In General XR News
March 12, 2025 – Vicon, a provider of motion capture systems and technologies, has this week announced that it will launch its Markerless Motion Capture solution at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco next week.
The launch follows an immersive exhibition of the Vicon Markerless prototype at SIGGRAPH 2023. Vicon stated that the technology was extensively beta-tested via the company’s Visual Effects (VFX) Pioneer Program, through which the VFX and virtual production communities had the opportunity to discover, understand and define how markerless motion capture could be applied in their industries.
According to Vicon, beta participants included Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Gearbox Entertainment, Dimension | DNEG360, Dreamscape Immersive, Framestore Pre-production Services and others, with efforts culminating in the release of “Vicon Markerless.”
Commenting on the upcoming launch, Vicon CEO Imogen O’Connor, said: “Vicon Markerless, developed over several years with meticulous attention to detail, sets a new standard for motion capture… It enables VFX teams to rapidly refine early creative ideas and iterations marker-free and offers a seamless transition to optical motion capture as needed.”
Built on what Vicon stated is “40 years of experience building high-fidelity motion capture solutions” for the life sciences, media and entertainment, location-based virtual reality, and engineering industries, Vicon Markerless enables faster creative iteration by allowing users to instantly visualize ideas.
Comprising a new markerless motion-tracking camera (“Vanguard”) and new software incorporating advanced computer vision, machine learning and algorithms that capture human performance without markers (“Shōgun Markerless” and “Shōgun Post”), Vicon Markerless helps reduce time from prototyping and previsualization to real-time animation, according to the company. Vicon also noted that the new system is designed to integrate into existing Vicon optical motion capture pipelines, offering a single ecosystem for calibration, capture and data cleaning pipelines.
“The new markerless system from Vicon has significantly accelerated our creative process, enabling us to reach results faster,” said Ben Kolakovic, Virtual Production Operations Manager at Industrial Light & Magic, a beta participant. “We now receive mocap data much more quickly than before, which allows our artists to experiment with new ideas in a fraction of the time. This streamlined workflow not only fosters creativity but also enhances our ability to iterate efficiently and fine-tune performances.”
Vicon Markerless for VFX will be generally available on March 19. The company will be showcasing its new solution at GDC (booth #S335) from March 19-21. For more information on Vicon and its motion capture solutions, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Vicon
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.