London-based VFX studio MPC has installed a new Xsens MVN motion capture system. Chosen for its speed and flexibility, the MVN suits will give MPC the ability to go from concept to animated shot much faster. Xsens MVN is a full-body, 3D inertial motion tracking system that delivers fast, production-ready 3D data to professional animators without the need for a dedicated motion-capture stage.
“We were immediately drawn to the simplicity of their new set-up,” said Jason Snyman, animation supervisor at MPC. “Putting on the suit takes barely any time at all, so you can start capturing data quickly. We are saving hours at every stage of the process.”
The system can boot up in under 10 minutes, and offers cleaner data and more battery life (9.5 hours).
“Xsens suits allow us to capture multiple concepts very quickly during the block phase of the animation process,” explained Snyman. “This enables us to provide our clients with more variations far quicker than if we had animated everything by hand. It also opens up a lot more choice in the production process, which is great for us and them.”
With speed and ease of use as primary objectives for MPC’s new mocap pipeline, the idea of a traditional motion capture stage started to seem antiquated. Already owners of a London-based mocap stage, the team saw an opportunity to take everything out of the studio.
“With MVN there is no limitation on the space we used to capture our ideas. We were able to leave the room we were testing in, walk around the animation floor, the kitchen and back without losing any of the capture, all over a simple wi-fi setup,” added Snyman. “Not being limited to a fixed capture region provides a tremendous amount of flexibility to our teams. We know we can take this system anywhere we want, whether that’s within our workspace or on set.”
Using MVN Studio software, different animators were able to suit up and see their ideas immediately. Concept testing and experimentation is already being nurtured in an interactive style that the team grasped right away.
“MVN is such an intuitive system that it only took us a day to figure out,” said Snyman. “The Xsens team are extremely professional and helped a lot during their onsite visit. We look forward to future projects together.”
