Los
Angeles, Calif. - VICON's T160 motion-capture system was deployed to
capture pro hockey players in an outdoor shoot hosted by 2K Sports at
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. To promote its upcoming game title
NHL 2K10, 2K Sports set up an artificial ice rink inside a VICON mocap
volume to capture signature hockey moves from NHL 2K10 cover
star Alex Ovechkin and NHL star Ryan Kesler. The nighttime event took
place on June 16, and was open to the public. NHL 2K10 is scheduled to
release later this year on Wii, PS3, Xbox, and PS2.
To create a 40x60-foot outdoor capture volume for the shoot, VICON worked closely with 2K Sports to assemble an artificial ice rink surrounded by six scissor lifts outfitted with 60 top of the line VICON T160 cameras. VICON Business Development Manager Jeff Beavers oversaw the setup and operation of the system, along with 2K Sports Motion Capture Supervisor David Washburn.
In addition to the T160 cameras, VICON also provided cables and other hardware, mounting equipment, and computers running VICON's Blade software for mocap data processing and Autodesk MotionBuilder for rendering. VICON also set up two 52" monitors for real-time playback of the captured moves, one for Blade and the other for MotionBuilder. To avoid the Las Vegas 100+ degree daytime heat, the system was assembled and tested the night before, and then broken down to be reassembled for the event.
This is the second public motion capture event that VICON has participated in with 2K Sports. The first event, held June 25, 2007 at New York City's famed Rucker Park to promote the 2K Sports game title NBA 2K8, featured the signature moves of NBA 2K8 cover athlete Chris Paul along with NBA stars Andre Iguodala, Gerald Wallace, and Rudy Gay.
Academy Award-winning VICON is the world's largest supplier of precision motion tracking systems, serving customers and CG animation applications in film, visual effects, computer games, and broadcast television, as well as engineering and life science industries. VICON operates in four offices worldwide, including its Los Angeles-based Entertainment headquarters, a 26,000 square-foot facility equipped with three performance capture stages for VICON's service company House of Moves as well as over 250 VICON F40 cameras.