Actress and Performance Capture expert Victoria Atkin chats with some of the most prominent directors, actors and performance capture industry professionals about their careers in the motion capture world, how to get started and what it takes to be succes
Remington is the CEO and Chief Architect of Hyperreal® Inc., a firm dedicated to engineering the worlds most recognized digital humans called HyperModels™. Hyperreal has created Madison Beer's HyperModel and digital performance for Sony's Immersive Music Virtual Concert. Remington is an acclaimed cinematic director for best selling video games and virtual reality. Franchise titles include CALL OF DUTY, JUST CAUSE, ASSASSINS CREED, NEED FOR SPEED, RESISTANCE, and SPIDER-MAN. Clients include Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Activision, OF3D and Electronics Arts. Recognition includes The Visual Effects Society's "Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game". His achievements in motion pictures are extensive, including supervisory digital production under filmmakers Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Robert Zemeckis, Bryan Singer, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Zack Snyder and others.
Elizabeth Grullón is an artist with many talents - she is a director, a voice over artist, motion capture performer, practitioner of meditation, and entrepreneur. From working on animated series on Cartoon Network and Disney, to voicing the Beyoncé Formation world tour, to performing full motion capture in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Elizabeth brings her wisdom and creativity to all of her work. Elizabeth spent her childhood in Queens, Orlando, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. Her first performance capture job was Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, working with Tom Keegan, with many more projects on the way.
Inspired by actors such as Jim Carrey, Wesley Snipes and Andy Serkis, Ace Ruele is known for his animated and physically demanding acting abilities. From a young age, Ace was interested in becoming an action actor, but when he discovered motion capture and creature acting whilst working on the film, The Legend of Tarzan (2016), he instantly knew this was exactly what he wanted to do. Fast forward to 2020, Ace is one of the UK's leading actors within the motion capture/VFX industry. His ability to embody unorthodox creature movement and voice, has gained the respect of many who work within the industry around the world. A majority of Ace's work has been in films and video games, including titles such as, The Legend of Tarzan (film), Planets of The Apes VR (video game), The Inpatient (video game), Daymare 1988 (video game) and his biggest project to date, Marvel – Eternals (film). Ace's latest venture is through his company called, Creature-Bionics. The company's purpose is to develop performance rigs that enhance an actor's performance as a creature and create better data for motion capture and VFX reference. For a production, it will give the director better visuals to work with and provide the actors with better material to work off.
Caroline lives in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. She began her career as an actor and transitioned to directing. Caroline works at Humanoid Studios. When this episode was recorded she was with Bioware, for whom she worked for 13 years. Anthem (2019) was Bioware's first venture in performance capture. As Producer and Director at Bioware, Caroline covered all aspects of performance in storytelling from casting to voice over to performance capture. For emotional and compelling content our in-game characters rely on real actors giving solid performances to create the most dynamic, realistic experiences possible. This creates the immersive environment for our players that BioWare is best known for. Caroline's credits include Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Anthem.
Michael Antonakos has been performing since the age of seven. He spent most of his youth growing up in the Rocky Mountain's learning theatre in the Banff, Alberta and performing with the Rocky Mountain Shakespeare Company. After leaving the University for theatre he moved to Vancouver B.C, where he began focusing on film and television, his career path shifted when he landed his first video game audition with Lord Of the Rings: The Third Age, where he fell in love with motion capture and voice performance. Because of his physical abilities to transform into other people/creatures and create new unrecognizable voices he became well known performance capture actor in the video game world. Sleeping Dogs, Max Steel (Series), Dead Rising 4, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, and recently stared as Alexios in Ubisoft's most successful Assassin's Creed Video Game, Assassins Creed Odyssey. He has been in multiple t.v series and films: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Warcraft, Arrow, Supernatural, The Good Doctor, The Crossing Odysseus: Voyage to the Underworld, The Sandlot 2 & 3, Pants on Fire, Prison Break, iZombie, When Calls the Heart, Motive, Falling Skies, Continuum, Fringe, Alcatraz, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.
