
When it comes to orcs versus humans, it's safe to say intense action ensues. But just how did Jones and his collaborators craft a race of orcs - taller and more muscle-bound than humans - and feature them not just in ferocious mega-battles, but also reveal their more subtle and nuanced emotional lives?
The answer lay in the use of motion capture and virtual production tech, supplied by performance capture leader Animatrik.
Animatrik's camera tracking, motion-capture suit and simulcam technology enabled complicated and realistic on-set performances from the orc performers. This data in turn aided visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer and VFX studio ILM to easily transfer those performances into the digital realm, creating the photoreal orc digi-likenesses witnessed in the final film. (For an extensive look at the visual effects creation, see Crafty Effects in the July.August 2016 issue.)
Warcraft was the largest virtual production Animatrik has ever been involved with, says president and CTO Brett Ineson. The production had eight different stages over five months of shooting. Some were 300 feet in length, and there were even outdoor stages where the team had to film in the rain!
Compositing Orcs in Real Time
Animatrik delivered several motion-capture services throughout production; the full monty, as Ineson describes it. We supplied tracking cameras, tracking weapons and props, all integrated with live action sets and live action actors, and then integrated those CG sets and actors together, he explains.
The idea was that as we were filming you could see everything happening through the eyepiece of the movie camera - all the backgrounds, orcs and creatures composited in real time with our tracking tech, Ineson notes.
Animatrik deployed two kinds of motion-capture camera technologies - NaturalPoint and Vicon cameras and a SolidTrack system.
The first tech setup was coined outside in, and relied on capturing the motion of performers in motion-capture suits along with the main film camera. This provided a real-time simulcam composite of the characters and their backgrounds.
Integrating Simulcam
When there was no motion-capture camera equipment on set, or the actors walked inside sets or areas where the cameras could not see them anymore, Animatrik used an inside out approach.
We'd mount a small vision survey camera to the movie camera, explains Ineson. This camera would integrate with a system called SolidTrack, which would lock onto every pixel it sees and calculate its 3D position to the world around it. We could then work out the offset between that camera and the movie camera for the simulcam view.
Having that simulcam view was so valuable for everyone on set, continues Ineson. It really helped with things like framing, since the orcs, for example, might be up to 12 feet tall. Knowing that on set meant the camera operator could re-position for the best angle.
Simply put, the production was able to shoot Warcraft as if it were a normal movie . This drastically reduced the changes necessary on the back end.
The Great Outdoors
Animatrik's motion-capture tech helped solve another challenging aspect of Warcraft s outdoor shoots.
Motion capture outdoors has traditionally been much trickier than a controlled stage environment, but Animatrik was able to use past experience to overcome the challenge. The team used active marker suits fitted with LED lights developed with Standard Deviation to achieve highly accurate motion capture.
Because of the outdoor sets, light pollution and rain, we needed to create LED suits for the actors to wear because we knew we would have trouble bouncing light from the camera to do a traditional motion capture, says Ineson. The LEDs are synchronized to pulse in time with the motion-capture camera and, therefore, not impact on the main photography. This allowed for much more precise outdoor performance capture, and a more realistic performance from the actors themselves, who could more realistically place themselves into the scene.
The Subtlety of Facial Performance
Animatrik's work was not done yet - the company also played a big part in the orc's facial-capture solution.
In order to capture the orc's emotive performances, the on-set actors wore a helmet camera system developed by Technoprops, consisting of a pair of stereo cameras that delivered two streams of video. These cameras caught every nuance and subtle shade of emotion that passed across the actors' faces as they performed.
Animatrik's role in the facial animation was in the post-process tracking of the data that came off those cameras, explains Ineson. The stereo cameras meant we could track the data in 3D as opposed to 2D. We would track the facial marker set into 3D and then deliver that data over to the VFX vendor, in this case, ILM, which then worked with it in their proprietary facial animation solver.
Seeing the results of Animatrik's motion-capture work still causes Ineson to marvel, especially considering the scale of the shoot.
It was just so complicated, he says. It's one thing to capture performances, but when you have nine orcs fighting nine humans with moving cameras and all that action happening, the fact that the cameraman could see this all in his camera in real time, it was so great. It's also fantastic to see just how much of the actors' likenesses and performances are retained in the orcs. You can see the personality shine through each of these digi-likenesses.
Not only was Warcraft an evolution of Animatrik's craft, but it also helped the team make a major leap in the services the company now offers.
There was a lot of R&D involved in Warcraft, and a lot of things that had to be custom build in order to make the movie possible, says Ineson. Our services
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
19/04/2025
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company earned multiple awards at the 2025 NAB Show, with two...
19/04/2025
Ateliere Creative Technologies, a leading GenAI media software solutions company, today announced that Dan Goman has stepped down as CEO and David Bortis, Ateli...
19/04/2025
As Director of Media and Aerial Production at Terrible Herbst Motorsports, Bryan Moore is setting new standards in off-road racing media coverage thanks to his ...
19/04/2025
A next-generation collaboration device that redefines connectivity for meeting environments
Lightware, an industry-leading manufacturer of signal management so...
19/04/2025
Calrec is today announcing that its True Control 2.0 is a Remote Production winner in the 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. This official awards program...
19/04/2025
Appear, a global leader in live production technology, proudly announces it has been recognised alongside NBCUniversal with the prestigious NAB Show Delivery Pr...
19/04/2025
Deity Microphones, a leader in innovative audio equipment, is proud to announce the expected release of our Ultra-Wide Band IFB to the market. The THEOS DIFB wi...
19/04/2025
A world renowned broadcaster and long-standing LiveU customer has successfully completed a series of live connectivity tests using LiveU's revolutionary, aw...
19/04/2025
BitFire (bitfire.tv), a longtime leader in live video transport, today announced dual NAB Show award wins at the 2025 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The company's M...
