海角大神

Reuben Langdon has a most unusual profession: He鈥檚 a human marionette.

Drop by Mr. Langdon鈥檚 office in Marina Del Ray, Calif., and chances are you鈥檒l find him dangling in a suspension of stunt wires. Don鈥檛 be surprised if he鈥檚 wielding a toy sword.

Part acrobat, part martial artist, Langdon is one of the world鈥檚 top motion-capture actors. For years, video-game- makers have filmed the performer鈥檚 choreographed actions in a suit dotted with sensors and then mapped them on a computer to create iconic characters such as Ken in 鈥�Street Fighter IV鈥� and Dante in 鈥淒evil May Cry.鈥� The latter, which Langdon also voices, even has its own buff action figure. 鈥淭hey did model the six-pack after my six-pack,鈥� jokes the actor.

Now it鈥檚 Langdon鈥檚 turn to pull the strings. The versatile thespian is not only crossing over into cinema 鈥� he was hired as a performance-capture actor for James Cameron鈥檚 upcoming 鈥淎vatar鈥� 鈥� but his production company, Just Cause, is employing cutting-edge cameras used in 3-D movies to bring a more cinematic feel to video games.

鈥淲hat Just Cause is doing is really a sign of the times in the cross integration of interactive entertainment in gaming with big-budget movies,鈥� says Scott Lowe, gear editor at IGN.com, a website devoted to multimedia and gaming. 鈥淏oth mediums seem to be benefiting from that kind of cross integration.鈥�

鈥�Avatar,鈥� a 3-D space opera set on a planet straight off a Yes album cover, is Cameron鈥檚 ambitious attempt to smudge the line between live action and realistic animation by adapting video-game technology. To that end, Cameron affixed a camera to each actor鈥檚 head so that animators could capture each minute detail of an expression, right down to a tongue twitch.

鈥淲e actually had a head rig on 鈥楧evil May Cry,鈥� where we put a camera right in front of the actor鈥檚 face,鈥� says Langdon, who played the lead character of the Capcom-produced game. 鈥淚t just captures the best data.鈥�

In turn, Langdon has borrowed an innovation used in 鈥淎vatar鈥� called the iKam, a virtual camera that allows for 鈥渞eal-time capture.鈥�

Previously, directors have had to wait until postproduction to view what the performance capture looks like in the animated world. The virtual camera allows on-set filmmakers to peer into a computer-generated 3-D environment during filming to see how the actors interact with their animated surroundings.

鈥淵ou are able to take this device 鈥� which looks like a cross between a steering wheel, a PlayStation controller, and an iPhone 鈥� and ... look into the screen into the game world,鈥� en颅thuses Chris Kramer, senior director of communications and community at Capcom, the Japanese gaming company behind franchises such as 鈥淪treet Fighter鈥� and 鈥�Resident Evil.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 like holding a portal into an alternate dimension in your hands.鈥�

As such, the cameraman is able to move around performers to create a more cinematic effect in video-game 鈥渃ut scenes鈥� (between-action interludes for exposition and dialogue). By contrast, other games look as if they were clinically filmed by cameras sliding along smooth rails.

鈥淎ll the cut scenes were done in real time, but all those cut scenes have a rendered look,鈥� says Langdon, whose chiseled cheekbones are curtained by center-parted blond hair.

鈥淩eal time [scenes are] definitely cheaper to produce than rendered鈥� scenes, he says, because designers don鈥檛 need to spend countless hours on high-powered rendering computers.

Motion capture has evolved dramatically since 1996, the year Langdon successfully auditioned for a video-game role in Capcom鈥檚 鈥淩esident Evil Code: Veronica.鈥� 鈥淎t the time, it was a tethered system with wires sticking out [of the suit],鈥� he recalls. 鈥淭here were wires that attached to this big bundle that someone would have to follow you around with as you performed.鈥�

Later suits dispensed with umbilical cords in favor of small sensors, but they left welts on Langdon鈥檚 body after bruising stunts. Fortunately, he was already accustomed to cumbersome costumes. A self-professed 鈥淛apanime鈥� geek, Langdon relocated himself to Tokyo right out of high school in the early 1990s and landed a role in the children鈥檚 TV series 鈥淏-Fighter Kabuto.鈥� (His character would emerge from a puff of smoke transformed into a superhero robot with shoulder pads big enough to sideswipe Godzilla.)

A stint in Hong Kong working with martial arts icon Jackie Chan, followed by several years of acting in the US version of 鈥淧ower Rangers,鈥� proved ideal training for further video-game roles.

鈥淭hat definitely helped for when motion-capture work started,鈥� says Langdon. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a bit of overacting that needed to be done because, especially in the earlier games, the motions were conveyed but there鈥檚 no facial animation. Someone would go in and animate just a smirk, or a mouth open/mouth closed. Today, technology鈥檚 definitely advanced. The face is hyperreal, but you鈥檙e still playing an animated character. All the expressions have to be over-the-top 鈥� 鈥楶ower Ranger鈥�-like.鈥�

Inside the Just Cause office, a tiny space that includes a racquetball court-size stage for performance capture, a handful of animators are sculpting remarkably nuanced digital faces. But where other motion-capture companies film a full-body performance all at once, Just Cause has an unorthodox procedure. After filming action scenes in suits studded with spongy markers, actors retreat to a sound booth to record dialogue with sensors on their faces. The process allows the animators to ensure an exact matchup between the dialogue and the character鈥檚 lips. Another advantage: One can put a different face on a character鈥檚 body if the voice-over actor needs to be recast.

鈥淲e鈥檇 cut together our footage of what we鈥檇 done on the set, and then we鈥檇 try to mimic those emotions and those reactions,鈥� explains Langdon. 鈥淭here鈥檚 stuff going on in here that you may not have gotten in the past because of that lack of detail in the face and facial capture.鈥�

The Just Cause team 鈥� 21 employees in Tokyo and Los Angeles whose desks are populated with anime action figures such as Akira and Astro Boy聽 鈥� is currently finishing up another Capcom game, 鈥�Lost Planet 2.鈥� But despite overseeing production, Langdon isn鈥檛 ready to hang up the spandex suit that makes him look like a futuristic jewel thief.

He recently helped Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson with early tests for their jointly directed trilogy about Tintin, the 1930s Belgian detective (think Indiana Jones, not Hercule Poirot).

鈥淣ow that I have my own company, I鈥檝e seen all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and how much work goes into just making that eye open and close or that lip to curl,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t takes a big team to make that happen.鈥