The Mocap Vaults – Foundation STORY
2012 Derby – UK Midlands
The whiskey had the evocative aroma of a wet dog drying out in front a peat fire. No wonder – “Ardbeg” is described as a heavily peated Islay whiskey. Oliver Hollis-Leick and I were in mid-flow in his hotel room after a day in the Mocap Studio. We were in the midst of capturing Cinematics for Activision’s Bond extravaganza “007 Legends” at Eurocom’s studio outside Derby. The year was 2012. The hotel was a one level Premier Inn – a modest establishment in the sticks with no bar. Hence the Ardbeg.
Oli was an ex-gymnast who then went to Bristol Old Vic and learnt the Theatrical traditions. He had long experience of acting in Motion Capture and he was playing James Bond in the game. I was an ex-actor and film school trained Director, who had long experience of Film and TV. I was Directing the Cinematics, alongside the head of animation.
I had cast mostly TV and Film actors in the various roles and they were required largely to act along to pre-recorded audio, much of which we’d recorded in London with either the original cast from the Bond films, or soundalikes. It was a big ask to get them to act in a Mocap suit along to someone else’s voice. Of course, to Oli it was nothing new – he’d been doing it for years. However, over the Ardbeg, we agreed on one thing – no one had taught us how to do this and we were having to teach these actors on the floor.\
I think it was Oli’s idea - I can’t be sure, but we agreed there and then that we should start training people in performing for Mocap. I was also keen to train directors, since again I’d been thrown in at the deep end when in 2008, I found myself directing Mocap for the first time in Oxford and Los Angeles on a game for Lionhead/Microsoft. No set, no costume, lots of computers and animation requirements and yet I was asked to help create believable performance.
It took a while, but in 2014 I got a call from Oli, who was at GDC in San Francisco. John, I’ve met some people here and I’m going to set up a workshop in Los Angeles and I think we should set up the company. I had my reservations and felt very far away, but I’d learnt that Oli was a pretty special person and that if he said he could do something, he could. And he did. The Mocap Vaults was formed, Oli ran workshops in Los Angeles and then we started running them together in London, then bringing in movement expert Gareth Taylor to run our Heroes and Monsters classes. By the summer of 2015, we ran our first Mocap Summit at Rouge Mocap studio in Los Angeles – a weekend full of energy and synergy for actors, animators & directors.
It was the start of a great adventure.
