Geek Gestalt

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum throws a pitch during a motion capture session for the 2K Sports video game Major League Baseball 2K9. Lincecum is the cover athlete for the game and the 2008 National League Cy Young award winner. Click the image for a full gallery on the motion capture event.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

NOVATO, Calif.--Sports Illustrated magazine called Tim Lincecum "the freak," and for the motion capture specialists at 2K Sports, getting a good computer model of baseball star Tim Lincecum's unique, and violent, pitching motion presented a special challenge.

Last month, Lincecum, a diminutive 24-year-old whom you would never pick out of a lineup as a superstar ballplayer, won the National League Cy Young award, given to the league's best pitcher. The same day, the San Francisco Giant found out that he'd been chosen as the cover athlete for Major League Baseball 2K9, 2K's hit baseball video game.

Lincecum was on hand at 2K's motion capture facility, about 30 minutes north of San Francisco, for a day of performance: dozens of individual pitching and batting moves that the technicians would lead him through, one by methodical one, all to be used in the new game and all so that the Lincecum character would look and feel like the real deal.

For me, this was not entirely new territory. I came here last May to cover a very similar event, the motion-capturing of Rick Nash, the cover star of NHL 2K9, 2K's hockey game. In September, I also spent an afternoon at Industrial Light & Magic, watching the technicians there put my colleague Kara Tsuboi through the paces of the motion capture experience that Robert Downey Jr. went through while he was filming the blockbuster Iron Man.

So while the specifics of mo-capping a baseball pitcher like Lincecum differ in some ways from what's required for a hockey star like Nash or a movie character like Iron Man, much of what went on Tuesday was familiar ground.

As with the Nash and the Being Iron Man events, Tuesday's activities began with Lincecum donning a spandex suit and technicians placing a series of reflective markers all over his body. These, explained Johnathan Rivera, an associate producer for 2K Sports, are designed to capture and reflect the light from 56 mo-cap cameras spread throughout the facility so that the computers can record the minute movements of the actor--in this case, Lincecum--as he moves around. This is then translated into a 3D model of his skeletal structure that is used as the base for his in-game avatar.

At 2K Sports, everyone talks about the so-called "signature style" that they build for the real-life stars of their games. Essentially, said motion capture coordinator Steve Park, this means finding the stars' unique and specific motions and movements, ones that would be very familiar to their fans, and building them into the games so that when the fans play the Lincecum character, for example, they recognize his explosive pitching motion and can easily distinguish it from the more pedestrian motions practiced by dozens of other, less stellar, pitchers.

Park admitted that much of what he and his team were doing Tuesday was the same as what I'd seen them do for Nash. But he explained that mo-capping baseball plays does differ in some material ways.

For one, each of Lincecum's moves--and he would perform dozens of them--was a quick set piece that took just seconds and which covered a very small, specific piece of ground.

A computer model of Lincecum during the mo-cap session.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

To be sure, Nash's movements were also set pieces, and lasted just seconds, but they tended to be more free-form, one technician told me.

So the mo-cap team had set up a short pitching mound covered in markers that were meant to be used by Lincecum for specific foot placements for his myriad moves.

"The foot placement is actually pretty important for us," Park said, "for getting the right blend pose."

The blend pose, Park explained, is what happens when the technicians take different recorded motions and blend them together to create a single, smooth move for the game. Because much of what baseball players do looks very similar, even when differing in one way or another, it's crucial, Park suggested, to be able to create smooth blend poses.

It was important that Lincecum's many moves be spot-on, so that the end of one move would look similar enough to the beginning of another--say his wind-up blending into his follow-through--that they could be combined in the game without any jerky transition.

Hockey moves, said Park, are much more free-form and free-flow, and while building an NHL game also requires accurate blend poses, he added that it was much more important when shooting a baseball player that the player hit his foot placements precisely.

That's because, Park continued, baseball motions are very segmented and specific, whether someone is pitching, catching, or swinging a bat.

