Where do I begin? How did I choose to work in Motion Capture? I guess for most in the Gaming industry they would begin with how they are avid gamer or loved animation. but for me it was different. For me, It started with
Dancing.
If you knew me or even saw me you would know it wasn't MY dancing (I'm 250 pounds and I play hockey 4 times a week, guys like me don't dance, at least not well) but, it was watching dancing. Specifically break dancing/pop n locking. I must have watched a video from a dancer named Mr Wiggles a thousand times. (feel free to watch the video it's short and you'll know what I'm talking about)
But strangely, I don't really care for dancing. So why did I watch these guys over and over? More on that in a minute.
That being said I was an Avid gamer. I grew up playing Nintendo, Sega Genesis I never really played the big named games though. I played games like Kid Chameleon, Monkey Island, Command & Conquer Carmageddon, Flame Dragon 2 (a Taiwanese / Chinese turn based strategy RPG) I was always trying to take apart games add my own stuff make my own levels. And when I was 19 my girlfriend (now my wife) continuously encouraged me to go to school for Game Design. When I finally listened to her I enrolled in the art Institute of Vancouver in 2007 and began learning game design with my aim on being a level designer.
Along the way I was having a conversation with a level design Teacher who I looked up to and he mentioned he "never plays games anymore because he works on them so much he is sick of them by the time he gets home". This actually scared me. I loved games. and I didn't want to lose that love. I had never experienced this before. I've had lots of bad jobs in my life.. I worked in a body shop, worked on a green chain in a veneer plant, managed a garage of a dealership that I'm 95% sure was a money laundering front, Some were fun, I made donuts in Calgary for a year. Some were almost indescribable; I micro vacuumed fruit and vegetables for medical use. But I had never had a job that I truly loved that's why I was in school. so the idea of hating something I do when I get home from work actually frightened me.
Graduation day came and even with my teachers words haunting me, when asked what is my dream company to work for I only had one Answer: Ubisoft.
In my opinion, Ubisoft was a big company that still made new IPs, took risks (a huge task for a publicly traded company) and made games that were focused on fun and immersing the player, not micro-transactions and bringing out the same game year after year.
So when I graduated I thought it was best to keep gaming at an arms length. One of the companies I applied at was Rainmaker Entertainment (formally Mainframe) during the interview I asked for a tour and instantly fell in love. They were an animation studio that had a small "gaming" section that created Trailers for games like WET and 50 Cent: Blood on the sand. It was perfect, I could find a place working on game related things while not getting sick of games. (I later found out that could ever happen to me but it all worked out in the end) I was a Production Assistant, empty garbage build tables, make coffee, these were my contributions to the company. I worked hard and loved what I did. I was in early and left late. It was during this time I met the Mocap Team.
Rainmaker Mocap team was amazing. a group of 5 highly skilled, hard working funny guys and girls. I used to stop by on my lunch and joke with them, they were my favorite part of work. One day I saw one of the guys working on a cowboy strafing right with a rifle in his hand. this didn't seem like a scene from Barbie or Max Steel. When I inquired as to what it was from, after making sure I wouldn't say anything they told me it was from Dead Rising 2. This blew my mind as there was nothing even rumored about DR2 coming out. One night I came home and was watching one of the dance videos I mentioned above and that's when it hit me, I didn't love the dancing, I loved the motion. the control and making your body do things most can't. I sat back and thought about joining mocap. It seemed like a perfect fit. I'd work on games at a distance, stare at motion all day and work with an amazing team. It was serendipity when I mentioned to my boss (an amazing woman named Brenda Yau) that I would like to apply to work in Mocap she informed me they were looking to hire someone. However they wanted someone with experience. I'll never know what my boss said to the Mocap Manager but they took a chance on me, I was promoted to Junior Mocap Editor.
I spent close to 5 years at Rainmaker. I went to over 300 shoots and logged tens of thousand of hours in tracking, cleaning, re-targeting, solving and delivering data for DVD Videos, Movies and Video games, I met some of my closest friends and worked on some amazing projects.I was in heaven. But, nothing lasts forever. With Escape from planet earth in the final stages of production Rainmaker was moving away from Motion Capture. It was time to move on. One day I was speaking with an actress I worked with on Barbie and she mentioned that her boyfriend worked at Ubisoft Toronto and they may be hiring for their new state of the art Motion Capture Studio. I applied immediately Several Phone interviews later with numerous people in the company and I was offered the job. 2 weeks later I boarded a plane and flew to Toronto to work at my dream job. When I landed late in the evening, the Performance Capture Manager (my former boss at Rainmaker for 4.5 years) Called me and asked if I had landed yet, I said "yes", He replied, "good, Get to work!" and we haven't stopped since. My wife stayed behind to clean up the cars, house and other lose ends before joining me in Toronto two months later. June 13th ,2013 will be my one year anniversary at Ubisoft.
So this is my story. A bit long winded but hopefully it gives you perspective on my background and a glimpse into the future.
This website will be used for updates, my resume and demo reel as well as tutorials to help budding mocappers learn the trade. Feel free to Email me if you want to get in touch. gqually at gmail dot come.
