All in the motion

Friday 16 October

Ever wondered how you make an ultra-realistic videogame? We’re talking getting the movements of a character so spot on that you couldn’t tell the difference between a real-life parkour expert and the lead character in Assassin’s Creed 2. Well, wonder no more. We take a look behind the scenes of the upcoming game to find out how they re-created those perfect human movements.

So it was off to Ubisoft studios we went to check out the amazing motion-capture technology behind the game. Dressed from head to toe in a black suit covered in sensors the motion capture Shawn Baichoo, the motion capture actor, performs various movements (including running, jumping, stealth, sword-swinging, punching, kicking, etc), which are then captured on the computer and represented on screen.

Using technology not dissimilar to that used in James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar film, the motion capture technology is extremely versatile and will ultimately make the game a much more realistic experience.

But you didn’t come here to listen to us blathering on. Check out Shawn in action for yourselves in the video above…