Product: Vicon Announces MoCap For Smaller Studios

Representatives from motion capture system creator Vicon have announced the release of its FKextreme system, a motion capture system designed specifically for game developers and small studios. Vicon officials note that FKextreme is ideally suited for small to mid-sized game development and animation facilities, and has been designed to be great for capturing both in-game motions and cinematic sequences with up to two performers. The system is also fully extensible for facilities that aim to expand into multiple performer capture sessions with high degrees of interaction between characters. The new Vicon FKextreme Motion Capture system is based on the same Vicon motion capture technology in place at other Vicon clinets such as Electronic Arts, Sony, and Activision, as well as film effects studios including Industrial Light & Magic, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Animal Logic, and Rhythm & Hues. Fkextreme makes use of new camera engineering and a simplified, user-friendly software interface, including Vicon’s MX3+ cameras, new processing software and a full customer support package. The software component contains all of the underlying power of Vicon’s existing architecture, in a new graphical user interface (GUI) that takes the user step-by-step through the process of running a motion capture system. Other changes made to this new system include a plug-in suite for many 3d packages including Autodesk MotionBuilder, while real-time pre-visualization is also available in a point-and-click environment. The plug-in also enables skeletal data to be transferred from multiple characters and layered in real-time via a live remote control interface to essentially use MotionBuilder as an animation-recording tool. “There has been a perception in the marketplace that Vicon motion capture is out of reach of small to mid-sized animation facilities and game developers. FKextreme is an incredibly affordable and accessible motion capture system that delivers better price performance than any other professional mo-cap system targeting these customers,” explained Robin Pengelly, business development manager, Vicon Entertainment. “Over recent years a number of low-cost systems have been released, but they have significant limitations and technical roadblocks for production use. Vicon has taken our flagship system and pipeline and brought the price within the reach of small studios and first-time game producers. ”