Juha Fiilin presented on his experimental motion capture course for graphic design and film students. The course aimed to teach students the new skills of motion capture and 3D animation through having them create scenes for an existing sci-fi story over 3 weeks. Students formed groups, storyboarded scenes, captured motion in a studio, cleaned and edited the data, animated their scenes in 3D, and composited final videos. The intensive course required many tutors but succeeded in engaging students through hands-on projects where they took ownership of their work from concept to final videos.

1. Juha Fiilin
Experimental Motion Capture For Beginners
Anirey Seminar, Reykjavik, March 2015

2. My background
Filmmaker and a graphic designer with focus on film.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

3. Teaching background
Various courses and workshops about film graphics and
visualization for both film and graphic design students.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

4. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Challenge
How to build a situation where the graphic designers were creators
together with the film students?

5. A course,
where both film and graphic design students would learn
something completely new and create something together.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

6. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Idea was born…
Experimental motion capture for graphic design and film students.

7. Initial concern
Writing a story would take too much time.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

8. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Solution
Using an existing story to speed up the process.

9. I proposed a story,
Divine Consultants, an animated scifi comedy series (10x10´)
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

10. My story was in development,
and therefore I felt comfortable having it “hacked” by the students
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

11. Story logline
Oogle and Joy swear eternal love, but can the love last when
the couple is faced with Heaven's and Hell's terrible secret and
the destiny of all mankind?
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

12. I had created a strong visual look for Divine Consultants, but to
make the course engaging and experimental for the students I
would have to give the student free hands.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

13. Oh... Divine Consultants
is also a casual game in development (since Nordisk Panorama Hackathon).
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

14. Planning the course
Got go ahead from both film and graphic design departments.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

15. Main challenge
Students have no prior knowledge of mocap or even video.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

16. Importance of the first day
Re-writing the brief
Keeping it simple
Engaging students from day one
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

17. Day 1
Kick start - the brief
Sketching characters individually
Presenting character sketches
Forming groups
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

18. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Presenting character sketches

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27. Day 2
More detailed brief - create a film scene of 30-60 s.
Working in groups
Reading script together, selecting and editing scenes
Storyboarding
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

28. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

29. Day 3
Creating each group’s own visual style
Sketching characters and environments in groups
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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31. Day 4
Touch point with all tutors and groups
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36. Day 5
Preparing 2d characters and environments for Motion Builder
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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Day 6
Introduction lecture to mocap technologies by Tanja Bastamow

39. Day 7
Entering the motion capture studio
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

40. Mocap best practises lecture by Max Mäkinen
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

41. Actors try out the motion capture suit
Learning A and T pose and setting up Cortex Motion Analysis
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

42. All students try out the virtual camera
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

43. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
All students direct the actors

44. Groups decide the roles for the capturing
director
camera operator
assistant director
logger
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

45. Day 8
First shoot day
First two groups capture their scenes
Film Director students help as assistant directors
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

46. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Group “End of the Road”

47. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Group “Endless Bar Limbo”

48. Day 9
Second shoot day
Two more groups capture their scenes
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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Group “Eternal Limbo”

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Group “Mr O”

51. Day 9
All groups start editing their offline video
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

52. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Offline editing

53. Day 10
All groups finish offline videos
Motion data cleaning can start
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

54. Day 11 and 12
Data cleaning continues
Groups prepare their assets
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

55. First groups start editing 3d sceneswith Jouko Manninen and Shareef Askar
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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Other groups fine tune their characters and environments

58. Day 13
First renders of the scenes
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

59. Day 14
Crash course to compositing in After Effects by Leo Liesvirta
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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Day 14
Passing first renders to compositing

61. Day 14
Touch point with all tutors and groups
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

62. Day 15
Fixing problems with problem-solving-based-tutoring
Re-rendering erroneous scenes
Dividing scenes and assets for all group members
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

63. Day 16 to 20
A work, work, work week.
Compositing
Editing scenes together
Editing sound and music
Creating titles and credits
Rendering finished projects
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

64. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Compositing

65. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Rendering comps

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Editing scenes together

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Synchronizing and editing sound

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Fine-tuning projects in groups

69. Day 21
Screening the results at Aalto University
Final critic
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

70. Mr O
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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72. Eternal Limbo
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

73. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

74. Endless Bar Limbo
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

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76. End of the Road
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78. Learnings
Graphic design students learned team work, which they
apparently don’t do much.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

79. Learnings
Many tutors were needed for such a crash course, which made
this course a relatively expensive one.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

80. Learnings
Students Art Directed the 3d animators – yet another task graphic
design students aren’t used to do.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

81. Key learning
Students work hard when they take ownership of their project.
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS

82. JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Thank you!

83. Q & A
JUHA FIILIN: EXPERIMENTAL MOTION CAPTURE FOR BEGINNERS
Juha Fiilin
juha@fiilin.com
+358 440 878 900