For Park and his team, having Lincecum be the cover star also was challenging for another reason: while they've done baseball games for years, Lincecum was the first pitcher they've featured. And that meant figuring out how to capture the pitching motion, something that is more important with a player like the Giants star, who, despite being stellar as a college player, scared off many of the pro scouts who watched him play.

"The quickness of Lincecum's small body is what scared off most scouts," wrote Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated last July, "that and what has become something of a trademark, a tilting of his head toward first base in the early phase of his delivery. The scouts equated his body speed with violence. That assessment, however, is akin to watching the Blue Angels air show team and not seeing the precision because of a fixation with the implicit danger. Lincecum generates outrageous rotational power (see video below)--the key element to velocity--only because his legs, hips, and torso work in such harmony."

Or, as the magazine reported, "The normal stride length for a pitcher is 77 percent to 87 percent of his height. Lincecum's stride is 129 percent, some 7.5 feet."

So for some of the mo-cap technicians, the best part of bringing in someone like Lincecum was the opportunity to be able to build a digital model of "The Freak" in motion, something that they see as a very cool piece of digital data.

All of which is to say that even if the mo-cap guys at 2K Sports had had experience with a pitcher, Lincecum would still have presented a singular experience for them.

That said, Park explained that, in fact, pitching is actually easier to mo-cap than hitting.

That's because batters have very distinctive stances that begin with "waggles," or nervous tics they express with their bats, as well as differing stances that can be wide or narrow, depending on the player.

And because Lincecum does take the occasional turn at bat, the mo-cap guys had to film him hitting as well.

I asked Park how many other major league players they bring in for the creation of their baseball game, and he said that, in fact, the number is very small.

"Part of the problem is that our development cycle is actually during the baseball season," Park said, adding that the players are contractually prohibited from doing the kind of extracurricular work that Lincecum was doing Tuesday during the season. "I don't know what our goal is...but it's always a challenge for every sport."

This means that while 2K Sports will bring in a Lincecum or a Nash as their cover athletes, in order to capture their signature styles, most of the players in the games are actually represented by actors, guys who have played their respective sports at probably a high amateur level, such as college, and who can be trusted to look like they know what they're doing.

Back at the 2K Sports mo-cap facility, Lincecum has taken the "mound," and is now warming up for his session.

Soon, he's ready, and after a brief introduction in which Park explains to the gathered crowd what, exactly, is going on, Lincecum begins his series of moves.

Right away, though, he's having a bit of a problem with some of the reflective markers they've put on his baseball glove, which keep flying off during his violent motion.

That's not a problem for the third shot, though, one in which Lincecum is supposed to stand idle on the mound.

He does that, standing totally still, until the director yells, "Cut."

Lincecum grins and asks if it was a good take.

As the crowd laughed, the director fired back, "More emotion."

But once Lincecum continues with actual pitching motions, he continues to have problems keeping the markers on his glove, meaning that after each shot, a couple of techs have to run out and put them back on.

Finally, he's done with his pitching moves, and now it's time for him to pick up his bat for the hitting shots (see video below).

The biggest laugh of all came when the director announced that Lincecum was going to hit a home run.

"He's going to hit a home run, which is the first time in his life he's ever done that, including Little League," said Johnathan Rivera, an associate producer for 2K Sports.

"Thanks," Lincecum said sarcastically.

After all the shooting was over, I asked Lincecum--who, by the way, is a big video game player and is currently spending his free time with Gears of War 2--what it was like to be featured in Major League Baseball 2K9.

"It's a one-of-a-kind experience for me," Lincecum said. "That's stuff that kids dream about all the time...You see yourself in the game, and you're like, 'That's me. That's me out there, except in video game form.'"

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum throws a pitch during a motion-capture session for the 2K Sports video game, 'Major League Baseball 2K9'. Lincecum is the cover athlete for the game and the 2008 National League Cy Young award winner.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

NOVATO, Calif.--We're about to see Tim Lincecum, the 2008 National League Cy Young award-winning pitcher, go deep.

