Arctic Hazard’s Norse Transports Gamers to the Viking Age with the Power of Motion Capture
Set in the dawn of the Viking era, Norse is a turn-based strategy game, following the life of a young warrior named Gunnar. Built with Unreal Engine 5, the game will allow players to build their settlement, fight enemies and recruit allies. StudioT3D has been working closely with the developer Arctic Hazard to provide motion capture for this upcoming game.
Alongside the top-down gameplay style, Norse will also feature fully rendered cinematic cutscenes. Utilising Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Creator, Arctic Hazard has created characters that are lifelike and diverse, enhancing the player’s immersion in the game world. To bring these characters to life, they enlisted the help of StudioT3D.
Where the magic truly happens is in the way characters move, express themselves and interact with their environment. StudioT3D leveraged mocap to build upon the illusion and capture Arctic Hazard’s vision.
Full performance capture
Motion capture plays an essential role in bringing characters to life, but as opposed to simply recording the movements of the actors in isolation, performance capture simultaneously records their face, mouth, jaw, and finger movements for a fuller and more accurate representation of their expressions.
StudioT3D uses Radical Variance FaceCam iPhone HMCs to capture facial expression data. As part of continual development and investment in improving performance capture for actors and clients, StudioT3D also utilises a face rig monitoring system, which displays a live feed of the capture, ideal for directors and consultants to observe the performance.
The optical tracking system installed captures high quality mocap data using an array of OptiTrack cameras positioned strategically around the studio to provide a large volume of coverage. 26 PrimeX 22s and 6 PrimeX 41s feed the positional data into its native software Motive. Motive is trained to identify skeletons (human bodies) and rigid bodies (non-malleable objects like props), and by observing the distance between markers, can thus calculate and simulate movement within the software.
Finally, to track hand movements, StudioT3D uses StretchSense Pro Fidelity gloves and MANUS™ Quantum Mocap Metagloves. These gloves use sensors rather than markers to track movement and can capture even minute gestures. This level of detail is crucial when considering how characters will grasp props and interact with other objects in their environment. Motive also supports “interpolated” fingers, which do not require additional gloves and instead use miniature markers to track finger movements using the same OptiTrack cameras.
How many in the volume?
Norse’s emphasis on the theme of building a community and working together meant that many of their cinematic scenes involved several actors interacting together. The most recent shoot included a scene of violent conflict between clans, with nine performers in the volume simultaneously, and seven in full performance capture.
In the realm of game development, the requirements for the number of actors within a scene can fluctuate, akin to the changing cast on a theatre stage. Therefore, it is crucial to be able to support the recording of actors in solo scenes and also large group settings.
Seven performers equals seven skeletons for the OptiTrack system to track and seven feeds all relaying data into Peel Software Development LLC Peel capture software and saving after each cut. By our calculations, OptiTrack’s Motive was simultaneously tracking over 280 markers with each take!
Along with skeletons, the Motive software tracks props being used by the performers; axes, spears, swords and shields were just a few of our Viking friends’ weapons of choice. During the battle sequences, their stunts required a camera system capable of tracking the rapid movements of a sword swipe or axe blow. The combination of Prime x22 and longer range x41 cameras gives sub-mm accuracy at high speeds to capture these props.
Visual Tools for Collaboration
Standard in StudioT3D motion capture shoots are two 12K Blackmagic Ursa cinematic cameras, which are used as witness cameras. They allow the post production team to clean data more effectively, as having a reference allows them to review the movements against raw footage of the performance and make sure it is as accurate as possible.
Witness cameras also allow a director to judge a performance without looking at a faceless avatar, and can bring separate audio and data files all into one place.
Previsualisation, commonly abbreviated as previz, is crucial for all realms of development to oversee, including producers, movement directors, performance consultants, and level designers. StudioT3D's previz was scaled 1 to 1 in Unreal Engine 5, enabling seamless real-time performance adjustments by granting the team direct vision of actors' avatars within the game environment (see below).
With the use of a Virtual Camera System (VCS), Arctic Hazard’s developers were also able to frame shots, and make decisions to alter set design and character design on the spot, introducing an element of interactivity that would be difficult to achieve elsewhere.
StudioT3D Production Support
Coordinating full performance capture for seven actors as they fight their way around the volume is no easy task. With the aid of StudioT3D’s Ryan Mercier as Performance Consultant, Josh P. overseeing Unreal Engine as Real-time Supervisor and Daniela Espada as Motion Capture TD, plus the support of the full studio team, Arctic Hazard enjoyed the use of the latest in motion capture and performance capture technology. Here's what Ryan had to say about the process.
“Coordinating a shoot requires hard work and attention to detail at the best of times, and performance capture on such a large scale even more so. It's crucial for everyone to work well together, and because our team comprises people with very diverse industry backgrounds, their experience in both production and post-production processes is invaluable. It allows us to achieve higher quality tracking, happier clients and ultimately the best end result.”
Philip Stevens, Narrative Director at Arctic Hazard and currently working on Norse shared his thoughts on the production so far.
“Working with StudioT3D has been a wonderful experience. Their team became intrinsic members of our production, providing complete flexibility during filming to suit our needs. They offered unwavering support and guidance throughout our project, ensuring every aspect was handled with precision and care. Impressively, they immersed themselves in the story and aesthetic of Norse, with some team members even making cameos! StudioT3D’s responsiveness and dedication made the process seamless and efficient. They provided innovative solutions to filming and staging issues and adapted to our budgetary and logistical needs, significantly enhancing our project's success. For anyone seeking top-notch service and expertise in motion capture, and wanting to work with a genuinely lovely group of professionals, we cannot recommend StudioT3D enough.”
StudioT3D is part of the Advanced Media Production Network, developed by Digital Catapult and Target3D, funded by Innovate UK.
We love finding creative solutions to make your motion capture production a success. Speak to the experts about what we’re capable of: info@studiot3d.com.