The Official Site of Maurice Edu

Wed, Jul 16th 2008, 21:02

Mo's Blog - EA Mo Cap

What a day. I had the opportunity to visit EA’s headquarters in Vancouver and be involved with EA’s motion capturing for FIFA 09. It was crazyyyyy. They put me in this black spandex suit and head gear with little ball-shaped sensors all over including on my cleats. Never in my life did I imagine I’d be in a full body spandex suit, let alone in front of media and cameras, but there I was. The suit actually wasn’t too bad and allowed me to move very freely. The set included a small turf field surrounded by 55 high def cameras that captured all my movements and showed them via my character in the game on a large screen. We started off by just having me walk, jog, run and do subtle movements just to make sure the cameras identified me properly. When that was done, the ball was introduced and that’s when the fun began.

They had me do different actions simulating a game including shots, moves, and different passes. Then I went 1v1 and it was crazy watching the screen as I moved and seeing my character moving just as I did. I started to mess around a bit and started dancing and trying to trick my character thinking I could move faster than he could react, but he kept with me, for the most part. After about an hour, I talked to the media a little bit and answered some of their questions and filled them in a little bit more about what was going on. Of course I was dying at this point to see what FIFA 09 was going to be like so they let me test it out playing against one of the creators who was supposed to highlight the new features and “show me how to play.” I think I dismissed any concerns of me not being familiar with the game as I scored two goals in about 3 minutes, 1 of which was a chip over the goalkeeper. Yessir I’m a gamer and anyone who thinks they’re up to the challenge: I’m waiting. haha

When the interviews and media were done, we played around some more with a few members from the media. It was fun playing with them as they were all good sports and were enthusiastic about being involved. I felt like a kid in a candy shop, having the ball just dribbling, doing moves, and having fun and doing whatever I wanted. I ended up going 1v1 with a couple of them as well, one of which was Jeremy St. Louis of Fox Soccer Channel. Before we got started he said “I want to meg with him,” him being me of course. So with those words in mind, I made sure when we played 1v1 I megged him not once, not twice, but three times going “oooh” every time to add some salt to the wound. (sorry Jeremy) We had a good laugh and joked around afterwards and he was a good sport.

The day concluded with me having a shooting contest with Univision’s sports anchor Felix Fernandez, who played soccer as a goalkeeper. I had 6 shots, 3 from each side and I bet that I would score at least 4 of the 6. I shot left footed first missing the first attempt just wide of the far post. Second I slotted low near post and third I curled far post just missing. I switched to my right foot and placed my 1st shot just inside the near post and the second shot I curled into the far upper corner. It came down to the last shot. I was feeling real confident and Felix was looking a little nervous. I tried to duplicate my previous shot but shot too high losing the competition and having to hand over a signed jersey.

All in all, it was fun day. Having a character in a video game is ridiculous in itself but then being able to be involved first hand and add input was an experience of a lifetime. As a kid, I dreamed of playing pro soccer and being in a video game and now it’s become a reality. I wonder what other dreams will become reality