Gollum Actor Opens Motion-Capture Studio

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Gollum Actor Opens Motion-Capture Studio



One of the masters of motion-capture has opened his own studio in the UK.

Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings [http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Picture-Platinum-Extended/dp/B000654ZK0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276638890&sr=1-2] movies, is opening his own motion-capture academy in the UK, called "The Imaginarium". Serkis, who is regarded as one of the leading lights in motion capture, hope that his studio will be a place to develop the art as well as just record it.

Serkis's motivation for opening the academy came after numerous trips abroad to direct mo-cap work: "I was directing performance capture for two videogames and we had to go one to the US to shoot and the second one to New Zealand," he said.

"When I got back I thought, why do we not have this [in the UK?] A lot of the motion sensors were built out of technology that came out of Oxford and Cambridge. We have masses of CG talent in this country. Why are we loosing this kind of talent abroad when we could be doing the exact same thing here?"

Serkis is currently working with developer Ninja Theory on its latest game Enslaved [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77308], which is due out later this year.

Source: via Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/andy-serkis-is-opening-a-mo-cap-studio-for-games-and-film-174323.phtml] via Go Nintendo [http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=124516]


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Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Well, it's nice to see this kind of talent is going yo be used in the UK now.

Will just have to wait and see
 

D_987

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Jun 15, 2008
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Captain Pancake said:
Shame. I thought they would be something awesome, like Mass Effect or Arkham Asylum.
Depends on your opinion - I thought Risen on the PC was extremely "awesome" - it gives you a freedom you don't find in a game like Mass Effect.
 

Electric Gel

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Mar 26, 2009
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Captain Pancake said:
D_987 said:
Captain Pancake said:
What games were they?
I know Risen, from Piranha Bytes, was one. The other was Heavenly Sword.
Shame. I thought they would be something awesome, like Mass Effect or Arkham Asylum.
Risen is rather an "awesome" game my good man. It?s a shame you don?t agree.

This seems like good news. We have a plethora of talented CG artists in the United Kingdom, but hardly anywhere for them to acquire work. The more job opportunities, the better.
 

daftalchemist

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Aug 6, 2008
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It really would be awesome if they could develop the technology further. It's already so useful for games and movies. It would be great to see how much further they could take it.
 

DividedUnity

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Oct 19, 2009
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Id love to try mo-cap. It looks like so much fun but you'd probably feel like a tool doing it.

Also I hope this business of his doesnt go belly up in the current climate
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
Legacy
Jul 18, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Warning: Very Rude Language


Creator and Creation together.
Best acceptance speech ever. I still love that little jab to Harry Potter.
 

Charli

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Nov 23, 2008
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My hero. He's exactly right, alot of the UK talent is exported to other countries because we don't have the facilities to develop fully here. He's to be commended for this.
 

Boba Frag

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Dec 11, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Warning: Very Rude Language


Creator and Creation together.
*falls off chair laughing*

XD

I haven't seen this in AGES!!!

"Peter Jackson... My precious... Who do you think you ARE, you f***ing hack??!!??"

Priceless.