Performance capture short film made with the help of CMGT students

Film director Kelly Klingenberg reached out to BUas last year, after attending a performance capture workshop. The idea was born to collaborate on a short film project together with CMGT students that wanted to expand their horizon into film. Kelly and her team of professionals contributed their film knowledge, necessary input and connections.  

A group of CMGT students with different backgrounds got the opportunity to work on the short film. Most of them were 2nd year students with a focus on visual arts.  

Pre-production & mocap shoot 

Last summer, the professional team and our students had a Motion Capture (mocap) shoot at BUas, using our XSense Motion Capture Suits.  

Our students had different rolls during this project. In pre-production they made a 3D scan of the room to use to align the camera data with the scanned room to copy the real set on the computer. This allowed them to transfer the exact camera movements directly into Unreal Engine.  

During the day of the mocap shoot our students helped the team of Klingenberg by making sure the virtual camera was operating as intended and wasn’t hindering the camera operator.  

Are you curious to see how the mocap shoot went? Check out the behind-the-scenes video: https://vimeo.com/730269310 

Post-production 

Later, in post-production, the students transferred the camera data into Unreal Engine and adjusted according to feedback received from the director of photography. They translated the directors takes into the cuts, cleaned up camera’s trails and movement and motion capture data, edited shots and created the credits scene. 

Great learning experience and a lot of fun 

The group of CMGT students was highly motivated and they all agree working on this project was a great learning experience and a lot of fun. It helped them get a better understanding of the film industry and learned them more about communication and asynchronous collaboration, because of different schedules.  

And last but not least, they helped make a very impressive short film that premiered at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, 1 November 2022!