Rockstar Newswire

Left: Mic'd up and ready, Game Informer's Dan Ryckert prepares for MotionScan. Center: the raw, three-dimensional scan.  Right: The in-game character.

Back in March, Game Informer had an exclusive first look at L.A. Noire and the Depth Analysis studio responsible for scanning the actors and placing them in-game, but that wasn't all. During the visit, one of Game Informer's writers was selected to make a cameo as a minor character in L.A. Noire. While there was some hint of being involved in typical motion capture (the typically anonymous process of donning a dotted jumpsuit and having your movements recorded as datapoints for digital characters), they had no idea they were going to be acting out real lines -  and having their entire performances scanned and placed inside the game itself. Here's an excerpt from Game Informer writer Dan Ryckert's experiences:

"It quickly became apparent what I had unknowingly signed up for. Team Bondi's tech affords them the luxury of recording actors with 32 highly precise cameras in a soundproof white room, which then creates an amazingly realistic in-game model of whoever is in the chair. They explained what the plan was for me...I'd be captured with the cameras, allowing my exact likeness to be used for a journalist character in the game. I'd be receiving a full 1940s makeover at the hands of Hollywood stylists, then it was time to get in the chair and record dialogue while the cameras captured every subtle motion of my face."

"They buckled me into the chair and pointed out the X mark that I'd need to keep my eyes trained on. Once I was adequately prepared, the door shut behind me and I was alone in an almost eerie soundproof room that looked like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey (only with 32 cameras pointed directly at my face and a roomful of people on the other side of the wall monitoring my every move)."

Read the full story here: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/11/how-rockstar-put-me-into-la-noire.aspx