Vicon Update

http://blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/briefingroom/2007/09/27/pixel-liberation-front-taps-vicon-motion-capture-for-high-quality-previz-animation/
PIXEL LIBERATION FRONT TAPS VICON MOTION CAPTURE FOR HIGH QUALITY PREVIZ ANIMATION
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— kraz on September 27, 2007
New VICON FK Extreme System Enables PLF to Produce Mo-Cap Cost Effectively for Pre-Viz, Commercials and Game Cinematics

VICON, developer of Academy Award®-winning motion capture systems, announced that its new low-cost motion capture system, the FK Extreme, has been installed at Venice, Calif.-based animation and pre-visualization studio Pixel Liberation Front (PLF). The company is currently using its eight-camera FK Extreme system on game cinematics, film pre-visualization projects and television commercial projects.

“Purchasing a VICON system was a strategic business decision for us. Our goal was to incorporate mo-cap into our pipeline so we could get a high level of capture detail without investing huge amounts of time, labor and money, which is better spent focusing on perfecting sequences and shot design,” said Sean Cushing, Executive Producer, Pixel Liberation Front. “We chose VICON after evaluating several options—the FK Extreme system is priced very competitively, is incredibly robust, and is virtually plug-and-play. It hasn’t required a ton of R&D to get it operational, and was up and running within a week of purchase.”

PLF specializes in previz, VFX and compositing services for feature films, commercials, games and music videos. The company originally planned to purchase a mo-cap set-up exclusively for its feature film previz projects—noteworthy credits include Spider-Man 3, Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard, Superman Returns and the Matrix sequels—but has seen a recent upswing in demand for videogame cinematic work, which requires a level of detailed character animation ideally achieved through motion capture.

The company also recently worked with NY-based visual effects house Mass Market to provide stadium crowd motions for a digital crowd sequence created using the Massive AI-driven animation system. Mass Market recently completed the “Yawn Call” spot for Pepsi Max directed by Traktor via BBDO. PLF put its new FK Extreme system to the test, capturing 1,000 seconds of mo-cap footage, shooting a single performer for a day and a half while he performed over a 100 different actions. PLF currently houses their system in a 12 foot x 12 foot room at their studio, but because of FK Extreme’s extensibility, PLF will be capturing two performers simultaneously in a larger capture volume for an upcoming project.