Emily began her career working on commercials and movies in the Bay Area. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked with the late Mali Finn on such films as Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic for James Cameron, L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys for Curtis Hanson, The Matrix for the Wachowskis, and The Client, A Time to Kill, Batman Forever, and Tigerland for Joel Schumacher. Her video game credits include Star Wars: Battlefront II, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus and The New Order, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Killzone: Shadow Fall, and most recently Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Need for Speed: Heat and Star Wars: Squadrons.
Victoria chats to the incredible performer and movement choreographer Terry Notary who has contributed so much to the performance capture industry. Notary's first career was as a performer with Cirque du Soleil. His first job as a stunt movement coach was on Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Director Ron Howard was hiring Cirque gymnasts for the film, and after sufficiently impressing Howard, Terry was offered the job of teaching all the actors how to move. Notary followed this new career path to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, for which he prepared by studying ape movements at the LA County Zoo. Terry's first motion capture film was Avatar, where he was the movement coach for the Na'vi.
Victoria chats with Ella about the differences between acting in tv/film and in the volume. Ella Balinska, known for her leading roles in Charlie's Angels (2019), Run Sweetheart Run (2020) and Resident Evil (2022), and THIS YEAR will star as the protagonist Frey Holland in Square Enix's brand new IP Forspoken for PlayStation 5! @squareenix @playstation Ella was born in London, UK and lives in Los Angeles, USA. Ella trained and graduated at the Guildford School of Acting with honors, and acquired her combat skills at the Academy of Performance Combat.
Victoria sits down with highly acclaimed and credited performance director and storyteller, Tom Keegan. His work includes AAA franchises, including Battlefield, Star Wars, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Need for Speed, Mirror's Edge, VR titles Archangel and Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. He received a BAFTA nomination for his work on Wolfenstein: The New Colossus and his products have won multiple BAFTAs, Game Awards, and the Golden Joystick.
Samantha is Victoria's UK agent! You don't want to miss this incredible conversation with these two powerhouse women of the performance capture industry. It is educational, insightful and ultimately inspiring. Samantha Dodd has been working in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. During this time, she has been involved with many productions that have won both BAFTAS, EMMYS and Royal Television Society awards. She runs top London agency, Carey Dodd Associates as well as Carey Dodd Voices.
Rohit's endless enthusiasm for all things animation and performance capture is intoxicating – you will absolutely love this episode! Victoria chats with Rohit about his work at Ubisoft, Mumbai and his incredible journey into working in performance capture animation plus we learn why Joey is his favorite Friends character.
Victoria talks with performance capture talent Maggie Macdonald. Maggie began her career as an actress and stuntwoman in NYC and has expanded into stunt coordinating and fight directing for both film and video games. She tells us about her journey and work on The Last of Us II plus balancing work and mom life!
It has finally happened! Richard Dorton and Victoria get a chance to talk shop in this long-awaited interview. Richard Dorton of The Mocap Vaults, stuntman, coach, mentor, director, dancer and THE MOCAPMAN tells us about his journey into this industry and what inspires him to give back to a community that has given so much to him. In his words, if you've played a video game, you've probably killed him.
Victoria talks with Julia Bianco Schoeffling who is the COO of The Halp Network and a voice and performance capture casting director. Recent performance capture casting credits include UFC 4, Madden NFL 21, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Crucible, and many others that we can't mention just yet.
Victoria has an in-depth discussion with filmmaker and game creator, Christian Cantamessa. Christian is widely known as the lead writer and designer on Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games). For his work on R.D.R., the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences honored Christian with an award for Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction. His company Sleep Deprivation Lab, Inc. is a consulting firm for all things creative from game design and writing to directing and production services.
In this episode Victoria sits down with powerhouse talent, Debra Wilson who is probably best known for her eight seasons on the former FOX late night sketch comedy series, MADtv. Years later, she's making her most creative and passionate mark in the Industry, through a wide range of voice over and Performance Capture projects.
In this episode Victoria chats to female performance capture producer Ajae Clearway! Ajae began specializing in performance capture in 2009 and has developed customized production protocols as a producer and AD for AAA game franchises including; Battlefield, Madden, Just Cause, Wolfenstein, Star Wars and other confidential games and movies that she can't tell us about just yet! Stay tuned!
