Trevor Danehy, electronic art/animation major:  Here I can see how those developers of those games are working, and I almost can study their work. Other influences that got me, besides just fine arts, were what was going on in the world today, and we also have a lot of skilled workers both students and teachers. It's just so cool. I started off with drawing. I grew up in the 80's; video games were just coming out. In all truth I wanted some of the toys when I was a kid and I said, "How am I going to get these toys?  They haven't even been created."  U.S. toy makers aren't interested in Japanese-made Mario. So, I began drawing my own little characters and just developed an artistic skill from there. 

The project we started originally started as a tech demo to see if we could employ motion capture technology into our animations.

John Fillwalk, art professor:  The students then developed the project entirely. So, even though the faculty were involved, it was a completely student-led project in terms of concept, idea, execution. 

Danehy:  My initial role in this project was grabbing all the motion capture data and putting it into a solid animation.

Fillwalk:  The motion capture technology really extends the capabilities of the animator. Typically in an animating environment, you're using what are called key frames and it's very difficult and time-consuming. What motion capture does then is allow any moving object really to be able to have its motion interpreted into the system.

Danehy:  If you're going into this industry, you constantly have to be aware of movements and technology. Motion capture is just the industry upgrading upon itself. Before with animation it was really hard trying to key frame every little finger, every little hand, every little movement and motion capture just made it a lot easier.

Fillwalk:  When that file comes in all of a sudden then you can attach that to a character that traditionally you would have animated by hand. The look of course is completely realistic and the subtlety of expression is really quite convincing.

It's real simple. That's the beauty of it. You have the motion capture file and you plop it onto the form and all of a sudden it dances. It's just; that's it.

The students identified a performer that they wanted to work with, which in this case happened to be a dancer. There is a rehearsal; a choreography-based course. Then once she was brought into the biomechanics lab, the process is that the actor, the performer, the dancer essentially gets rigged with small, reflective spheres. The camera though is all animated by key frame. You can break it down similar to how you do a film. So, the lighting is set up, the camera is set up, even though it's virtual, it all applies just like real world lighting and camera.

Danehy:  Well, this kind of training has a wide array of places to go into. Again, here at Ball State we're not a technical school. We're not aiming for video games, we're not aiming directly at movies. We're keeping in mind that we can go into any of those branches.

Fillwalk:  Well, I think what's unique about this experience really is that I think there really is, for instance, a spirit of cooperation here on campus where laboratories are really willing to work with our institute and explore new ground and new territory and be quite cooperative. I think that aspect is really quite rare and unusual and we have a fantastic technological infrastructure. The people that work in the labs are great to work with and they really want to go places that they haven't been before. To do this kind of work anymore it gets more and more specialized every day. So, you really can't have the whole set of expertise to do a project like this so you really have to rely on others to pull a project like this off.

Danehy:  It's just a fun way to be artistic at the same time and still have something so current. Video games are very popular and they're scrambling for ideas; ideas that don't copy off other games, but ones that you've come up with yourself, in your own creative ways. Just sitting in a lab at some technical schools just doesn't really incorporate that. 

Fillwalk:  Of course we're very proud of the students and their success record. The students' work already has been exhibited on the international, national level conferences, exhibitions. They're doing actual research in this new area which is unusual for an arts program. So, they're really taking on projects and leading, and delivering them.