Thanks for visiting.
Dancing.
If you knew me or even saw me you would know it wasn't MY dancing (I'm 250 pounds and I play hockey 4 times a week, guys like me don't dance, at least not well) but, it was watching dancing. Specifically break dancing/pop n locking. I must have watched a video from a dancer named Mr Wiggles a thousand times. (feel free to watch the video it's short and you'll know what I'm talking about)
But strangely, I don't really care for dancing. So why did I watch these guys over and over? More on that in a minute.
That being said I was an Avid gamer. I grew up playing Nintendo, Sega Genesis I never really played the big named games though. I played games like Kid Chameleon, Monkey Island, Command & Conquer Carmageddon, Flame Dragon 2 (a Taiwanese / Chinese turn based strategy RPG) I was always trying to take apart games add my own stuff make my own levels. And when I was 19 my girlfriend (now my wife) continuously encouraged me to go to school for Game Design. When I finally listened to her I enrolled in the art Institute of Vancouver in 2007 and began learning game design with my aim on being a level designer.
Along the way I was having a conversation with a level design Teacher who I looked up to and he mentioned he "never plays games anymore because he works on them so much he is sick of them by the time he gets home". This actually scared me. I loved games. and I didn't want to lose that love. I had never experienced this before. I've had lots of bad jobs in my life.. I worked in a body shop, worked on a green chain in a veneer plant, managed a garage of a dealership that I'm 95% sure was a money laundering front, Some were fun, I made donuts in Calgary for a year. Some were almost indescribable; I micro vacuumed fruit and vegetables for medical use. But I had never had a job that I truly loved that's why I was in school. so the idea of hating something I do when I get home from work actually frightened me.
Graduation day came and even with my teachers words haunting me, when asked what is my dream company to work for I only had one Answer: Ubisoft.
In my opinion, Ubisoft was a big company that still made new IPs, took risks (a huge task for a publicly traded company) and made games that were focused on fun and immersing the player, not micro-transactions and bringing out the same game year after year.
So when I graduated I thought it was best to keep gaming at an arms length. One of the companies I applied at was Rainmaker Entertainment (formally Mainframe) during the interview I asked for a tour and instantly fell in love. They were an animation studio that had a small "gaming" section that created Trailers for games like WET and 50 Cent: Blood on the sand. It was perfect, I could find a place working on game related things while not getting sick of games. (I later found out that could ever happen to me but it all worked out in the end) I was a Production Assistant, empty garbage build tables, make coffee, these were my contributions to the company. I worked hard and loved what I did. I was in early and left late. It was during this time I met the Mocap Team.
Rainmaker Mocap team was amazing. a group of 5 highly skilled, hard working funny guys and girls. I used to stop by on my lunch and joke with them, they were my favorite part of work. One day I saw one of the guys working on a cowboy strafing right with a rifle in his hand. this didn't seem like a scene from Barbie or Max Steel. When I inquired as to what it was from, after making sure I wouldn't say anything they told me it was from Dead Rising 2. This blew my mind as there was nothing even rumored about DR2 coming out. One night I came home and was watching one of the dance videos I mentioned above and that's when it hit me, I didn't love the dancing, I loved the motion. the control and making your body do things most can't. I sat back and thought about joining mocap. It seemed like a perfect fit. I'd work on games at a distance, stare at motion all day and work with an amazing team. It was serendipity when I mentioned to my boss (an amazing woman named Brenda Yau) that I would like to apply to work in Mocap she informed me they were looking to hire someone. However they wanted someone with experience. I'll never know what my boss said to the Mocap Manager but they took a chance on me, I was promoted to Junior Mocap Editor.
I spent close to 5 years at Rainmaker. I went to over 300 shoots and logged tens of thousand of hours in tracking, cleaning, re-targeting, solving and delivering data for DVD Videos, Movies and Video games, I met some of my closest friends and worked on some amazing projects.I was in heaven. But, nothing lasts forever. With Escape from planet earth in the final stages of production Rainmaker was moving away from Motion Capture. It was time to move on. One day I was speaking with an actress I worked with on Barbie and she mentioned that her boyfriend worked at Ubisoft Toronto and they may be hiring for their new state of the art Motion Capture Studio. I applied immediately Several Phone interviews later with numerous people in the company and I was offered the job. 2 weeks later I boarded a plane and flew to Toronto to work at my dream job. When I landed late in the evening, the Performance Capture Manager (my former boss at Rainmaker for 4.5 years) Called me and asked if I had landed yet, I said "yes", He replied, "good, Get to work!" and we haven't stopped since. My wife stayed behind to clean up the cars, house and other lose ends before joining me in Toronto two months later. June 13th ,2013 will be my one year anniversary at Ubisoft.
So this is my story. A bit long winded but hopefully it gives you perspective on my background and a glimpse into the future.
This website will be used for updates, my resume and demo reel as well as tutorials to help budding mocappers learn the trade. Feel free to Email me if you want to get in touch. gqually at gmail dot come.
Thanks for visiting.