Developer: People Can Fly
Publisher: Epic Games, Electronic Arts

People Can Fly provided us with scripts, all assets and voice recordings. Our job was to create storyboards, plan shots, record all motion capture, establish cameras and bring it all together in Unreal Engine 3. The total project was more than 30 minutes of cutscenes.

We started by creating a storyboard according to the script which we were provided. We performed a full motion capture session including the motion directing. We set up the cameras and also animated these to ensure the highest possible accuracy for the shoot.

This animation of the cameras gave the director and also the actors a closer feel of how to act during the scenes. We began an animation of the “creatures” to get a better feel of how to direct the scenes most efficiently. After the scenes were shot the data was passed on to our Motion Editing team. We solved the data to edit the motions and then transferred these onto the character skeleton to animate the digital characters. Once this process was complete we moved on to the facial animations using Embody. We have since acquired ImageMetrics Faceware technology which is much more accurate.

Once all these steps were completed, we integrated the characters into Unreal Engine 3 using the clients’ tools and assets to ensure compatibility and test the animations. Then we used these animations and combined them with surroundings, lighting, effects and sound to create a final emotional experience and complete the cutscene in-engine.

Game footage used with permission. © 2011, Epic Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.