19/04/2025
BitFire (bitfire.tv), a longtime leader in live video transport, today announced three major award wins at the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, in Las Vegas. The compa...
19/04/2025
AI video discovery company Moments Lab and Satisfaction Group, a leading independent unscripted television production company, are proud to announce a unique st...
19/04/2025
As the media industry navigates the triple challenge of AI-driven production, distributed teams, and skyrocketing content demand, DigitalGlue s creative.space h...
19/04/2025
Network technology startup Miri Technologies Inc. capped off its tremendously successful NAB Show debut by winning two prestigious industry awards for its cutti...
19/04/2025
CINCINNATI Scripp's Nuvyyo USA has concluded a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring 45 FAST channels to Nuvyyo's Tablo TV device....
19/04/2025
In a ruling that could have broader implications on the legality of regulatory agencies levying fines through administrative proceedings, the 5th U.S. Circuit C...
19/04/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has blasted Comcast over MSNBC's coverage of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a so...
19/04/2025
Berklee NYC and NYC Media Launch Season 3 of Inside Power Station @BerkleeNYC This season features faculty member Arun Pandian as the new host and interviews ...
18/04/2025
Director Andrew Ahn, alongside actors Youn Yuh-jung and Joan Chen, takes a photo of the audience after the premiere of his film The Wedding Banquet at Eccles ...
18/04/2025
In a ruling that could have a major impact on the digital advertising market, a federal judge has ruled that Google has monopolized some types of advertising te...
18/04/2025
Broadcast and cable TV news outlets saw strong social media growth in March, according to new data from the social video analytics company Tubular Labs ....
18/04/2025
Berklee Student Yukai Yang Named 2025 Yamaha Young Performing Artist The drummer secured a spot among the elite winners in this years competition.
By
Maddie...
18/04/2025
Boston Conservatory Alums Bring Real Women Have Curves to Broadway The Latin American immigrant community takes center stage in a new musical featuring Tatian...
18/04/2025
WASHINGTON The FCC's call for public comments and suggestions on outdated regulations that it should be eliminated, has prompted a slew of fillings from bro...
18/04/2025
In a ruling that could have a major impact on the digital advertising market, a federal judge has ruled that Google has monopolized some types of advertising te...
18/04/2025
PEARL RIVER, N.Y. Global media solutions company Active Media Services (AMS) has formed a new relationship with VideoAmp, a measurement company for linear TV, c...
18/04/2025
Netflix reported generally positive results for first-quarter 2025, with revenue up 13% year-over-year to $10.543 billion and operating income growing by 27% to...
18/04/2025
NHL Playoffs 2025: TNT Sports Hits the Road for Onsite Productions With Mobile U...
18/04/2025
EVSs S bastien Verlaine on U.S. Expansion, Next-Generation Products Beyond replay, offerings also target asset management and media infrastructure By Ken Kersc...
18/04/2025
ESPN Unleashes 4DREPLAY as NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Hit ABC Men's championships to follow Saturday night on ESPN2 By Brandon Costa, Direct...
18/04/2025
Visualizing Victory: The Latest in AR, XR, and Virtual Production in Live Sports This panel discussion featured leaders from ESPN, CBS Sports, Warner Bros. Disc...
18/04/2025
NHL Playoffs 2025: With 16 Games in First Six Days, ESPN Deploys Variety of Remo...
17/04/2025
Emilie Blichfeldt attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of The Ugly ...
17/04/2025
R-GPS gives warfighters a decisive battlefield advantage by punching through adv...
17/04/2025
This year's NAB Show in Las Vegas marked a noticeable shift in the priorities of media and broadcast organisations. Gone are the days of chasing flashy, or ...
17/04/2025
class=attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail f-align-center alt= decoding=async data-lazy-srcset=https://www.antonbauer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Amy-Daniel-1...
17/04/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku and Adobe have announced that they are collaborating on a real time data platform made possible by a a new integration of the Roku Data C...
17/04/2025
NEW YORK Internet advertising revenues demonstrated strong growth in 2024, increasing 14.9% year-over-year to $258.6 billion, according to the IAB Internet Adv...
17/04/2025
SDVI Earns Both Product and Project of the Year Awards at 2025 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 17, 2025
0 Comments
Left to right, Geoff Stedman, CMO, SDVI...
17/04/2025
Singapore Polytechnic Readies Aspiring AV Professionals for Live IP Productions ...
17/04/2025
Calrec Wins 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Award for True Control 2.0
Brie Clayton April 17, 2025
0 Comments
Image: The Calrec True Control 2.o on ...
17/04/2025
In Return to Berklee, Lucius Looks Back and Moves Forward From mood boards to live demos, the alumni band gave students an exclusive look at the process behin...
17/04/2025
DirecTV's free streaming service MyFree DirecTV has just added another eight channels from NBCUniversal....
17/04/2025
LOS ANGELES The virtual production company GameChanger has announced that it is expanding its global footprint by bringing its virtual production technology to ...
17/04/2025
DENVER The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) has announced that it has developed a proprietary, automated software-based system to iden...
17/04/2025
Pixalate's new CTV Device Market Share report for Q1 2025 shows that Roku has the highest open programmatic CTV device market share in the United States, wi...
17/04/2025
Edward J. Lewis III Named Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Lewis has more than 20 years of industry experience, leading fundraising initiati...
17/04/2025
The Curling Group Puts On Inaugural Curling All-Star Game in Nashville The location in Music City is intended to broaden the sport's appeal By Dan Daley, ...
17/04/2025
April 17th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces TV & NOW Lineup
World Premieres and Exclusive Cast Panels with Apple TV '...
17/04/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cisco's Bryan Bedford on Providing End-to-End Support for Clie...