Vactor ontologies: framing acting within a motion capture context

ABSTRACT

While an actor’s performance in a stage play may be seen as a continuous and unmediated form of acting, an actor’s performance in a film is constructed through shot framing, editing, effects work, and other cinematic apparatuses. With the advent of digital filmmaking, constructed performances have become more complex and nuanced, especially through the use of motion capture (MoCap). This research explores how we frame acting within a motion capture context – and specifically, how this affects our larger understanding of what is acting and how acting can be constructed. What does acting become when the product of acting starts as data and finishes as computer-generated images that preserve the source-actor’s ‘original’ performance to varying degrees? Is the source actor solely responsible for the MoCap performance we see on screen, or should other people within the production pipeline receive credit for their creative contributions to the finished acting result? What is at stake in differentiating film acting in MoCap from profilmic performances? Through consolidating and linking theoretical and practical considerations of screen acting in motion capture, this paper proposes a number of ways to conceive of acting and presence within a virtual acting context.

KEYWORDS:

• Acting
• Animation
• Performance
• Motion Capture
• Performance Capture

Author’s Biography

Dr Jason Kennedy is a senior lecturer and Animation Pathway Leader in the Digital Design department at Auckland University of Technology. He is a practicing artist with work in 3D animation, drawing, and video projection. Jason entered the fine art world circuitously through his initial ambition to become a palaeontologist. He enrolled in Albion College’s geology programme (in Albion, Michigan, USA), only to discover that he liked the idea of animating dinosaurs more than digging them up. Jason graduated from Albion in 2004 with a major in studio art (drawing) and minors in geology and mathematics. He completed a MFA in electronic art from the University of Cincinnati in 2007. His Masters research focused on the role of identity and immortality vis-à-vis digital representations of self. He completed his PhD through Auckland University of Technology in 2021. His PhD, entitled ‘Acting and Its Double: A Practice-Led Investigation on the Nature of Acting Within Performance Capture’, examines how our understanding of what is acting is changed by modern animation and motion capture practices. In addition to being an animator, he is also an actor, and he draws on these two areas of experience in his research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It is important to indicate that the discussion of motion capture within this paper is exclusively limited to a screen-based context. This is due to the definition of vactor I use later in this paper. Motion capture is increasingly used for live performance, which must solely rely on the quality of the performance transferred onto a CG character without any data cleanup or ancillary animation. For a more detailed discussion on the nature of motion capture within theatre performance, I refer the reader to Matthew Delbridge’s PhD thesis (2014).

2 Within Kirby’s continuum of acting, received acting occurs when a performer’s role in a story is understood more by what the performer wears and how he or she is contextualised rather than by anything the performer actually does (1972, p. 5).

3 The inclusion of 3D space here is in considerations of animatronic puppets whose facial and/or body motion can be derived from MoCap data.

4 The film actor’s performance is never fully the product of an individual, who depends on the contributions of directors, wardrobe, hair/makeup, lighting, cinematographers, set designers, visual effects artists, musicians, and a host of other creative/technical staff to produce an appealing illusion. A passive or uncritical audience may not consciously recognise the roles of these contributions in enhancing an actor’s performance, and instead regard the actor as the single provenance of the screen performance.