Xiu Sakana, motion captor actress for games like Persona, Apex Legends or Genshin Impact

Mar 15, 2024 1:36 PM

unknownkooli

Views

97535

Likes

1531

Dislikes

85

This... bothers me on some level.

2 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

I hate it... Ooooough I hate it. Polar Express meets the 90s-00s Barbie movies.
The movements look and feel so unnatural and exaggerated, which is the point, I'm sure, but it gives me the ick.

2 years ago | Likes 58 Dislikes 11

That's so weird.... I always thought it made more sense that someone had animated a character model to try and look alive - like, adding the bouncy 'breathing' movements so they don't look static - and that their other movements were ultra-smooth because they were rendered mathematically. But this ... wow. It's like they chose to motion-capture a person imitating a digital animation :P

2 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 2

So they could have given these people normal human movement, but instead chose the stupid option..... interesting

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 3

That idle pose is so video-gamey, it hits the uncanny valley.

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

Never understood the cartoonish over the top movements. Then again, all the costumes are cartoonish and over the top, so at least it has symmetry.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

I hate this stupid motion, and before I could blame it on animators, but nope, here is a human being doing it.....urgggg

2 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 3

Really drives home how unnaturally weird characters tend to move, especially the feminine kinds, wonder why, such a mystery

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Ya, but I hate the way many female videogame characters act in these poses for games like Genshin. It is creepy.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

This is what people go to acting school for. You've got to step entirely out of yourself and let go of any sense of embarrassment in order to embody the role.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Hate it. It reminds me of the type of behavior children display when they just repeat lines they hear on a tv show nonstop. It's just cringy and unnatural.

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 2

Creepy

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

she's da real NPC

2 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 1

man i sure hate this

2 years ago | Likes 26 Dislikes 3

If find it funny that she's essentially mimicking keyed animations

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Wow, a real life NPC;)

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 2

2 years ago | Likes 39 Dislikes 7

I know that music.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

very natural movements

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Now if only we could stop over-animating idle poses.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SAKANA-cg6or

2 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 1

Cheers

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I made a reaction gif from the first video

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

I hate it

2 years ago | Likes 33 Dislikes 4

She's so cute and so fluid!

2 years ago | Likes 133 Dislikes 9

Yeah. Reminds me of this:

2 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 1

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Pasta is wiggly.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

idk what this means but... one upvote for you!

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

https://youtube.com/shorts/iWG9sJkZUkY?si=77Xwpu-xt97BxLcI

Side by side of the motion capture and the finished product

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

She is definitely born in the uncanny valley, but she is absolutely amazing.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 5

So weird there are so many negative reactions. She jus seems like a cartoon character came to life. In animation and acting in general, you need exaggeration to convey emotion. If she just stood there all mopey like a real human people would complain the opposite.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

I suspect over-saturation. A few games/movies/other media hit it big with a cartoony aesthetic that's appealing to a wider audience and also cheaper to create. Now everything is done in that style. It's one of the reasons I avoid animated movies these days because they all look the exact fucking same to me, the illumination style with goofy faces and all use the same plugins and character designs. I love animation in principle but if it all looks the same I get sick of it so quickly.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 2

reminds me of that cam girl doing emotes to emojis being bought

2 years ago | Likes 58 Dislikes 6

Gang gang

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

A paid professional performing artist vs a amateur doing it for likes and subscribers? This is like comparing Meryl Streep with the Annoying Orange.

2 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 6

I mean, is it though?
Maybe if Merryl Streep voiced the annoying orange.
These animations are used to animate the exaggerated characters that produce the style that the tiktok weirdos are imitating.

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

what makes someone professional? being paid for it. all youre talking about is experience. and cam girl has alot.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 3

Professionals have standards.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

yeah those gangbang pornstar professionals are really classy

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

There's more than one and it's... Fucking unnerving. I hate it. I hate it more than any other Zoomer meme that exists.
I can't even properly articulate why?
I think it's creepy, but also concerning that people want to pay money for it and even more concerning that it seems so popular... Because, ultimately, I shudder to think about people whose dopamine receptors are that addled, eventually entering the adult world.

