Creating the John Wick-inspired mocap for SPINE - and why Unreal Engine 5 isn't always best

Spine mocap; a woman kicks someone in a video game
(Image credit: Nekki)

Creating animation for video games has become reliant on motion capture, bit SPINE developer Nekki has gone further than most, having created its own app, called Cascadeur. This adds to a workflow that includes Unreal Engine 5 and Epic Game's MetaHuman, but one that doesn't always rely on those 'off the shelf' apps for its stylised anime-like animation.

In our developer series on upcoming gun-fu game SPINE we've already discovered how Nekki is creating a new 'intelligent' action camera as well as why the game's art director loves using Unreal Engine 5, but here I chat to the game's lead animator, Evgeniy Khapugin, and discover how performance capture is being used for the game's fluid, athletic combat.

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Editor, Digital Arts & 3D

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.