Movella Holdings Inc, leading full-stack provider of sensors, software, and analytics, is providing the enabling technology to Pakistan-based 3rd World Studios to upgrade its animation workflows.
Animation has experienced a quantum leap forward over the last few years. With new technologies and tools at artists’ fingertips — including Unreal Engine and Unity — it’s an exciting time to be creating animated features and long-form content.
However, outside of the West, the resources needed to deliver high-quality animations are limited.
In 2016, Pakistan-based 3rd World Studios built a talent pool to tackle this problem, one that would be committed to creating stunning computer-generated content as efficiently as possible.
And to give their projects the finish they desired, the founders chose to embrace cutting-edge technology in order to compete with studios in the US, UK, and Canada.
“We knew that we had to find a way to animate characters quickly but without compromising on quality,” says Uzair Zaheer Khan, co-founder of 3rd World Studios.
“The only viable solution for us was to find a way to create lots of movement variables in a controlled manner and iterate on them, which is why we turned to motion capture.”
By using motion capture (mocap) — a technology found in low and big budget productions alike — Uzair and his team were able to bypass the normally laborious process of animating characters by hand, liberating their workflow from the constraints of needing a large team of professional, experienced animators.
“Utilizing motion capture gave us a lot of time to experiment, and we quickly found that Xsens is the perfect tool for what we need,” continues Uzair.
“Our performers could simply put on a suit and ‘animate’ all of our characters in real-time. Because the data we got was so clean, we could focus on developing the look of the world and characters themselves.
“And it was obvious from the get go that inertial motion capture was the best approach.”
Inertial motion capture provides a cost-effective alternative to frame-by-frame animation without the restrictions of a dedicated studio and cameras, which are required when using optical mocap systems.
Movella’s MVN Awinda gives creators the ability to conduct mocap sessions anywhere in the world — without the need for a full studio environment.
Using the latest in gyroscopic motion recording, MVN Awinda accurately tracks movement to the finest details, without the need for powerful computers to process data or cameras to follow the action.
In essence, creators can record digital action in their offices, homes, back yards — anywhere that has a little space to move around in.
For 3rd World Studios, inertial motion capture opened up a new realm of possibilities.
Without the need for weeks of manual animation — and with any new equipment costs easily absorbed by gained efficiencies — the team has been able to create visually compelling stories without compromising on quality or time.
“We’re excited to collaborate with 3rd World Studios and to be a part of the burgeoning animation industry in Pakistan,” said Dale Pistilli, VP of Marketing at Movella.
“By providing high-quality motion tracking services, we are helping global filmmakers bring their creative visions to life.”