Studio Profile : Motus Digital

Motus Digital, LLC is a Motion Capture and Animation Production Studio located in Dallas, Texas. Motus offers motion graphics, content development and full animation production services for television, film and electronic gaming. Additionally, Motus designs and develops custom software, which allowed them to bring innovation to the motion capture industry.

We asked B. Keith Brock, President & COO, a few questions about Motus Digital, recent work and vision for the Computer Graphics Market

IT'S ART : You have an impressive Motion Capture Stage. What can you tell us about your customers and market?

B. Keith Brock : A few specifications about the stage: The main capture area is about 55 feet by 60 feet long and 22 feet high, which extends into the green screen stage another 38 feet; with 3/4 inch hard rubber mats throughout. We can use the entire 98-foot stage as a whole when needed. We have a light grid suspended from ceiling I-beams and a custom re-configurable rail system that Motus' Technical Director, Crispin Broadhurst, designed to mount the cameras on. We also have a dedicated face capture rig for an actor to sit in with cameras mounted in an array all around him/her. For hardware, we use a Vicon system with 24 MX-F40 cameras, top of the line (Motus was the first studio in the world to acquire these). I built custom over clocked workstations to drive our virtual cameras, Pre-Viz system, and every single workstation and server in the studio. We can reconfigure the room to capture most anything large or small.  



Currently, our customers are video game developers requiring motion capture and animation; commercials and music videos, and film crews using our green screen for shoots. We are working on some internal film projects as well, so we are constantly exploring and re-defining what our market possibilities can be in the future.

IA :. You also developed a 'Persona' and '3DoubleTake'. Can you provide details about these applications?

B.K.B : As a motion capture service provider, Motus needed a way not only to allow a mechanism for our clients to select the in points and out points of the takes they shoot with us, but to then invoice them predicated on the data ranges generated by the selection process.

Motus' flagship software, 3DoubleTake™ (pronounced "3D Double Take") was created to address these, and other needs of our studio and clients. 3DoubleTake™ allows 3D Animators, Art Directors, Creative Directors and Producers to select only the performers and/or props they want, from the takes they want, and save their companies tens of thousands of dollars while doing it. 3DoubleTake™ achieves this by showing the cost of a take dynamically while the client manipulates the in points and out points on the timeline for each take. When the client is finished determining the ins and outs for each performer and/or prop and saves the take, they are presented with a screen that provides a detailed breakdown of the costs associated with that specific take. Further project budget constraints can be tracked via 3DoubleTake's™ Project Summary tab, which generates a sortable report containing all of the takes saved to the project thus far and the accompanying data and cost for each.