Motion capture technology recently pioneered in South Africa by leading commercials animation studio, Masters & Savant, has started to change the face of the South African animation landscape.
So says Roger Smythe, co-Founder of the highly awarded animation studio. He continues, "Masters and Savant have led the field in many aspects of animation since our inception seven years ago, and motion capture is probably the most innovative technology yet."
Evidence of the successful use of this technology is the latest work that Masters & Savant have completed for SABC's much loved Dub character in Tube - one of the most popular children's programming spots on the public broadcaster's stations.
Smythe continues, "The brief was to produce a promo that would communicate the rights of children to the Channel's viewers - children aged between 4 and 11. Clearly we had to make it as entertaining and enjoyable as possible in order to engage and retain the interest of this particularly lively age group," he adds.
The creative solution was to present Dub as a rapper, singing about the rights of children. While music played a vital role in the promos, the motion capture suit allowed Dub to remain recognisable as his character while enabling him to have movements created with the exact body language of a rapper.
"The motion capture suit allowed us to produce high quality promos in record time," continues Smythe.
A sequence of three promos was produced and has received high praise from children, parents and social groups since the launch. In addition the "behind the scenes" campaign promoting Tube and the Dub animated character, featured use of all three promos.
"We believe that this new technology is revolutionising animation all over the world as well as in South Africa. It is enabling us to work faster and with greater movement accuracy within the animation. From a budget point of view this makes animation even more cost effective as a creative solution than ever before," concludes Smythe.