2 years ago | Likes 38 Dislikes 5

Essentially, you're made about young people paying money for entertainment because it's not a form of entertainment that you would spend money on, but like, young people of previous generations did the same thing, was habbo hotel any better use of money? What about buying ringtones in the early 2000s, it's all just money for entertainment, and old people always complain about "kids these days" being into weird new stuff, and it never "damages their dopamine receptors" or anything like that.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Oh no not their poor Dopamine receptors!!! Do you even know what dopamine is? Like, dopamine is good, its involved with a shitload of human activities like, exercise, singing, laughing, music, playing games, lots of stuff.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 4

The iPad kids are growing up. Next it'll be VR, and in a couple short generations we'll have fully plugged into the matrix :D

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Also I think what made the girl doing "real life emotes" to emojis or donations popular was that it was very uncommon to have "a game" here and people tried to understand the rules of the game the performer brought forward.
I have no clue how long people stayed on this or the bad side effects to these live streams but it was a kind of entertainment not common then (and now I'd say).
So I personally commend the creativity of the first one who did that but the trend is definitely uncanny at least.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It is cringe as fuck, but also.

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 2

But its unlikely that zoomers are the ones paying young girls to do weird shit online, right? The people performing are gen z, but the people paying are almost certainly older and creepier

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 15

The people performing it are generally millennials, gen Z and X all mixed together.
The people consuming are, by overwhelming majority, late gen Y and early zoomer

2 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

I'm gonna defend it a little bit. Think about how much of our expression we just don't engage with but have the capability to express. I imagine the fantasy of seeing people do magical pixie girl shit gives another step to the fantasy/escapism we all crave deep down.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 6

I don't think you know what we mean....
I'm not going to link it because a) fuck tiktok and b) it's actually hard to find videos now because most are either 5 minute "reactions to The NPC meme" or have been deleted.

Look up "ice cream so good meme" or similar and you'll find some examples. Shit is cray.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

ganggang ganggang

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 3

I seen em. It's braindead to be sure, but it can't be one hundred percent t fetish

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Example? Haven’t seen anything like this, kinda out of the loop

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 429 Dislikes 11

Reminds me of TinkerPrincess0: /a/9z2TVjI

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

the bottom one could be Disney too

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

That's so cool

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Exactly what I thought of.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Sending this to my brother who works as a computer animator :P she's got the go-to patterns down pat lol

2 years ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 0

I watched this for 2 minutes straight

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I don't get it, they all look pretty much the same.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

That's the nifty part! If you pay close attention, they're nothing like eachother and are similar to the different cinematic styles! Isn't that cool? I like the cut of their jib and their moxy. Most of all, i like their spunk

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Ya, but if you asked me to describe the difference in style between Pixar, Movies and Claymation... I got nothing. Well claymation is usually jerky, but her claymation movements seem very smooth? So I'm just confused.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

Watch it more carefully... pay attention to the details of her face, corners of her mouth, facial expression asymmetries, eye and eyebrow movements, head tilting, smoothness of the movements and how many exaggerated expression changes there are per second...

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Look at the smirky mouth of the Pixar one and the eye movements. Then the exaggerated movements of claymation. They're spot on. The movie one is the control, it's just how a normal person acts so ignore that one until you see the other two for what they are.

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

this is very impressive and a little scary >_>

2 years ago | Likes 30 Dislikes 0

Acting!

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

If it helps any, she synchs herself to a slow motion audio clip and then speeds it up. It gives a larger window of time to move during the performance while hiding any timing errors. That's why the bottom one is noticeably zippy with the movements.

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Which is exactly how animation works, right? Makes sense.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Do you have a name or source for this?

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

Sadly, i just yoink memes. But I'm certain that someone may come around and sleuth it out. Or you can yoink it, post it, and ask "yo cheese dawgs, anyone got the source of these yams?"

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

Wait, found em. It's @lovegidlovepeople

2 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Cool, thanks!

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh I feckin love this. The audio being from Fleabag is a big plus for me. Fleabag is amazing

2 years ago | Likes 84 Dislikes 2

Also THIS WAY UP?

