Agents of Cosplay‘s Liana Kerzner Explores Far Cry Primal‘s Mo-cap

The Escapist‘s Liana Kerzner visited Ubisoft’s motion capture studio to see what went into creating Far Cry Primal.

Far Cry: Primal might be set 12,000 years in the past, but the technology behind it is state of the art. That’s what Liana Kerzner – the personality behind Agents of Cosplay and Cosplay Dossier – learned when she went to visit Ubisoft’s motion capture studio in Toronto, Canada.

Far Cry Primal‘s filming process begins with emotive rehearsals, where actors play out each scene while improvising their lines. Since Primal‘s dialogue isn’t in English, this helps actors focus on immediate actions without fussing over another language. It’s also a great opportunity for a little on-set levity – like the cast discovered with their “tiger” spoke in English.

Once recording begins, motions are captured using Ubisoft’s handheld motion capture camera. This automatically renders the scene using basic in-game textures, and gives directors an idea of what each scene will look like. (Quite frankly, it also looks wicked cool.) You might notice actors themselves carry a bare minimum of props while filming. That’s because new textures, costumes, and props will be edited directly into the scene without needing to reshoot. It sounds a little strange for the actors, but Primal‘s Cara Rickets says it’s preferable to carrying obviously fake props.

Outside of motion capture, Kerzner spoke with Andrew Byrd, the professor of linguistics who helped create two languages for Far Cry Primal‘s tribes. That’s another element most players probably won’t think of while stalking foes with bows and arrows, but it’s fascinating all the same. Regardless, it shows Ubisoft is putting an impressive level of detail into Far Cry Primal‘s production. We’ll see if it pays off when the game launches on Feb. 23, 2016.