In our never-ending quest for more realism in video games, motion capture technology has long been used to create smooth and accurate animations that bring our favorite characters to life. But not only humans are employed by mo-cap, we also use our four-legged friends to create family companions and wild animals in video game development.

Marvel Games and Eidos-Montreal recently teamed up with the Twitter account WeRateDogs to showcase two motion capture dogs suitable for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy game. The golden retriever Diego helped create animations for the telepathic space dog Cosmo, and his little terrier friend Gretel lent her performance expertise to a litter of Cosmo's space puppies. These dogs proceed according to their rhythm, requiring them to bark, jump, crawl, dig, spin, and play to fetch the ball.

This is Diego. He plays the telepathic space dog Cosmo in the upcoming @Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy video game. He is equipped with a high-tech motion capture suit to make all the game screens. 14/10 It's an honor to pet #ad pic.twitter.com/xuPGmfn89P

For dogs, it looks fun and game, but animal motion capture poses unique challenges for animators and developers. First, human actors usually wear spandex suits with reflective markings on joints and other body markings. But we had to come up with creative ways to dress up the dog for this character.

Zach Volker, the chief animator of "Call of Duty: Ghosts", collaborated with two German shepherds Colin and Ruger and a Belgian Malinois, Rico, to create Riley, a playable military working dog. They initially put on a set of clothes for dogs with skin diseases, but Volker said Colin “gets hot very quickly, so we can only work in 20-minute increments.” Mo-cap director Kristina Adelmeyer added Said that these dogs initially wore special rubber boots with markings on them. Their movements proved to be stiff and unnatural, or, as Volcker said, Colin "walked around like eating molasses." To solve this problem, they completely removed the boots and used inconspicuous reflective tapes on key parts instead of full-body suits.

Vida Starcevic, the community manager of Remedy Entertainment, revealed that in the motion capture experiment on Uuno, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, they first tried to use surgical recovery gowns for dogs. Starcevic reported that “the thickness of the fabric made him [Uuno] feel uncomfortable and weird.” They also used easy-to-peel tape to make Uno more relaxed.

In addition to clothing, being able to place markers in the correct position to form a more complete picture is another difficulty when recording animal dynamic capture. Digic Pictures is a Hungarian studio that has produced movies for major franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, and Warhammer. It recorded a video of cats shooting toys, spinning them to get delicious food and jumping over obstacles. You will notice that there are no marks on the cat's tail. Presumably, this is because cats use their tails to maintain balance and communication, and placing markers there can make them feel scared, uncomfortable, or move unnaturally.

Even after putting on the boots and scrapping the suit, you will still encounter an animal who does not know what you are doing or why you are doing it. Ruger’s trainer, Chris Cornell, worked with the shepherd to provide Riley with action, and he described the complication: “It’s like,'OK, dog, pretend this is a rural environment or a desert area, and take Corresponding action,'And Ruger is like,'Man, I'm still in the same studio, I don't understand what a different background will be.'" For Ruger and his colleagues, they are not taking helicopter pilots from Pulled down from the seat, they're torn apart the well-filled human bite bag as they were trained to do.

In March 2021, Expansive Worlds introduced the Bloodhound DLC to theHunter: Call of the Wild. DLC provides you with a canine companion to assist you in hunting expeditions. In an interview, game designer Arshak Ardeshir discussed the challenge of working with canines on set: "...Unlike human actors, you can't tell the dog to do it again, but please stop on your left foot. Please.' This makes it difficult to predict how the momentary action will proceed. But many times, we end up getting what we need in unexpected places, and sometimes things that seem simple don't happen."

Note that in these motion capture sessions, developers tend to use dogs of the same or similar breed as the dog they are trying to portray. This may not be necessary, but it may be much easier to obtain attack sequences from German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, which are usually trained in police and military jobs. Similarly, the dogs used in "The Hunter: Call of the Wild" seem to be pointers and some kind of scent hounds, which have a natural tendency to engage in roaming, tracking, and retrieval behaviors.

Ardeshir said that another issue is "creating the interaction between the dog and the player", which stems from "technical barriers to aligning and synchronizing multiple characters." This highlights the importance of being able to capture animal-human interactions, rather than recording data separately and trying to adjust after the fact. 

Simon James, Head of Motion Capture at Traveller's Tales, responded to this view of capturing the horse and the rider together: "...When the rider is a rider, its weight is different. Therefore, when the rider performs combat actions, it's like The horse moves around and it must transfer weight and balance in completely different ways.” If the rider and horse are captured at different times, the bounce, hand and leg cues, and other subtle movements will not align.

When horses are involved, there is another complication when using motion capture for video game animation. They are much larger than dogs and cats, it is difficult to find the temperament suitable for the job, they require more complicated settings to record, and you need skilled riders and operators to prevent injuries. The development team of The Last of Us Part II initially wanted to rent out an equestrian center for their horse motion capture, but decided to switch to Sony's studio. Jeremy Yates, the game’s chief animator, joked in a tweet, “Almost all the rubber mats [sic] supplied in the current world are ordered for the floor.”

Although Sony’s studio may be barely enough to record a vault, if you don’t have the funds to execute your own motion capture project, you must rely on data collected from independent studios. There is no guarantee that they will provide what you need. Simon James points out, “Horses rarely perform stunts...falls, lifts, riders attack.” In fact, Naughty Dogs co-president Neil Druckman admitted that Naughty Dogs shared their horses with Sucker Punch Productions. Motion capture data to produce horse animation for the ghost of Tsushima Island. Shared assignments are assignments halved.

Animal motion capture seems to have no shortage of complications. However, as video games become more and more ambitious, and developers are also striving for higher accuracy, it is clear that the demand for this technology will not be everywhere. Fortunately, developers, animators, and animal keepers continue to come up with clever solutions to simplify the process and obtain the required data. Let us just hope that our four-legged colleagues are always satisfied with their hourly snacks and back scratches.

Telekinesis is cool, but unreliable, so I use words to convey my thoughts. You can find me online, play MMO, RPG, action adventure or simulation games, or at home, baking and planning. Follow my sarcastic comments, animal appreciation, and excessive explanations on my social media.

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