GDC 08: Mova's Uncanny Motion Capture Technology

Even the best game character faces look devoid of life, as if they’ve given up on everything. This is disconcerting when you’re supposed to be getting reassurance after having your ass kicked in the previous level. At GDC this year Mova LLC of San Francisco is showing off its motion capture technology, which they hope to sell developers on in the coming years. One look at the videos of the technology in action is enough to prove they have something quite special going on.

Joystiq has an exclusive look at the demo being put on by Mova. The technology uses phosphorescent makeup on the actor being mo-capped, and then photographs them with special lights and cameras. The result is a far more photo realistic image than the traditional marker capture system. The current technology requires many hours of postproduction work to get a character to look less like a LEGO Brick and more like a human.

Even though Mova is able to get this technology to run on current game engines, the real power and near uncanny Valley shattering ability is beyond the power of video games at this time. For now that aspect of the technology can work better for film, where no rendering is done in real time.

You can check out the hilarious tech demos – complete with silly lines – over at Joystiq. In the interview with Mova’s Steve Perlman he also says we should see some games using the Countor Reality Capture system in 2008, with a wider net being cast in 2009.