MARK JOSEPH - ACTOR

What is mocap?

You may have heard the word “Mocap”, and thought, “Isn’t that when Andy Serkis dresses up in a weird suit with dots on his face and plays Gollum, or a monkey?” Well, you’re absolutely right! Andy Serkis (pictured below in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) has become the most famous name in an area of performance that is growing in popularity every day. That, is motion capture.

Motion capture (or “Mocap”) is a technique where an actor’s performance is digitally tracked, and then animated, for use in a video game, or on Film/TV. The performers wear suits with markers attached to them, so the cameras & computers can track the movements accurately in a large performance space, called the “Volume”. Often, it is just the actors body moments that are recorded. However, if the project requires the recording of the facial performance also, using a Head Mounted Camera (HMC), the process is known as full Performance Capture (or “Pcap”).

my mocap training

I’ve been lucky enough to receive training from one of the UK’s most highly regarded Mocap training schools, the Mocap Vaults. They were founded by veteran performer Oliver Hollis-Leick, and John Dower and run training courses in the UK, U.S & Canada.

Mocap training is different to standard actor training. It still requires the same level of character development and thought, but often at a much quicker pace, and with little reference material. Also, given a performer may have to play a multitude of different characters, more imagination and improv is often needed.

I most recently appeared as a motion capture performer in the AAA video game for the the No. 1 motorcycle racing franchise in the world, MOTOGP’20. Check out the trailer!

And here’s some more some examples of me doing motion/performance capture in scenes, all shot on the Centroid3d volume.