Suspended animation.(gaming)

Using motion-capture technology to animate digital characters can he a weighty decision, but not so for Asian game developer Digital Frontier. That's because the studio used motion capture to accurately record human performers whose actions drive 3D characters that battle an evolved species of prehistoric beasts at zero gravity in Dino Crisis 3, a newly released Japanese Xbox title from Capcom.

In the game, which is set in the year 2548, players assume the role of the hero Patrick, as he and his partners conduct a search-and-rescue mission aboard a spaceship that has mysteriously reappeared after 300 years. Armed with an arsenal of futuristic weaponry, players must confront ferocious mutated creatures and evolved forms of dinosaurs that have overrun the massive ship.

The physics of deep space, in which the game is set, coupled with the fact that the human characters move around using jet propulsion packs, presented a unique challenge to the animators--if not to the game players. That's because it's not unusual for the characters to perform some atypical stunts during the course of the game, such as flying into walls, failing through floors, or even hovering in midair. It was Digital Frontier's belief that these peculiar actions could be achieved more plausibly through motion-captured rather than keyframed animation.