Taking a trip to Narnia

Motion capture has brought a new level of realism to fantasy movies and games. Keri Allan gets animated herself - take a look at our bonus video.

Keri Allan gets animated (.avi)

With the enchanted characters of C.S. Lewis’s fantasy series coming to life again with the new movie and game, I stepped into my wardrobe and came out in the studio of UK developer Traveller’s Tales (TT), to find out more about the cunning way they brought the Pevensie siblings and the mythical creatures of Narnia to life.

The games developers gave all these characters an added layer of realism by using motion capture (mocap), the technique of accurately recording real-life motion and interaction to apply to virtual creations. The technique is widely used in industry, with applications in areas such as virtual training, ergonomics and robotics and medicine, but it has also revolutionized animation for both movies and games. The fantasy creatures inhabiting films like Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass and I Am Legend are all the product of motion capture – and increasingly it is used in video games as well.

'We record the exact movement of a person, animal or object and then re-target that movement onto a character or object in a game or film,' explains Simon James, TT Lead Animator for the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian game. ’In our studio we use an optical marker system, which uses multiple cameras to calculate and record the 3D position of reflective markers. We have a 7x7m stage or “capture area”, surrounded by 16 cameras which are calibrated to “see” only the light which bounces off specially made retroreflective markers. The actor wears a special suit covered in these markers, which are accurately placed around the body. ’Providing at least two cameras can see a marker at any one time, its position in 3D space can be calculated, so you end up with an incredibly accurate digital version of the exact performance the actor has given you.’ In essence, the actor becomes virtual puppeteer, observing on a big screen in the studio exactly how the character moves with them. They can watch it jump, run, fight, even dance, allowing them to perfectly capture the movements they want the character to have in-game. ’For Prince Caspian, motion capture makes the game very immersive because everything is so natural you forget you’re looking at an animated character,’ says Simon. ‘Realistic motion blends into a realistic environment, so even a giant minotaur or centaur can become believable with motion capture.’