Markerless Motion Capture System OpenStage 2.3 Released

Organic Motion has just announced the availability of OpenStage 2.3, which claims to make it faster and easier than ever for animators to capture and manipulate motion data. Building on the efficiency of OpenStage 2 markerless motion capture technology, the new release enables new ways for animators to work with and customize the motion data. After all, real-world finished animation doesn’t end with motion capture, it is manipulated and brought to life by talented animators who go beyond the literal performance to find the best gesture, pose or exaggerated action in order to get across the right effect for the character and story.

Working in close collaboration with professional animation video game developer clients, Organic Motion developed OpenStage 2.3 to be the first and only motion capture solution that allows animators to import not only motion capture data, but also virtual cameras and matching reference videos into Autodesk MotionBuilder, Maya and 3D Studio MAX. With reference videos setup as image planes, the mocap skeleton can be easily viewed from multiple angles and lined up with the actor’s performance. This makes it quick and easy for directors to pick takes, and for animators to layer on custom animation, all in less time and with less effort than ever before.

Animation Director Brent George recently incorporated the new OpenStage capabilities into his workflow for in-game animation on a major AAA game title at Warner Brothers Games Montreal. In addition to improving overall animation quality, Brent also cited a significant increase in animation output. “I saw an increase in animation output by at least 3-4 times. A final animation that would typically take 3-4 days was taking only 1 day utilizing OpenStage 2.”

Games development costs are on the rise again with the introduction of next-gen consoles, anything that can speed up the process is a big way for studios to save money and cut down development time. Personally I can’t wait to see what the AAA game is from Warner Brothers that has been using this tech.

Thank you Organic Motion for providing us with this information.

Image coutesy of Organic Motion.