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

The music is Rosyln by Bon Iver and St. Vincent

2 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

They did a joint thing!!?

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

They had been wanting to collaborate for a few years and finally " recorded the song for the joy of it " but they were approached by the Twilight producers and it was used in Twilight: New Moon, which is why the lyrics video now has almost 100 million views on YouTube,

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I literally just finished binge watching it for the first time, I loved it! (Took me a couple of episodes getting into it, but it's truly amazing)

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

yeah I wish there was more, I'm guessing you've watched CATASTROPHE as well?

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I have not. Who are the actors? I can find at least two series by that name on imdb

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

What's her @ ?

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

I think it's @lovegodlovepeople

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Seen her popping up on my YouTube a lot and I remain unconvinced that she actually does motion capture and isn't just imitation with a pretty face. I say this with some background of the animation and game design process, doing character key art for menus isn't really a place where motion capture is often used and her performance is very unnatural. I could be wrong, but where the heck would motion capture acting even be used in League of Legends...

2 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 1

I'm sure I saw that she is mimicking existing animations, not doing mocap. If anything she's providing reference footage for the animators because that's not a full mocap suit.

2 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

It is also very often a confused process where motion capture and reference footage are used. I've used reference footage quite a few times and we've even had people in the office just get together and record something stupid with terrible acting just to see how clothing and body parts are affected by physics. This is not the same as motion capture where cameras are actually ingesting positional data

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

This. I see these posts all the time and people crediting her with all sorts of stuff, including work that have been confirmed to be purely animated. I think her stuff is super cool. Mimicing animated motion is impressive, and providing reference video is valuable, but the community sees this and is like, " Wow, she is the reason tracer moves the ways she does. Mind blown".

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

She if filming in a motion capturing studio, you see it a lot of her videos. And if you have a background you should understand that not every game uses motion capturing.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 3

I'm highly skeptical that his is recorded in a studio. A grey curtain like that is a pretty awful backdrop for motion capture. Typically you want a solid color with as minimal shadows as possible for accurate tracking. If this is used footage I feel bad for the techs working on it anyways, that "studio" is going to have a lot of erroneous data. I also am not seeing any camera rigging, and she has zero marking points on her head, face, and fingers... which are the main benefits of a good mocap.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Oh boy...you could take a look at her channel that is linked multiple times in the comments or you could just go on talking bullshit about something you don't seem to know much about.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

A mocap studio is going to have dozens of infrared cameras all over the room. You need a constant line of sight on every tracking point on someone's body. Especially if you're including facial data, there'd probably be a big camera strapped to her head. Maybe they don't care about facial data in this example, but then why does she do all the goofy face acting lol

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

It’s impressive for sure. But something about seeing a real person acting like game characters just throws everything deep into uncanny valley for me

2 years ago | Likes 1071 Dislikes 8

Fucked up that it arouses people less.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

As I see it, game characters just act like her

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Basically.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

It's a very old stage technique used so that even the people in the back can see the exaggerated movements and the emotion they convey. A little extra Kawaii thrown in of course. Still looks odd for a human to do it though

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 4

Yeah it kind of came full circle. The only reasons those motions came to exist was the lack of motion capture in the first place!

2 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

It's because even the 3d versions of the motion cap is cringey af.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Yeah I hate this but she’s really good at it. We already have enough people thinking anime is even close to real life behavior without actually seeing stuff like this.

2 years ago | Likes 43 Dislikes 4

Seeing a real human do those movements highlights how FUCKING WEIRD it is when a cartoon character does it

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The weird part is the small "idle" motions of her hands after the main movements are done. It weirds me out.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Why would you hire and mocap a real human to imitate stereotypical idle stances and emotes that are rooted in lazy/limited character animation? E.g., real people don't "bounce" or "hover" like that. That was a crutch animators used when they didn't want a character to look static, but only had a few frames of animation to work with so they couldn't fully depict realistic behavior.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Its supposed to. Motion capture movements are exxagerated by about 30%. Otherwise the digital characters will fall into uncanny valley when animated

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

"Motion capture movements are exagerated by about 30% when you are going for stupid anime aesthetics rooted in lazy animation" fixed this for you.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 5

Exactly, it looks better once on the character which would look boring with realistic animation

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Exaggerated movement is a cornerstone of hand drawn animation.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 97 Dislikes 1

2 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

And THIS is where true acting talent comes into play. Keeping a straight face (in this instance keeping in character) while dressed like that.

