Acclaimed actor, director and motion-capture artist Andy Serkis explained today how Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 helped him achieve CGI firsts in both theater and film.
Serkis released a video during Epic Games’ keynote presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to talk about CGI and motion-capture work. Serkis previously used Epic’s Unreal 4 engine to develop a digital character driven by a live motion-capture performance last year. The character — which made its debut during The Royal Shakespeare Company’s run of The Tempest in Stratford, England — was the first time a CGI character rendered in real time appeared on the theater stage.
The actor became a go-to for motion-capture performances following his role as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise. Since then, Serkis has played a number of CGI characters in various films, including the upcoming War for the Planet of the Apes and as Supreme Leader Snoke in the currently ongoing Star Wars trilogy. Serkis also appeared in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, an action-adventure platformer released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010.
The Game Developers Conference will run through March 3.