Victoria talks with Troy Baker an American voice actor and musician, known for portraying the lead characters in many, MANY video games. He is currently best known as Joel in The Last of Us but his list of credits is extensive not only in games but in Anime and in the Marvel franchise where he's voiced Hawkeye and Loki. He's a legend in the gaming world and has the credit of not only voicing Batman in various titles but also the Joker!
Victoria Atkin chats to Marla Rausch, founder and CEO of Animation Vertigo, a motion capture animation service provider with locations in the US and the Philippines. She is passionate about giving back to organizations, particularly those that support the entrepreneurial spirit and mentor girls and women.
Host Victoria Atkin chats to Bryan Dechart who hardly needs an intro to the gaming community - he and his lovely wife, Amelia Rose Blair (A guest on Season 1) are fan favorites and seasoned performance capture actors. Bryan is an American actor and Twitch streamer best known for his role as Connor in the game Detroit: Become Human. He also played Eli Chandler on Jane by Design and starred in the film The Remaining with Alexa Vega.
In this episode Victoria chats with Janina Gavankar who is no stranger to the world of on-camera acting boasting a successful career in television and feature films but her true passions are video games and music - she's a trained pianist,vocalist and percussionist. Yep, she's all that and a cool nerd to boot. Some of her latest successes include video game: Star Wars: Battlefront II, Apple TV series The Morning Show and check her out this March with Ben Affleck in the feature film, The Way Back.
In this episode Victoria chats to Demian Gordon, a pioneer in the field of Performance Capture. He's been capturing and manipulating data longer than many of us have been on the planet. His extensive feature film credits, to name a few, include: The Watchmen, I Am Legend, Hancock, Beowulf, Monster House, The Polar Express, The Matrix II and Matrix III, as well as numerous television and video game credits. While he's worked for many of the big studios, his current title is Virtual Production Supervisor at Dreamworks. Demian is also the Chairman of the Motion Capture Society Board of Directors and a member of the Visual Effects Society.
In this episode Victoria talks with Katie Lydon, a Virtual Production Supervisor at Centroid Motion Capture located at the world famous Pinewood Studios in London. Katie has worked in the VFX industry for nearly three years now. Just a few of the titles she's worked on include: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, F1 2019, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim 2.
In this episode Victoria talks with TV, Film and Performance Capture Actor, Roger Clark about his experience on the Motion Capture stage and his advice for actors who want to get started in this field. Roger Clark is an Irish American actor and producer best known for his performance of Arthur Morgan in Rockstar Games' RED DEAD REDEMPTION II for which he won the 2018 Game Award for Best Performance! Roger was born in New Jersey, raised in Ireland and trained as an actor in the UK.
In this episode Victoria talks with TV, Film and Performance Capture Actress Amelia Rose Blaire about her experience on the Motion Capture stage and her advice for actors who want to get started in this field.
In this episode Victoria talks with Senior Performance Capture Technician Gerardo Corona Sorchini about his experience on the Motion Capture stage and his advice for individuals who want to get started behind the camera.
In this episode Victoria talks with beauty expert Mara Levarre about working as a makeup artist in Performance Capture. Victoria chats to Mara about her experience on the Motion Capture stage and her advice for makeup artists in this field.
In this episode Victoria talks with cinematics director and visual effects supervisor Aladino Debert about his experience directing performance capture and his advice for directors and actors who want to get started in this field.
In this episode Victoria talks with TV, Film and Performance Capture Actress Patricia Summersett about her experience on the Motion Capture stage and her advice for actors who want to get started in this field.
In this episode Victoria talks with cinematics Director Ismael Auray about his experience directing video games with Ubisoft and Guerrilla Games and his advice for directors and actors who want to get started in this field.
In this episode Victoria talks with TV, Film and Performance Capture Casting Director Jessica Jefferies about her experience on the Motion Capture stage and her advice for actors when it comes to auditioning for Performance Capture projects.
In this episode Victoria talks with TV, Film and Performance Capture Actor Elias Toufexis about his experience on the Motion Capture stage and his advice for actors who want to get started in this field.