Broadcast Beat Magazine 2017 NAB Show NY/SMPTE Special Edition | Page 48

work on the initial pass: “We
just take the raw data and put
it onto our characters – it’s that
good!”
door to further experimenta-
tion. Unshackled from the
mocap volume, Unexpected
can try out some truly out-there
ideas.
Improv mocap
The flexibility of the Xsens suits
means quicker commercial pro-
duction, but it also opens the
For example, for a commercial
set in outer space, Unexpected
placed a suit-wearing animator
on a rolling office chair, pushing
him back and forth to simulate
gravity-free movement. And
for the ZAIN commercial, Kiesl
himself wore an Xsens suit in his
car and drove for 30 minutes,
capturing realistic hand and
body movements in the driver’s
seat – something that would be
simply impossible with optical
mocap.
But above all, the time savings
and ease of use have made
Xsens an essential part of the
Unexpected workflow. Even
large, complicated projects like
the Dubai Parks and Resorts
commercial seem more feasible
when motion capture sessions
can be achieved anytime, any-
where.
48 • Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com
“There were so many characters
in the Dubai Parks and Resorts
crowd scene,” says Kiesl. “We
just motion-captured basically
all of them, and then we had
crowds of hundreds of danc-
ers doing performing motions.
There was very little time to do
it, but thanks to Xsens the proj-
ect went entirely smoothly.”
From script to screen
Unexpected now uses their
Xsens suits for every project.
Even if an ad doesn’t have a
character mocap requirement,
the studio uses the technol-
ogy for proof-of-concept clips,
previsualization, and animatics.
The whole production pipe-
line benefits from this new and
simple approach to the motion
capture process.
“Xsens has changed our lives
across post, previz, and prepa-
ration,” affirms Kiesl. “It’s been
a huge impact, and fundamen-
tally improved the way we work
at Unexpected.”