Motion capture systems developer Vicon recently partnered with Audiomotion Studios to set a new Guinness World Record for the most people motion-captured in real-time – 19 people. The attempt, which featured two U.K.-based hip hop dance crews, took place in Oxford in March and was adjudicated by Gary Marshall, motion capture supervisor at Framestore and Rebecca-Louise Leybourne, @ThatMocapGirl.
The types of motion to be used in the record attempt was decided through a fan vote on social media. A dance group was picked as the best format for the attempt from other choices that included a cheerleader pyramid or a rugby scrum.
“We’re often asked as a business how many people a Vicon system will capture in real-time, and up to this point we haven’t had a definitive proven answer,” said Andy Ray, sales director at Vicon. “So we decided to go for a fully validated method of seeing what could be done.”
“Dancing, and indeed B-Boy dancing, with a group of people who have never done mocap before was incredibly challenging,” he continued. “All of the dancers required a crash course in ‘mocap 101’ on the day and the complexity of the motions carried out provided tough conditions for the Vicon and Audiomotion team. Especially as it became apparent that some of the signature break-dance moves were damaging the markers!
The record was achieved on Audiomotion’s main stage using 36 F40 Vicon cameras and Blade software piped to solved skeletons in Autodesk’s MotionBuilder.
“We had been discussing this idea with Vicon for some time and I’m really glad we went all out for the record,” said Mick Morris MD at Audiomotion Studios.
