipisoft.com.
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