Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Army’

Earlier this year, Hi-Rez Studios, the makers of the upcoming action MMO, Global Agenda, received an e-mail from the wife of U.S. Army Captain Chris Ficquette.

“My husband is in the United States Army and will be re-deployed for his second tour of duty this summer,” the e-mail stated. “ To date, I have not yet found a bigger fan of video games than him. Is there any way that I could have my husband involved in motion capturing so that he could be immortalized in your video game?”

The timing was impeccable. It so happened that Hi-Rez needed additional motion capture on some special weapons handling. What better than to use a seasoned military veteran?

Soon after, Chris came into the Studio and met with Lead Animator Daniel Lilleberg. Armed with nothing but a few Nerf weapons, Chris went to work. He even revealed some funky moves that were perfect for in-game emotes (short sequences that players can have their character perform by typing a command in the in-game chat window).

In the short video below, you’ll see three emotes that Chris performed the motion capture for that have subsequently been added to Global Agenda – HoeDown, RoboDance, and, our personal favorite, Psycho.

Also see below a few pictures from Chris’ motion capture session (shown with Lilleberg).

Chris and his unit are soon shipping back to Afghanistan. As Independence Day approaches, Hi-Rez wishes him and all of his mates in the 146th Movement Control Team the best of luck and godspeed. And a hearty shout of appreciation to all of our men and women in uniform from Hi-Rez Studios.

Every motion-capture sequence starts and ends with a “T Pose”, in order to level set the capturing software.

Daniel and Chris choreograph a sequence.

Strike a pose.

Daniel watches as Chris’ motions are captured.

Having fun with melee.