Beyond is biggest performance capture production ever, bigger than James Cameron’s Avatar

David Cage, head of studio Quantic Dream, has claimed that the performance capture used in upcoming PS3-exclusive Beyond: Two Souls is the biggest ever.

That’s biggest ever, not just the biggest example in videogames. In fact, this is the first time performance capture has been used in a videogame. Before now (and probably still), the biggest example of performance capture is James Cameron’s Avatar – a movie of mild success.

Performance capture is a technique in which an actor’s movements, facial expressions and dialogue are recording at the same time and then digitally transferred into the film/game virtual set. The advantage is that, unlike traditional motion capture in which dialogue is recorded separately, the acting team perform all actions at the same time and thus creates a more natural finished article.

Speaking at Gamescom, Cage was clearly very proud of the hard work that has gone into the performance capture of Beyond and is confident it will remain one of the biggest examples of the technique for some time.

“[Beyond will] be the first game to use performance capturing and 3D scans at the same time, no one has been that before,” said Cage. “Beyond is probably the largest performance capture production ever made, because we shot for 12 months. Maybe the next Avatar will beat it for size of production, but it will remain one of the biggest.”