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November 2009 46 mance-capture stage. "We take a lot of cues from Zemeckis' Imagemovers," Furie explains. " e goal is to build a small-scale version of how they do their work." e Vicon system was fi rst installed at USC several years ago when the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts opened at USC's School of Cinematic Arts in 2001, but until 2007, hadn't been used for courses focusing specifi cally on mocap. "Originally, we were working with the Vicon MCam system because that was what Zemeckis was using on Polar Express, and we were emulating his system," explains Furie. "When the larger curriculum came online, we were well invested in Vicon, so growing and upgrading with them seemed a logical choice, and now we've been us- ing Vicon equipment for almost a decade. From my perspective, it's the right tool for us to be teaching with. It's simple enough for students to grasp the technicalities fairly quickly so that they are not hampered by anything other than their imaginations. e goal is for students not to be limited technologically." Although the motion-capture course at SCA is entering its third year, Zemeckis is just as involved as ever. "He visits the lab sev- eral times a year, and also allows students to visit the Imagemovers stage, bringing classes there a couple of times a year so they can see a full mocap studio in action," Furie says. e course runs two semesters, and students do a lot in class. During the fi rst semester, they create 30-second pieces on their own, which they expand to two or three minutes during the second semester. ese projects often will be rolled into ani- mated or live-action thesis projects, and the school has even had some students include mocap in their games. " e concept behind the curriculum is that this is a new way to make media. It's not live action, and it's not animation. In some ways it's a hybrid of the two, and in some ways it is its own thing," says Furie. " ere is a new world that is evolving out of motion capture that allows for its own set of processes, but also its own way of story telling. We view mocap and perfor- mance capture as another way to tell sto- ries, stories very diffi cult or even impossible to tell in any other way." As Furie notes, motion capture is an evolving technology, and one only has to look at the industry to see lots and lots of heavy hitters jumping in and using it in diff erent ways—from Zemeckis, to Steven Spielberg, to Peter Jackson. All of them have dived into this medium, but we're just beginning to scratch the surface. "If you're a live-action fi lmmaker and you step into motion capture, what you've done is separate out a lot of processes that in the live-action world are combined," he says. "So live action combines performance with lighting to create one piece of media. From a production and educational standpoint, what we're really excited about is the idea of separating out these processes." Furie notes that Vicon has been help- ful in supporting SCA and making the curriculum viable. SCA also works with Autodesk and Adobe, along with some other companies, which not only provide the school with tools, but also help develop methodologies and the right way to teach them. "We really want students to see the broadest picture possible as they prepare to enter the industry as fi lm, game, and ani- mation professionals," he concludes. And at USC SCA, the students indeed are getting a lesson in state-of-the-art tech- nology that is well worth learning. ■ November 2009, Volume 32, Number 11: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12 issues) by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offi ces: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: info@copprints.com. Periodicals postage paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offi ces. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices are $72, USA; $98, Canada & Mexico; $150 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7310. © 2009 CGW by COP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or per- sonal use, or the internal or personal use of specifi c clients, is granted by Computer Graphics World, ISSN-0271-4159, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. Prior to photocopying items for educational classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-750-8400. For further information check Copyright Clearance Center Inc. online at: www.copyright.com. The COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD fee code for users of the Transactional Reporting Services is 0271-4159/96 $1.00 + .35. POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Computer Graphics World, P.O. Box 3296, Northbrook, IL 60065-3296. First exposed to mocap at Carnegie Mellon as an undergrad, USC MFA student Elyse Kelly is extending that experience. Above is a still image she created for her performance-capture course. Legendary fi lm director/producer Robert Zemeckis is a co-instructor for the class. Education