AUSTIN, TX – iPi Soft’s markerless motion capture solution, iPi Motion Capture, has been added to the list of creative tools being used to create the popular YouTube show Death Battle, which is seen on ScrewAttack, the production studio/entertainment brand under the Rooster Teeth umbrella. Season Three of the show, which attracts millions of views per episode, recently premiered and features a new, more sophisticated post workflow anchored by iPi’s mocap tool.
“Using motion capture is a relatively new addition to the overall production process behind our 3D fights,” explains Torrian Crawford, lead 3D animator/action director for the online show. “It’s made making animation for humanoid characters a lot easier and provides a great base for any adjustments. The multi-camera setup has also proved to be a great tool for creating non-motion capture animation references.”
Each episode of Death Battle imagines a fight to the death between pop culture's deadliest characters. Told in a tongue-in-cheek, comedic way, the show features a “pre-game” section in which a hyper-sounding announcer outlines each fighter’s strengths and weaknesses.
The production company has used iPI Motion Capture in concert with six PlayStation Eye cameras and three PlayStation Move controllers on ten episodes in the new season, featuring enhanced use of 3D animation.
“I have been using the software to lay down base animations for all realistic and sometimes non-realistic movements, stunts and actions,” Crawford explains. “The content is then saved and imported into Autodesk 3Ds Max where it is cleaned up and edited to fit the needs of the scene and characters.”
Crawford notes that iPi Motion Capture software proved essential on a recent episode featuring the character Dante (video game character from Devil May Cry) vs. Bayonetta (a videogame character) in which Crawford and his team needed to capture a large amount of the fight choreography and stunts.
“The affordability of iPi Motion Capture was huge for us,” Crawford says. “My experience with iPi Soft was so positive we decided to build out our in-house animation department and mocap studio using it. The software's simplicity, flexibility and ease of use gives me the ability to track multiple people without the need for expensive suits or marker placement.”