All of Baldur’s Gate 3’s voice actors performed their own motion capture, which gave them more freedom to explore their characters, BG3 performance director Aliona Baranova said on Twitter. It created a set of unique challenges, but Baranova said it helped the actors connect to their characters more deeply, which was when “the magic really happened.”
“For almost ALL the dialogue we recorded we ALSO captured the actors mocap data,” Baranova said. “That means all 248 actors, ALL the NPCs and not just the companions, put on a mocap suit and their movements, gestures and physical choices were recorded & sent along with the audio files for the animators to use in game. which is why the performances feels so *alive.*”
1/🧵 BG3 thread alert
i’d like to clarify a few things about the dialogue recording process that went into making Baldur’s Gate 3, while i have peoples attention.
Firstly: for almost ALL the dialogue we recorded we ALSO captured the actors mocap data
— Aliona Baranova (@alionabaranova1) August 25, 2023
“At the very least, we wanted all the physical performances to look alive & be interesting to watch, but when the magic really happened was when we helped the actor connect to the text on a deeper more physical level. when u could *see* what they were saying affect their bodies.”
All the physical characteristics, subtle and significant, came from the actors themselves and their interpretation of who their characters were – Astarion’s hand gestures, Shadowheart’s head bobs, and nearly every NPC movement.
Baranova’s role as performance director was making sure the actors’ movements matched their vocal delivery, and then once the directors were satisfied, the mocap data went to Larian’s animators, who turned it into what you see in the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 launches on PS5 on Sep. 6, 2023, and on Xbox sometime later in 2023.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
[mm-video type=video id=01fqpcc5fy4z69j31mar playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fqpcc5fy4z69j31mar/01fqpcc5fy4z69j31mar-5fd567aebf1e13ea394e4522425d1f3f.jpg]