Archivi tag: motion capture

NEWS

From www.awn.com: interactive art installation combines digital puppetry, motion capture and live action.
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From www.awn.com a very interesting article about digital puppetry, live actions by Jennifer Wolfe.

GUILDFORD U.K. — IKinema’s Live Action for Unreal Engine 4 is playing a surprise role at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this month. The Met is staging an interactive digital performance installation to celebrate the restoration and return of the renowned Italian Renaissance sculpture Adam (ca. 1490–95) by Tullio Lombardo. Designed and directed by New Media Artist Reid Farrington, and commissioned by the live arts series Met Museum Presents, The Return blends digital animation with live performance and motion capture to tell the story of the sculpture’s creation, travels and return to the gallery.

Farrington said: “My vision was to bring Adam to life in a believable and genuinely interactive way. By using a motion capture rig and IKinema LiveAction for Unreal Engine 4 to drive the animation in real time, I’ve been able to deliver the level of realism I wanted.”

Animation Design Consultant Athomas Goldberg of Lifelike & Believable designed and built the digital puppetry system, which enables visitors to interact in real time with ‘digital Adam’. Guests can speak directly to the digital character and pose questions, as well as visit the mocap theatre within the Museum for a behind-the-scenes experience.

The Return has been more than two years in development and from the outset the team agreed to the fundamental principle of no pre-recorded material – everything is generated live to ensure each visitor’s experience is unique and engaging. The result is two hours of material spanning 14 scenes with two characters – ‘digital Adam’ and a museum ‘docent’ who leads visitors through the performance. As the performance runs all day, during Museum hours, there are three pairs of performers who have been trained to drive the puppetry system when not performing, enabling them to control the pre-set lighting, audio and effects. The 16-camera OptiTrack system is hooked up to Natural Point’s Motive software, which streams the mocap data to IKinema LiveAction for solving and retargeting into Unreal Engine 4.

Goldberg said: “We’re using IKinema LiveAction to drive both the characters and the props. There are other full-body IK solutions out there, but nothing that gave me the flexibility and modularity to create a runtime rig exactly to my specifications, with the ability to easily adapt to each of the actor’s unique proportions in a wide variety of rapidly changing environments and situations.”

IKinema Chief Executive Alexandre Pechev said: “With the diversity of applications for motion capture these days we believe there will be many more new ways of using live quality solving in life-like rendering environments. This is one great example and I’m sure IKinema and Epic Games will continue to play a role in this highly creative field. Bringing Adam to life has been extraordinary and ground-breaking work and we’re delighted that LiveAction and Unreal Engine 4 have been able to deliver the level of realism required.”

The Return is part of the 2015-2016 season of Met Museum Presents and runs from July 11 to August 2, 2015.

Source: IKinema

DIGITAL PERFORMANCE

Première of EXPLORER/Prometheus unchained, Crew live art
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EXPLORER/Prometheus unchained is a new staged performance by CREW and Urland, a collective of young makers, in collaboration with Productiehuis Rotterdam and will premiere at the Krijn Boon studio, Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL) on Thursday 23rd, Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of April 2015.

In this performance CREW continues its digital explorations and links this to a reflection of Aischylos on the’usefulness and disadvantage of technology for life’and the initial promise of the internet. Urland previously made MSDOS/Prometheus Chained and will now, in collaboration with CREW, create part II of their’internet trilogy’in which technology will enable them to convert the virtual language of the internet in a new language of movement inspired by the Prometheus text of Aischylos.

Generation Before the Computer (CREW) meet generation After the Computer (Urland) and begin an Odyssey together. They wonder what has become of the utopian ideas of the early 1990s. A new (parallel) world is not only possible, it is already here. CREW and Urland want to re-enact this promise.  Virtual Reality often reflects our own reality like theatre refers to our own lives. How far can we push the limits of reality? And how far can we transform the body and/or make it dissapear?

EXPLORER/Prometheus Unchained is a visual, musical en physical, mimic performance that wants to show the public a re-enactment of the initial promise of the internet and confront them with the physical absence in Virtual Reality.

 
EXPLORER/Prometheus unchained is the centerpiece of ‘The Internet trilogy’, a series on the rise, expansion and limitless promise of the internet. 1994. The World Wide Web. The promise of total freedom and access. The point of no return. We are ON. Unchained. We are FREE.
This performance is a joint effort of two generations, CREW/B.C. (Before Computer) and Urland/A.C. (After Computer), exploring new possibilities given by the internet. This will arguably be the first theatrical production to use 3D motion capture in real-time onstage.
The projected bodies and scenery react to the twists and turns of human interactions on stage. The live-performance is re-fleshed and transformed in the moment. With recent inertial technology the human bodies of the actors become data and this transformation expands the very idea of the psychical body to new limits.The interest in mediatized artforms and the creation of new ways of experiencing theatre is embedded in the artistic canon of CREW and continues in this challenging collaboration.

EXPLORER/Prometheus unchained allows the audience to cross the border between performance space and spectating space. It offers a RE-ENACTMENT of the initial promises of 1994 and it provides a glimpse into the future.

TUNE IN. TURN ON. BOOT UP. JACK IN. DROP OUT. EXPLORE.

Concept/cast Eric Joris, Ludwig Bindervoet, Thomas Dudkiewicz, Marijn Alexander de Jong, Jimi Zoetdramaturgy Florian Hellwig technology Koen Goossens (CREW) technical Support Siemen van der Werf, Olmo Claessens internship technology Rens Royaert production manager Vicky Vermoezen (CREW), Sarah Steeman (Urland) production Productiehuis Rotterdam and CREW.
In collaboration with Buda Kunstencentrum, EDM (Expertisecenter for digital media), Dreamspace (FP7 ICT collaboration), University Hasselt- iMinds and Natural Point – Optitrack.
With the support of Fonds Podiumkunsten, Fonds 21, BesteBuren and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
www.productiehuisrotterdam.nl
www.crewonline.orgFollow the work in progress of the performance on our Facebook