2 years ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 0

Is that someone's fetish?

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

It is now

2 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

Not certain on this one, but it is common for these to be acted in slow motion for extra precise motion, then sped back up in post.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

^ I am getting that too. Idk why for some reason applying the amount of gravity strain in my knees hurts. No joke.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Still very impressive work.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Why go to the trouble of doing mo-cap if the movements are going to look unnatural?

2 years ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 3

Unnatural, as the real.human moves in a legitimate fashion. Impractical in a real life setting maybe but this is for a game that's not meant to directly emulate reality. Idk what the issue is

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Because they are real movements and I assure you non mocap movements would look far worse.

2 years ago | Likes 26 Dislikes 3

Two reasons: 1) Mo cap and artists need extra range for capturing finer details 2) it’s for anime-styled video games. Characters in video games don’t move like normal humans and it would actually look “unnatural” for them to move like people do in real life.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

"Natural" movements look unnatural and stiff when applied to 3D models that don't have the same detail as a real human body covered in real materials.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I'm guessing it still ends up saving a lot of time even if you have to fix it a bit and I'm sure these days you don't have to fix it quite as much as a few years ago.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 1

Did you steal the idea for this comment from the last time it was posted?

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Maybe. My comment isn’t super creative, that’s for sure haha. But I didn’t read it from a previous post. But I definitely read something similar some where

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It's a very old stage technique used so that even the people in the back can see the exaggerated movements and the emotion they convey. A little extra Kawaii thrown in of course. Still looks odd for a human to do it though

2 years ago | Likes 243 Dislikes 0

It honestly does throw you off.

The new Final Fantasy has some well done motion capture, but the main girls all move in extremely cartoonish mannerisms.

Yufie always strikes poses as if she's in a stage, while Tifa and Aerith both do these very girly poses that are rare for an adult female to do. It's made a little worse when you see them both doing the exact same movements because it was the same motion capture actress.

It does always take me out of the moment when my brain notices this.

2 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Honestly I hate game characters doing this weird shit too.

2 years ago | Likes 104 Dislikes 3

Half of it probably done to avoid clipping, the other half for the kawaii/tiddies pushed out aspect.

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yeah the big problem for me is how limited the movements are.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

As someone with animation experience it looks just like things look if you give your animators limited budget (=time) to animate things.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Oh I'm aware, there's talk that ai will help with that somewhere down the line. I just think it's generally very limited and usually breaks immersion

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

There’s like a weird infantilization I feel with it, like this just isn’t even close how to how real adult women act, so why does it continue to be so prevalent in games and shows? Just weirds me out tbh, don’t act like you’ve got toddler-mannerisms if you’re an adult.

2 years ago | Likes 44 Dislikes 2

It's mostly kids' games that do this

2 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

Lots of cultures infantilize women, but Japan is egregious about it.

2 years ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

One of the multiple reasons I wouldn't wanna live in Japan

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Pretty sure this is china, but your point still stands

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Japan only recently raised their age of consent from 13 to 16. It's fucken weird there still.

2 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Yes! It's like kawaii Shakespeare, which is both amazing and terrible

2 years ago | Likes 32 Dislikes 2

That's a great name for a Mystery Men villain. Kawaii Shakespeare.

2 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I've searched and haven't found. Is there a kawaii Shakespeare performance?

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

My reaction to reading the term "kawaii Shakespeare":

2 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Everyone knows Shakespeare was peak cringe. It's all historical hero worship, emo teens, and dick jokes.

2 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

On the surface, yes. The most impressive thing about it is how it's written but you have to have an erection for the English language to appreciate it and that's not much to be proud about as it is.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

He didn't just do dick jokes though. He also made a lot of other references to reproductive organs and scatological matters.

2 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

We all know that it is what Will would have wanted

2 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0