"He's going to hit a home run, which is the first time in his life he's ever done that, including Little League," said Johnathan Rivera, an associate producer for 2K Sports, who was standing near the pitcher, explaining what he was about to do.

"Thanks," Lincecum said sarcastically.

The San Francisco Giants pitcher was here, at 2K Sports' motion-capture studio on Tuesday, because he's the cover athlete for the publisher's forthcoming Major League Baseball 2K9 game, which is slated to be released in the spring, just before next year's season begins.

And now, after about an hour of throwing all kinds of pitches for the mo-cap cameras, he's got a bat in his hands and, according to the script, it's time for the long ball.

Lincecum prepares for the mo-cap session. His suit is covered in reflective markers used to create a skeletal image of the subject's movement.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Of course, he's not swinging at real pitching, but he takes his swing, and it looks good. It's possible to imagine the ball soaring off Lincecum's bat and clearing the fences, even though he's a pitcher by profession.

For me, this was my second trip to 2K's mo-cap facility, after visiting in May for a similar session in which pro hockey star Rick Nash was filmed for NHL 2K9. But I'm actually a baseball fan and could pick out Lincecum from the crowd, whereas Nash had been an all-new face for me.

Lincecum, however, is tiny, at least as far as pro athletes go. If you didn't know which one he was, you would not have been able to tell he was at the top of his sport.

But once he was covered in reflective markers and began throwing pitches in front of the mo-cap cameras, there was little doubt. The kid--he's 24 years old--has a scary smooth pitching motion and throws heat (see the video below).

To be sure, much of what went on here today was familiar to me, having been at the Nash mo-cap session. But according to several of the people involved in putting this session together, shooting mo-cap of baseball presents specific challenges that other sports don't.

I'll explain all of that in a full story I'll post tomorrow, along with a photo gallery. So stay tuned for that.

NHL star Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets gets ready to be filmed in a motion-capture session for the forthcoming 2K Sports video game NHL 2K9. The idea is that by placing specially reflective markers all over his body and his hockey stick, the technicians can capture fully 3D film of his motion as he skates on a floor of synthetic ice. Then, the data captured by the cameras can be incorporated into the video game so that Nash's skating appears as realistic as possible. Here, Nash prepares to have the markers on his suit calibrated with the 56 cameras in the 2K Sports studio in Novato, Calif., where the motion-capture session took place.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

NOVATO, Calif.--Over on one side of the synthetic hockey rink, the director yelled out, "Motion-capture ready?"

The technician answered, "Ready."

The director then shouted out, "Actor ready?"

NHL star Rick Nash, a left wing for the Columbus Blue Jackets answered back, "Ready."

Nash was on hand, even as the Stanley Cup Finals are still in progress, because he's the cover star for 2K Sports' forthcoming hockey video game, NHL 2K9. And he was here, in this small studio in a nondescript office park for an all-day motion-capture filming session for the game.

Nash takes a shot at the goal during the motion-capture session.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

The idea is that by filming several dozen of Nash's moves--shots, skating tricks, dekes, and more--with special motion-capture cameras, 2K Sports--a division of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive--will be able to incorporate some of what it calls Nash's "signature" moves into the game.

That's why 2K Sports has set up 56 of the motion-capture cameras all around the studio, on the ceiling, and close to the floor. Together, they can take all the data they record and stitch it into a realistic representation of Nash's real-life movements.

"They all see in a 2D plane," said Tony Tominia, a motion-capture specialist for 2K Sports, referring to the cameras. "They send out light, and markers (on Nash) reflect back. Whatever is being reflected back is how it determines its space in 3D."

Tominia explained that the many markers he and his team attached to the special dark suit Nash was wearing are designed to help them capture the movement of the hockey star's joints.

"(We want to) get an idea of how human movement really happens," Tominia said, "to really see how the human body really works."

