Hollywood Theatre Academy Uses Smartsuit Movement Capturer to Make Character Resources for Unity Developers

Smartsuit Pro captures motions through a built-in wireless sensor. Now, Unity developers can access this suit and Rokoko’s Motion Library through the Unity Asset Store.

On the Arena Stage at the Theatre Academy in Hollywood, a large screen hangs behind two young actors in nylon pilot suits, with the data line on their head being connected to the hub of the back spine.

This is Smartsuit Pro made by Copenhagen’s motion capturing system developer Rokoko. Today, they announced a partnership with Unity Technologies to bring this suite with its Motion Library to the Unity Asset Store.

Unity creative director Adam Myhill said: “The production of character animations always costs much and consumes much time. Rokoko’s Smartsuit Pro and Motion Library provide creators with the ability to build sports assets as if they were able to use full size The same as the studio, but in a more affordable, simpler and more direct way.”

Back at the Academy of Drama, the students walked into The Arena Stage. The performer wearing Smartsuits on stage was lecturer Henry Layton, who once received training at the International Stunts School in Seattle and is now a famous singer.

Layton checked the connection of the Smartsuit Pro and asked the students to put “A pose” and “T pose” to start the software system.

Monica Alderete, vice president of entertainment-related colleges in Campus Hollywood, is sitting inside. She said: “Today, students are coming to our new live performance class. We opened this course as all our teachers are professionals in the industry, who hear the latest demands from the industry on the performers when working outside. Henry Layton explains to us the latest motion-capturing sensor equipment and if students master this, they may get an an audition opportunity in animation, games and movies.”

For the cooperation between Unity and Rokoko, graduates of the Drama Academy may find that they have accumulated a large number of movements which will be stitched, sorted, annotated and used in future animation products.

“Ready, David?” Layton was covering the lights from the spotlight and speaking to the control room on the wall in the distance.

David Mattey, who operates Smartsuit Studio, replied through the speaker system: “Of course, you can start.”

Layton on the stage said: “OK.”

Suddenly, an animated goblin appeared on the screen behind the actor. Whenever the actor moves, the goblin moves, too. Both are integrated through this $2,500 suit. However, it should be noted that, unlike other motion capturing devices, this kit does not have an “optical sensor” mark, and the ceiling does not have a camera grid installed to record the size of the space. By contrast, the Smartsuit has a wireless range of up to 100 meters. It tracks 9 degrees of freedom through sensors built into the fabric itself, builds a baseline skeleton, then records all movements and revives/rework them into the selected character.

This changes everything in the capture process without the need to rent an expensive camera grid. Instead, the Smartsuit can communicate wirelessly with Smartsuit Studio to support the actors in bringing their best performances. Once the actions and scenes are recorded, the software can be exported to any platform the creator needs.

Layton said: “After graduating from the International Stunt School and joining the American Boxing Association, I got my first job, the first Star Trek, in Sweden. My master has been playing the leading role, but unfortunately I was injured, so he recommended me to play.”

He continued: “I am from Louisiana, and suddenly I am working in Sweden. This opens my eyes and this is the beginning of everything. The world of special effects is very small, everyone knows each other and the world is smaller.” I said to my students: ‘Once the director knows your existence and your performance is good, you are in. This is my experience.”

Today’s class teaches students how to use Rokoko Smartsuits, but for Layton, this is an experimental opportunity. Rokoko has been cooperating with experts like Layton to help iterate the technology and bring the industry’s actual needs.

Layton said: “David and I have been communicating with Matokos Søndergaard, co-founder and chief product officer of Rokoko, through Skype, telling them about stress testing and what we need. For now, I am afraid of damaging the suit, so we avoid falling over, but we need to show our talents.”

“The first thing I noticed was that I can now see the actual operation of the suit, because I am testing it while I am wearing it. As an actor, we need exaggerated behavior so that the suit can pick up the performance at the bone level.”

In the control room, Mattey is using a Dell Win10 laptop, without a huge GPU array or the need to deal with huge amounts of data.

He confirmed: “Yes, that’s enough. The suit communicates with the body-attached hub, so it knows where the performer’s limbs are, and then the system sends the information to the software via the router, which basically creates an LAN with no need for an external net.”

In other words, the hacker cannot remotely control the Smartsuit.

Mattey smiled. “Yes, that’s impossible, because it’s a closed loop.”

The actors on the stage continue to practise, and Mattey demonstrates how the software handles each body shape quickly. He explained: “When we make a T pose, the system will calibrate the suit, and the program will track the motion at 100 frames per second.”

So if you have inspiration and master Unity, and only need to embed a series of animated action for your character, you can learn about the Unity Asset Store. Unexpectedly, the sport asset you purchased may be the sources created by Henry Layton and his students of Acting Department.