As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a Star Wars fanfilm with several other filmmakers, and lots of other invaluable assistance! It is to be a short film, about 13 minutes long. You can find more on it at www.dubsteptrooper.com

The shoot for the live action was last December. Most of the collaborators were there, either on set or visiting. Two weeks ago, we shot all the motion capture element for the film with just the core crew — i.e the instigators — and our DP.

After a few initial tests earlier on, last week we had a lot of fun shooting the motion capture scenes, guerilla style! This is where director Giso Spijkerman opened his latest magic box.

He ordered a couple of playstation cameras and bought great software from Ipisoft. We then created a small capture area in our own greenscreen studio and mocapped the shots that we knew were impossible to shoot live because of the immense sets and impossible camera movements in the film.

So check out director Giso dressed up in a stylishly simple mocap suit. This video gives a short impression in 55 seconds, to be exact. No final renders yet, but stay tuned! The magic will happen ;—)

I stumbled upon my camcorder during the shoot and thought I’d just capture a few shots. Of course the battery quickly ran empty so I resorted to the webcam on my MacBook, which I was using to preview live footage for continuity. Edited together this is the quick and dirty making of. To give it a bit more pep, I finally got to use the Magic Bullet Suite which I bought from Red Giant software last December. I also created an After Effects intro and outro somewhat based on a tutorial at AEtuts+ by guru … Giso Spijkerman ;—).

Funny facts: we used an iMac + Windows XP (which kept crashing without restraint) + iPisoft + 4 playstation eyes to mocap the movements.

If  you’re interested in the process you should definitely check out the guys from the software : ipisoft.com

And don’t forget to follow Dubstep Trooper!