Vicon 8 Selected by Foundation Imaging for Sony's "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" Motion Capture

Tustin, CA -- Foundation Imaging, a prominent visual effects house, has purchased Vicon Motion Systems’ Vicon 8 for capturing multiple computer generated characters for Sony Pictures Family Entertainment Group’s new "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" for the Bohbot Kids Network debuting in the Fall 1999. The announcement was made by Foundation Imaging co-founders Ron Thornton & Paul Bryant.

Sony Family Entertainment Group will be working with Foundation Imaging who will be co-producing 40 episodes of the half-hour series along with effects studio Flat Earth Productions. The show features eight main 3D rendered characters animated using motion capture data from Vicon 8, the same system used to capture motion for "Titanic", "The Mummy", "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" and other television programs and feature films.

Dave West, Motion Capture Supervisor, and the crew at Foundation Imaging began production in March on "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" working initially with a magnetic motion capture system in the company’s 5000 square foot capture studio. "We chose to switch to Vicon 8, because it’s a more accurate optical motion capture system for animation. With an optical system, we have greater capture volume, and get more people in the capture space at one time. It is also much easier for the actors with the old system, they wore wired sensors and backpacks, but with Vicon 8’s optical markers, their movement is completely unrestricted, which allows for very easy stunt capture. We often have the actors doing rolls, falls and flying gags," commented West." Another huge benefit to our production is that with Vicon 8, we are able to capture more than one actor at the same time in the same scene. In the past, our animators had to spend considerable time integrating the capture data from separate actors into the same scene now that we can shoot several characters at the same time, the interaction is more natural."

Foundation Imaging captures about 85-90% of the episodes of "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" that they produce, with as many as 500 captures per episode possible.

"Without motion capture, it simply wouldn’t be feasible to animate a program of this volume by keyframe. We save a lot of time with motion capture, and we look forward to testing the upcoming Vicon 8Rt real-time system—I anticipate that will significantly speed up our production pipeline," Mr. West added. Vicon Motion Systems recently introduced Vicon 8Rt, real-time optical motion capture for live broadcast, gaming, film and multimedia. Vicon 8 is a TCP/IP server delivering character motion directly to computer animation packages. This allows Foundation Imaging to seamlessly integrate motion data with Kaydara’s FilmBox and NewTek’s LightWave, applications also used in the show’s production.

About Foundation Imaging

Foundation Imaging was formed in 1992 by Mr. Ron Thornton and his partner, Mr. Paul Bryant, two Emmy Award winning visual effects artists. Since its inception, the company’s projects have included creating visual effects for movies ("Contact", "The Jackal") television series, (Star Trek:Voyager" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" for Paramount TV and "Beetleborgs: Metallix" and "The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog" for Saban Entertainment) home entertainment, ("Batman Vs. Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero" for Warner Bros. Home Video) and themed entertainment attractions ("Star Trek: The Experience" for Landmark Entertainment Group and the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel.)

About Vicon Motion Systems

Vicon Motion Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxford Metrics, Ltd. For over 15 years Oxford Metrics, Ltd. has been providing professionals with the latest tools to accurately capture the subtleties of motion. For more information on Vicon browse to www.vicon.com.