This wasn’t my first motion capture rodeo. I strutted onto the motion capture volume armed with an impressive resume of motion capture and stunt coordination on some of the biggest games in the world. I fancied myself a black belt in mocap-jitsu, ready for anything. It was then that I discovered I was working on Demon’s Souls, a game that would require that this 20-year-stuntman relearn how to move.
Creative Director Gavin Moore and Animation Director Chris Torres were tasked with executing the precise feel that gamers came to know from the original while also expanding upon it in innovative ways that remained true to the core gameplay. All the game’s original animations had to be motion captured, and I was their muse for the next year and a half.
Motion capturing Demon’s Souls combat system was a very precise endeavor. The game’s attacks, navigation, dodges, and synced kills, or “ripostes,” had to be playable, true to the original’s, and aesthetically sound. If performed too quickly, the movements would lack clear arcs and silhouettes. Performed too slowly, they might lose their weight and inertia. Gavin directed the intention and technique, and Chris made sure the metrics were dead on.
A navigation set for each of the 20 weapon classes had to be captured, including walks, runs, sprints, pivots, starts, stops, turns, and strafes, all done to a rhythmic metronome. These movements were combined into complex patterns that we called “dance cards.” Chris decided to capture the walks in the morning to warm up, build up to sprints, and when I gassed out in the afternoon we captured the “encumbered” movements. The first dance card took us an entire day to capture, but gradually we economized and could finish one in 70 minutes.
When performing combat animations, each move has five stages: opening pose, anticipation (“antic”), attack, recovery, and end pose. Anticipations should match the attacks so that they can be anticipated by other players. Recoveries are short for light attacks, long for heavy ones. Being a Japanese game in spirit, the movement in Demon’s Souls is “pose-heavy.” Rather than performing brutal, character-infused attacks, Gavin directed me to be character-less and focus instead on final poses.
Defend against monsters
Shortly after your shop opens, you will get unwanted visitors. Slimes, ghosts and thieves of different types will invade your store and try to s