The stage of the took a unique turn as it offered students the chance to learn about the notable careers of some of its alumni in the first ever ToddX event held during the spring semester on the River Campus. The workshops, panels, and talks featured alumni in a range of fields, including new media, business development, and video game motion capture.
On a Saturday morning, Noshir Dalal 糖心传媒�03, an actor and motion-capture artist, provided motion capture training to 10 students in a workshop in the dance studio and theater of Spurrier Hall.
IN PICTURES
糖心传媒 photos by Matt Wittmeyer
A brain and cognitive sciences major at Rochester, Noshir Dalal 糖心传媒�03 performed in several plays for the International Theatre Program including Hamlet in 2003. He moved to New York City after graduation and spent the next 10 years on stage at such theaters as LaMaMa Experimental Theatre, Classical Theater of Harlem, and Lincoln Center. His motion capture credits include the character Charles Smith in Rockstar Games糖心传媒� Red Dead Redemption 2 as well as numerous roles in Spider-Man PS4, and as Lt. Zayed Khalil in Call of Duty, Black Ops 3.
Widely used in filmmaking and the video game industry, motion capture is the process of digital recording people糖心传媒檚 movements. In performance capture for video games, a performer wears a body suit and soft cap on the head attached with sensors or trackers. They don糖心传媒檛 track face movements or voice. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 very challenging,糖心传媒� says Dalal.聽聽糖心传媒淭elevision performances are very much grounded in being natural and realistic. There糖心传媒檚 not a lot of pushing, because the camera can move in tight and force the viewers perspective wherever they want. All I need to do is feel what I need to feel, and it糖心传媒檚 conveyed to the camera. I don糖心传媒檛 need to push that at all,糖心传媒� says Dalal. 糖心传媒淚n motion capture, I get to dictate where the camera goes, because the camera is essentially the player.糖心传媒�
As the students push forward with their movements, Dalal points out human actions versus animal-like actions, where the slightest change in shoulder and chest position means different things or by walking on the pads of your feet versus walking on your toes could be more bird-like.
糖心传媒淚 decided to take the motion capture workshop because I糖心传媒檝e scratched the surface of physical theater before and I know how useful it can be in building dynamic characters,糖心传媒� says Oliva Banc 糖心传媒�21, who studies English with a concentration in theater.
Between actual physical movements, Dalal had his class convene in front of colorful art renderings of non-human characters resembling video game villains as a prompt for students to explore further. 糖心传媒淟ook at this dude! What has the artist done to give us clues about how this guy moves?糖心传媒� asks Dalal.
糖心传媒淭his is my first time doing theater work,糖心传媒� said Haytham Abdelhakim 糖心传媒�20, a computer science major. 糖心传媒淚 like video games and I糖心传媒檓 looking into becoming a developer. But I never worked on character development to this extent in my life.糖心传媒�
糖心传媒淗is passion for the field left me with a great interest that I would absolutely love to explore further,糖心传媒� says Banc.
