We had the chance to test Sony’s Mocopi, a more budget-friendly motion capture solution. It played a key role in jumpstarting some of the Football Simulator's Quarterback (QB) animations, providing a solid foundation that I could refine and adjust in Maya.
QB Locked Throw
Cleaned up in Maya to integrate into our game in Unity.
Breakdown Process
To refine the animations in Football Simulator, we had a few team members wear the Mocopi and capture quarterback throws and other necessary motions. Using the Mocopi app, we recorded the data and followed Sony’s setup instructions to integrate it into Unreal and Maya.
Since Mocopi data is tied to its own skeleton, I had to create and configure an IK rig for the football character. This setup allowed us to process the animations through a Retargeter asset before exporting them to Maya for cleanup. Once refined, the animations were imported into Unity for final delivery.
While Mocopi provides an accessible motion capture solution for indie game development, its limitations became quickly apparent. With only six sensors, no finger tracking, occasional sensor issues, and the extensive cleanup required, we sometimes found it more efficient to record reference footage and hand-key the animations instead.
Breakdown Process
One example of our in-office reference recording was capturing the Quarterback calling out instructions during the huddle. On top of that, I pulled a ton of football footage from YouTube, screen-capturing key moments to break down in SyncSketch and better understand the timing. I also put together image sequences to use directly in Maya as reference.
When animating, I usually tackle one body part at a time, starting with the center of gravity to lock in the overall movement. I focus on the bigger body mechanics first before refining smaller details like hands, fingers, head, and neck movement, depending on the character rig.
Working at an indie studio, I’ve had to wear a lot of hats beyond just animation. Luckily, my time at Gnomon gave me a solid foundation, so I can jump into different parts of the pipeline—or at least learn fast enough to keep things moving. While I trained in Unreal Engine at Gnomon, here at Refactor Games, we use both Unreal and Unity. Along the way, I’ve picked up a bit about animation controllers, timelines, and blending animations in Unity.
For facial animations, we used Live Link, which was the best option for our small team. It made it easy to capture and apply expressions to the football characters without adding extra workload.
Since November 2025
We’re currently working on another project I can’t share at this time, but my responsibilities have also included assisting in the creation of a cinematics as well as gameplay animations.
This involves hand keying animations or motion capture clean up in Maya / MotionBuilder / Unreal Engine 5. Creatin the Level Sequence for camera work, animating background characters with existing assets, setting up scenes for key shots, and collaborating with the engineer to ensure simulations function correctly within the cinematic.
Developed a facial animation pipeline in collaboration with a Technical Animator.
Responsible for communicating with outsourcing for motion capture. Directed and co-directed motion capture shoots for gameplay and cinematic needs.