Motion capturing for 'NHL 2K9'

NHL Hockey star Rick Nash skates on synthetic ice during a motion-capture filming session for the forthcoming 2K Sports hockey game NHL 2K9.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

NOVATO, Calif.--I'm sitting outside a nondescript warehouse space in this Marin County town, and sitting right behind me is Rick Nash, an NHL all-star with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

All of us are chowing down on barbecue, and every single one of us is wearing comfortable clothes: jeans, T-shirts, and the like.

But not Nash. He's in a full-body motion-capture suit. That's because he's here to for a mo-cap filming session for 2K Sports' forthcoming hockey video game, NHL 2K9.

I'll run a full story on this later today, and a full gallery, most likely tomorrow. But I wanted to offer up a little taste of what's going on here, courtesy of a couple of photos and a short video.

The video--which, sadly, is incomplete due to a technical malfunction--was shot using Qik's streaming-video service. This is designed to allow users to shoot and stream live video from a Nokia smartphone. However, since it requires a 3G connection, it buffers the video when it's not connected. And when my phone crashed, it took about two minutes of video it hadn't yet downloaded with it.

Still, what's there should give you enough color to get a sense of what's going on.

So stay tuned for more on this story, and enjoy this little taste in the meantime.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I'll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South's most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I'm doing on Twitter.

A motion-capture technician looks at his computer screen in the foreground, while NHL star Rick Nash, whose image is on the screen, skates by in the background.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)