HOUSE OF MOVES CAPTURES DANCERS FOR BLACK EYED PEAS' 'BOOM BOOM POW'

Production Studio Motion Theory Taps House of Moves for Music Video Mocap


Los Angeles, CA (June 1, 2009)—Vicon House of Moves recently provided motion capture services for the Black Eyed Peas’ high impact “Boom Boom Pow” music video. Directed by Motion Theory’s Mathew Cullen and Mark Kudsi, the promo features a troupe of perfectly synchronized CG dancers that were animated based on performances captured on the newly constructed Vicon House of Moves (HOM) soundstage.

“Working at HOM was a fairly intuitive and a very streamlined process. We had instant feedback after every take, which made it very easy to direct and make adjustments,” said Kudsi. “HOM also provided us with footage from the capture session that proved to be extremely helpful throughout the editorial process. We were able to incorporate placeholders of our session the very next day into our edit.”

The video embodies the supersonic energy of the track with rapid-fire cuts of dancers and of the hip hop group as they transform into their digital doppelgangers. Several sequences feature transformer-like shapes that pulsate to the beat as they multiply, divide and morph into groups of CG dancers.

“Since the dancers acted as catalysts for this change, it was important for us to have total control of how they looked and transformed in the video. They needed to have a human feel so it was important to capture the details of their movement in a realistic manner,” explained Kudsi. “The use of mo-cap for this project was necessary in accomplishing our creative vision. Mo-cap also gave us the flexibility to quickly try several different iterations of choreography that we wouldn’t have had the time for, had we done everything by hand.”

Motion Theory spent one day shooting two dancers on the newest of House of Moves’ two custom designed motion capture stages. The new stage features soundproof walls and a scalable truss system that can allow for facial, body and finger or full-performance capture. The stage is also equipped to record professional-quality audio during capture into a single time code synced performance.

About Vicon House of Moves
Vicon House of Moves is a division of Vicon, the Academy Award®-winning supplier of precision motion tracking systems, serving customers in film, visual effects, computer games, and broadcast television, as well as engineering and life science industries Vicon is the largest holding of OMG (Oxford Metrics Group - LSE: OMG), plc.

Vicon House of Moves provides professional motion capture services, stock 3D data, and 3D animation services for the entertainment industry. With expertise dating back to 1985 and credits ranging from game titles Resistance 2 and Unchartered to films including Spider-Man 2 to Titanic, Vicon House of Moves has contributed to hundreds of animation projects. For more information, call (310) 306-6131 or visit www.moves.com.

 

PROJECT CREDITS
The Black Eyed Peas
“Boom Boom Pow” VIDEO

RECORD LABEL
Record label: Interscope Records
Artist: Black Eyed Peas
Track: "Boom Boom Pow"
Video Commissioner: Kathy Angstadt

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Motion Theory
Director: Mathew Cullen, Mark Kudsi
DP: Jeff Cronenweth
Executive Producer: Javier Jimenez
Line Producer: Anna Joseph

POST-PRODUCTION
VFX Company: Motion Theory
VFX Supervisor: Bryan Godwin
Producer: Patrick Nugent
Post Production Manager: Sheri Patterson
Design Lead: Brian Gossett
CG Lead: Danny Zobrist
Lighting Lead: Charles Paek
Tech Lead/Art Director: Keith Pasko
Compositing Supervisor: Stuart Cripps
Concept Artist: Carm Goode
Pre-visualization: Rocky Curby
Research: Amy Paskow, Jesse Sorin
Designers: Max Groff, Paul Kim, Jesse Sorin, Angela Zhu
Programmers: Ryan Alexander, Josh Nimoy, Keith Pasko
3D Generalists: Ben Grangereau, Troy Barsness
Lighter: Kevin Jackson
Motion Capture Tech/Rigger: Jesse Carlson
Motion Capture Animators: John Tumlin, Robert Bardy
Rigger: Mauro Contaldi
Modeler: Troy Barsness
Compositors: Andrew Ashton, Casey McIntyre, Robin Resella, Deke Kincaid, Danny Koenig, Evan Parsons, My Tran
Flame Artists: Matt Motal, Danny Yoon, Chris Moore, Rob Winfield
Matte Painter: Ram Bhat
Rotoscope Artist: Amy Paskow, Megan Gaffney, Kanae Morton, Eva Snyder, Sam Winkler
Post Production Assistant Coordinator: Paul Pianezza
Scheduling Coordinator: Tina Van Delden

EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: String
Editor: Doron Dor
Assistant Editor: Jeff Aquino
Editorial Coordinator: Peter Nelson

HOUSE OF MOVES CREDITS (for CG Dancers)
VP of Production: Brian Rausch
Executive Producer: Scott Gagain
Post Production Manager: Amy Calcote
Stage Manager: Andre Lopez
Stage QA Lead: Jim Lipscomb
Video Lead: Nikola Dupkanic
Production Assistant: Katie Gravette
Database Analyst: Colleen Crosby
Character TD: Josh Axner
Pipeline TD: Karl Diaz
Motion Capture Artist: Aaron Lambert
Motion Capture Artist: Ian Lang
Motion Capture Artist: Josh Hutchins
Motion Capture Artist: Randy Wilson
Motion Capture Artist: Ryan Torrey
Post Production Coordinator: Joel Kling

IMAGE METRICS CREDITS (For CG Faces)
Executive Producer: Patrick Davenport
Producer: Pampata Jutte
Director Production: Pete Busch
Production Coordinator: Adam Schardein
Rigging Supervisor: Oleg Alexander
Rigging Lead: Tom Tran
Performance Analysis Supervisor: Bryan Burger
Performance Analysis Lead: Brian Genna
Performance Analysis: George Antonopoulos
Animators: Jonas Avrin, Christian Brierley, Candace Giancanelli, Steven McClellan, Aaron Papa

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