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THREAD. The President has Covid-19, the world is on fire, and I’m feelin’ salty, so I may as well say something that’s been on my mind, lately.
The face model for a motion capture performance is just exactly that: a face model.
The face model for a motion capture performance is just exactly that: a face model.
Their part in the process is akin to the makeup a traditional stage actor wears, or a mask in other types of performance. Their faces are digitally grafted on to the actual actor who performs the scenes. In other words, they CONTRIBUTE to the role, but they do not PLAY the role.
Did you love Peter Parker in Marvels’ Spider-Man for PS4? Me, too.
And that Peter Parker is @YuriLowenthal. I’m not saying this as a fan boy (although I am a fan of Yuri’s). I’m saying it as the actor who played opposite him in the role of Otto Octavius.
And that Peter Parker is @YuriLowenthal. I’m not saying this as a fan boy (although I am a fan of Yuri’s). I’m saying it as the actor who played opposite him in the role of Otto Octavius.
I’ve never met John Bubniak. I know his face was scanned. I know it was grafted onto Yuri’s performance. I know he looked like a damned fine Peter Parker. But I would suggest that the Parker the players fell in love with, the one who wise-cracked, and questioned himself, and-
- swung - literally - back and forth between self-conscious nerd and coolest superhero ever - the one I performed all those scenes with - was @YuriLowenthal.
This is the way the motion-capture technology works. Some of us, like me and Stephen Oyoung and Nancy Linari, were lucky,
This is the way the motion-capture technology works. Some of us, like me and Stephen Oyoung and Nancy Linari, were lucky,
- in that our faces gave “Good data,” as one animator put it, meaning we, with the faces we have, were sufficient to play our roles. Others were not in the same situation, and two actors, a face model and a performer, were necessary to play the part.
Now, please, PLEASE understand that I am not dismissing what John Bubniak brought, and what Ben Jordan will bring, to the process. I’m simply saying that under both circumstances, 90% of Marvel’s Spider-Man for PS4 - and now, I guess, PS5 - was, and will be, Yuri Lowenthal.
You can say John Bubniak is your Peter Parker, or Ben Jordan. As someone who worked closely on the game, I’d like to humbly suggest that, in both cases, YURI LOWENTHAL is your Peter Parker. And that’s not gonna change, no matter whose face he’s wearing.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for reading.
