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French studio Quantic Dream has bought the latest Vicon mocap cameras in a move to boost its plans to build realistic virtual actors.
The new F-Series system Vicon rig will be used primarily for production of Quantic Dream’s new, still unannounced PS3 game for SCEE (which we revealed here) has yet to be named.
The studio says that the game, with its emphasis on characters, performance and drama, will require some four months worth of motion capture.
Guillaume de Fondaumière, Co-CEO at Quantic Dream commented: “Our objective is to make this media a mainstream entertainment form with high creative expectations. To do so, we have invented our own format called ‘Interactive Cinema’ in which realistic, believable characters play a central role. To us, the only way to reach the level of quality we were targeting for the animation of our characters was to use Vicon motion capture.”
He continued: “We needed a system that could be used with ambient light, as it is less tiresome for the actors who sometimes spend days and days in our studio. High speed (for more accurate capture of fast movements) and high resolution, in particular for the facial motion capture, were also very important.The F-Series cameras are the only cameras that offer all of these attributes within the same system. There is simply no alternative system out there today if your objective is to obtain the highest possible quality.”
Quantic Dream also offers its motion capture service out to other studios, and has been boosted by the Vicon tech buy, say the two companies. Fondaumière commented: “Demand has been immediate and we have actually already started to rent the system to high-profile video game and advertising clients. Our new studio is fully installed and is functioning almost every day either for complex full body or facial captures.”
Nick Bolton, chief executive at Oxford Metrics, parent company of Vicon added:: “I’m delighted Quantic Dream has had such a great response to its new system from Vicon. The F40 cameras are part of the award winning MX range, which emphases our continual commitment to improving quality and pushing the industry forward.”
