Rune: Ragnarok Motion Capture Session

Just prior to the announcement of Rune: Ragnarok, Project Director Chris Rhinehart and Animation Director Nick Taylor flew to Canada for a motion capture session focused on character movements and combat mechanics. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at what happened before and during the trip.

To prepare for the trip, the team had to determine which actions were needed for all of the bipedal characters in the game. To do this, the game designers and character animators got together to talk through and act out all of the animations. (Just imagine a bunch of game developers swinging imaginary swords and doing combat maneuvers in our conference rooms.)

In addition to generating the animation and movement lists, we also created skeletons for each character. These skeletons will be mapped to the actual actor performing the moves in the mocap session.

During the session, Nick and Chris worked with the actors to alter their base movements in order to match the unique melee combat needs of the game. They paid particular attention to how the actors moved with weapons and the emotions that were conveyed through some of the more pedestrian actions - like walking and running. Occasionally, the guys jumped in for extra coaching and demonstrations.

“It was was an exciting shoot full of weapon clashing and savage attacks that would make even a seasoned warrior think twice. I can hardly wait to get all of the mocap in the game so I can play it myself!” - Nick Taylor

Rune: Ragnarok Motion Capture

Rune: Ragnarok Motion Capture

Think you have better moves?

As we get our skeletons mapped and the assets into the game, you can head over to www.runeragnarok.com to sign up for more development updates and a chance at closed beta access.