When I first arrived at this studio about 20 minutes north of San Francisco, Nash was skating around on the special synthetic ice-like surface in a red and white outfit. But he soon changed into the all-black outfit he would wear for the filming session and then several technicians gathered around him to put the markers all over his body and his hockey stick.

Prior to sending Nash out onto the "ice," 2K Sports senior product manager Mike Rhinehart had also put on skates and spent a few minutes gliding around waving a special wand.

A 2K Sports technician adds a reflective marker to the hockey stick that will be used by NHL star Rick Nash during the motion-capture filming session for the forthcoming video game NHL 2K9.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

The idea with that was that the 56 motion-capture--known as mo-cap--cameras would record the movement of the wand and calibrate the system into a cohesive 3D system.

Of course, computer systems being what they are, that process had a few kicks and starts.

"Hang on, Mike," one of the technicians yelled out as Rhinehart was skating around waving the wand. "The software just crashed."

Then, a little later, before much more progress could be made, the studio's fire alarm went off, deafening everyone with a horrid, blaring sound.

Soon enough, however, they began to get Nash ready for his filming session, sticking the markers onto the tight black suit that, the hockey star said, "Doesn't leave much to the imagination."

Finally, Nash headed back out to the ice, but before he could begin skating, they had to calibrate the markers on his suit with the cameras.

So he skated to the center of the ice and for a few minutes had to pose in a series of stances so that the cameras could recognize all of his joints when he moved.

This step, one of the technicians explained to everyone, is sometimes known as the "chicken dance," and shows which markers are associated with which parts of the actor's body.

While the Thursday session was devoted to filming Nash for the next edition of 2K Sports' hockey game, the company also produces basketball and baseball games, and this studio is used several times a year for these mo-cap events. The company also does this kind of filming in other locations as well.

"We did about 75 days of (mo-cap) filming last year," said Dave Washburn, 2K Sports' motion-capture supervisor. "This year, we'll do between 90 and 95 days."

Washburn said that each day of shooting is followed by up to three days of production, and that explains why he has a full-time job.

But he also said that the Nash session would be a "breeze," since the hockey star would only be doing about 75 different moves, compared with many more for the company's other sports titles.

A look straight into one of the 56 motion-capture cameras that were used in the filming session.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

I asked Washburn what some of the challenges were for setting up a session like this, and he said that perhaps the biggest was finding the right combination of dark walls, a lit ceiling, and a light floor, all without blinding the "talent."

He said it's all an ever-evolving process.

"In our department, every single day, there's a better way," Washburn said. "I won't stop. Every day we fine tune...That's kind of my quest."

Finally, Nash was ready, and he began to skate around the ice with purpose.

On the director's cue, Nash headed to one corner of the ice and waited for the command to skate.

Then, again and again, Nash would launch into an explosive move, skating at high speed across the ice and firing away at a goal on the opposite side. There'd be a pause, during which everything seemed to slow down, and then they'd start again. It was quite the contrast in style: slow and methodical, and then a burst of explosive speed. Repeat. Over and over.

The idea was to have Nash run through several dozen of his moves so that the technicians could record them all and then, eventually, build them into the game. This way, when players face off in NHL 2K9, they'll get the most realistic movement possible out of Nash and the many other players presented in the game.

For his part, Nash, 23, said he had played many of the earlier versions of 2K Sports' hockey games and that the experience of being selected to be the cover star for the game was "every kid's dream."

I had overheard him say a couple of times during the filming that the plastic synthetic surface was making it hard for him to make the kinds of very sharp cuts he's used to making on real ice.

So I asked him if that limitation was going to be a problem when the video game's developers were putting it together.

But he said that out of the dozens of moves he regularly makes when skating, that was just one that wasn't working out, and that ultimately, almost everything he does when playing hockey will be in the game.

I also asked him how they'd decided which moves to incorporate into the game.

"I sat down with a dozen producers and testers," Nash said. "It's a video game, but we want those highlight reel goals. It's a video game, but (we can) find the perfect medium."

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.

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)