Motion capture technology records and digitally replicates human movement to create 3D animations. Think of Andy Serkis’ work, transformed into Gollum, in the Lord of the Rings film series. The problem is traditional motion capture relies on lots of expensive, bulky hardware. And it requires skilled professionals operating multi-camera setups, studio environments and special sensor suits worn by actors.
“All of that expense, skill and time is prohibitive,” said Gavan Gravesen, co-founder and CEO of RADiCAL. As its name implies, the New York-based member of NVIDIA’s Inception program for startup companies breaks with tradition. “We’re focused on delivering universal availability, seamless integration and speed — all at low cost,” he said. The company’s AI-powered solution, driven by NVIDIA GPUs, only requires game developers, 3D graphics artists, filmmakers and AR/VR enthusiasts to have one physical item: a 2D camera, even one on a phone. No other hardware, studios or elaborate sensor gear are needed, which dramatically decreases the cost and effort involved.
