Vicon recently installed a motion-capture rig at London's Moving Picture Co. (MPC), which was put to use on CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, where, thanks to Vicon motion data and MPC's proprietary crowd simulation software, Alice, one single Oompa Loompa character was cloned to create an army of miniature workers in this visually stunning reinterpretation of the 1971 classic.
MPC first considered purchasing a Vicon system after contributing effects shots for the Wolfgang Petersen-directed film TROY. Petersen recruited a host of top visual effects talent throughout Europe to work on the movie, and enlisted MPC for its expertise in virtual crowd and virtual character simulations.
Said Martin Hobbs, head of production, Film, MPC, "While working on TROY, the motion capture was outsourced to the talented folks at Artem Digital. The project went very smoothly, and in the process, our artists learned a lot about working with motion capture and integrating mo-cap data into our software workflow pipeline. This extensive learning curve over the 18 months we worked on TROY convinced us that it would be of value for MPC to keep a VICON rig in house to streamline process, protocol and pipeline integration of data and also to provide greater production efficiencies to our client base and in-house animation team.
"Motion capture has often been referred to as a dark art because the discipline requires a lot of expertise. At MPC, however, we were able to hit the ground running due to Vicon's great customer support and training,"
Alice, MPC's proprietary crowd simulation program developed specifically for TROY, made investing in motion-capture hardware a natural choice and logical step. MPC also saw the opportunity to incorporate motion-capture work into two other major feature film projects the company was tapped to work on at the time: Oliver Stone's ALEXANDER and Ridley Scott's KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
For both films, MPC completed standard motion cycles and infantry capture. The team also spent two weeks capturing horses together with Artem Digital, producing data that was used for both ALEXANDER and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
MPC's work on CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY primarily involved cloning one single Oompa Loompa character played by actor Deep Roy into a cast of hundreds simultaneously running about and working diligently in the candy factory. Setting up shop next door to the film's production hub at Pinewood Studios, MPC was also able to take advantage of the actors on set. And because a Vicon rig is highly portable, MPC could set it up at a moment's notice anywhere.
MPC acquired an eight-camera Vicon MX40 system, renting additional cameras to extend that into an 18-camera system for specific off-site project work. When asked why they chose to work with a Vicon motion-capture system, Hobbs replied, "As far as we're concerned Vicon is the clear market leader in feature film so there wasn't even a question as to which technology to choose. The Vicon rig is dependable, flexible and portable we can just as easily set it up in our Soho studio, on location or wherever it is needed."
Vicon's MX 40 systems have ushered in ultra-high-resolution, virtually artifact-free motion capture with the world's first four-million-pixel motion-capture camera. The Vicon MX line revolutionizes the quality, flexibility and ease with which motion-capture data can be applied to both realtime and off-line applications with high frame rates, on-camera proprietary realtime image processing, realtime output and simultaneous capture for facial, hand, foot and body performance.
Vicon Motion Systems (www.vicon.com) is a subsidiary of OMG plc with global headquarters in Oxford, U.K., and U.S. headquarters in Lake Forest, CA. OMG subsidiary 2d3 Ltd. produces innovative visual geometry software deriving 3D data from moving images.
London-based MPC (www.moving-picture.com) is working on the following visual effects projects: Warner Bros Pictures HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE directed by Mike Newell, Danny Boyles SUNSHINE, Wolfgang Petersens POSEIDON and Ron Howards THE DA VINCI CODE. The team recently completed vfx for Tim Burtons CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, CORPSE BRIDE and WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
