It's the end of the world as we know it...

We've had a lot of work recently capturing crowd data for feature films. This scene from Roland Emmerich's disaster epic 2012 features our own Mike Hedges and ex-What's Your News cast member Brian Herring performing numerous panic reactions.

The magic of the film making process was slightly unmined for me when I saw that an amazing scene such as this was really just two fellas in lyrca running up and down our volume waving their arms. And Hedges fell over. Several times. He's such a method actor...

A YouTube sensation! (Not the cat playing a piano)

In April 2009, Centroid joined forces with Partizan and MPC to shoot the legendary Evian rollerskating babies commercial, which recieved 24 million hits on YouTube in it's first month!

We covered the volume floor with tongue and groove to give the performers(from Starlight Express) a fast surface to skate on and for a day the studio became a roller disco! Thankfully, leg warmers were banned.

And no, we didn't actually capture babies in rollerskates...



The making of the Evian babies commercial...

Man babies!
The Centroid roller rink
Director Michael Gracey watches the action...

DJ Centroid feat. MC Mocap

In July 2009, a collection of young ladies and gentlemen visited the studio to get down and generally shake their groove thang for the opening sequence for DJ Hero. (That is how young people speak isn't it?)
We gave them a polished roll of lino, stood back and watched them be offensively athletic, funky and 'street'. At one point someone even said 'yo'.

Directed by Marco Puig for Warp Films, with post production duties going to Framestore, here's the final piece in all it's glory. It is a bit loud though...


poo

Young people and their music...

Then he fell over...

Ahh...a bit of culture...

The Virtual Cellist was the brainchild of William Todd Jones, who we had previously worked with Centroid on What's Your News? The concept was a fusion of the beautiful music of classical cellist Matthew Barley with visuals of the performance, captured live and applied to various character models. These visuals would be mixed with pre-recorded footage by Yeast Culture VJ Nick Hillel. The performance took place at King's Place in Central London and was also streamed live over the web!

Another Centroid slam dunk!

In July 2008, we set up our mobile system in one of the epic stages on the Pinewood lot to shoot a commericial for Glassworks. It involved motorbikes that transformed into robots to play a late night game of basketball. That's exactly how the whole Terminator thing started.

Here's the finished piece in all it's shiny glory!

This actually happens more often than you'd think.

Insert a 'dribble' and 'ball' gag here...

No basketball players were hurt in the making of this commercial.

Well, not many...

You need hands...

Our very own technical manger, Mike 'the Hedge' Hedges is always only too willing to jump into a mocap suit in the name of research. Some speculate he wears one under his normal clothes, just in case. Much like Superman.

This time, the excuse for donning tights was to further test capturing live finger data. Using new velco friendly gloves which ensure the stability of the markers, the results were great!
Capturing finger or 'mitten' data can save a client considerable time and money in post and is one of the many additional services we offer at Centroid over and above full body capture. We can even throw in signed pictures of Mike in a variety of tasteful and artistic poses.

Like a heavily armed mocap gnome.

I really want to see those fingers...

What's Your News? on Nick Jnr!

Following a six month shoot at Shepperton Studios in the later half of 2007, What's Your News? is now coming to the small screen thanks to TT Animation and those nice people at Nick Jnr. Not to mention to the hard working gentlemen of Centroid!

Following the news reporting adventures of Grant the ant and Antony the anteater (tricky partnership that one) it's perfect for keeping little kiddies entertained and amused!

What's Your News? can be found on Nick Jnr everyday at 7.30am and 4.00pm.

Centroid online goes....online!

The Centroid online motion capture library has launched! First choice for high quality, affordable mocap data in a variety of formats (but no strawberry flavour).
The library is an ongoing endevour for Centroid and more content will be added all the time, so come back and visit often to see what's new! You don't even have to keep your voice down while browsing.

We've got something for everyone - horses, pirates, zombies, martial artists, dead people, people with guns, people having a bit of a dance, the list goes on and on! Use our shiny new previewing tool to watch each take in full 3D to ensure that what you buy is what you want!

Come and visit us at http://centroidonline.com/.

Martial arts (hi-yah!)


Pirates (arr!)


Horses (horsey noise)

Bask in it's splendor!

Shop til you drop!