In the past we’ve seen what motion capture technology is capable of. It allows for a person wearing a black or green suite with balls pinned to it to have their movement relayed to a computer. Once this is completed, the computer records what it saw and the results used for game models and CGI in films. Up until now this has basically been an industry standard and the only real flaw with the process were facial expressions. The “balls” that were pinned to the suite are placed on joints, the torso, and generally any area of the body that moves, but never the face. When it comes to motion capture for facial expressions, reflective dots are used, but the end result is still rough and requires a lot of post production work.

At this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), a company by the name of Mova, who specializes in a “Contour Reality Capture” system, revealed a new technique for motion capture technology. The system they use basically has the ability to capture 100,000 polygons with each scene, meaning it looks damn realistic.

Mova Contour Reality Capture in Unreal Engine 3 from Joy Stiq on Vimeo

Mova has chosen to display this technology using the Unreal® engine at this year’s GDC. To say the least, the end result was almost too good to be true; some might even say it was unreal. Sad jokes aside, the impact this could have on the gaming community is nothing to laugh at. This technology could very well be the next step in some incredibly cinematic and lifelike games.

Mova Contour Reality Capture - Gangster Demo (not real-time) from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.

In an interview with Joystiq.com, Steve Perlman, founder and president of Mova, stated that he has also been involved in Apple's QuickTime and Microsoft's WebTV, and talked about the anticipated success of his company’s system in the gaming industry. Though there is no set project that is currently using the technology (at least not one that we know of), Perlman expects this to spread like wildfire by 2009. He also mentioned that games using this technique could come be coming out as early as this year.

After watching the two videos above, I’m sure there will be no doubt in your mind that this is the future of motion capture technology. The minute details that the system is able to capture are simply ridiculous and far surpass anything we’ve seen to this day. Keep your eyes peeled, folks.

For a closer look on how the “Make-Up” motion capture technology, click below or visit Mova official website, Mova.com.

QuickTime 480p (1.4 Mbps)

QuickTime 720p (2.4 Mbps)

Windows Media 480p (2.1 Mbps)

Windows Media 720p (3.1 Mbps)

Feel free to contact me at Andrews@team.beer.com