Using motion-capture performances to successfully portray real-life movements in a video game is finicky, and when done badly can result in lifeless and unrealistic NPCs. For the eighth installment of the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Village, the motion capture team used a unique stand-in to align actors' eye line with the proper height of Lady Dimitrescu.
Using props and dummies in motion capture endeavors is a common practice for creatures too complex to capture and for characters like Dimitrescu, who are too tall to find a suitable human actor. It is important for motion capture actors to have the correct stature and eye line in successfully imitating real-life interactions, which leads studios to find alternative solutions when putting a suit on somebody just won't cut it.
Instead of finding a nine-foot-six-inch tall woman to portray Resident Evil: Village's infamous Lady Dimitrescu, the team used what appears to be a blue cylindrical dummy on a long wooden pole with a face depicted in tape. As part of a series of behind-the-scenes posts on Twitter, voice actress Maggie Robinson pointed out that the dummy was used to imitate both Lady Dimitrescu's enormous size and the alignment of her facial expressions.
For Avengers: Endgame, Mark Ruffalo, the actor who portrayed the Hulk throughout the franchise, wore a gigantic breastplate motion capture suit so the team could accurately map his face onto the Hulk's enormous torso. The motion capture team for Monster Hunter: World used various items ranging from bottles to foam to imitate the strange proportions of the game's monsters.
The main antagonist of Resident Evil: Village has piqued the interest of both fans of the Resident Evil franchise and people who have never touched the franchise. She's the first major female antagonist in a Resident Evil game, save for the sporadic minor villain, and her impressive height sets her apart from the rest. When initially revealed as the next major antagonist, Lady Dimitrescu was so instantly iconic that she was the subject of many memes before Resident Evil: Village even released.
Unfortunately for some fans, though, the nine-foot-six-inch tall villainous Vampiress of Resident Evil: Village doesn't exist in real life – and the closest thing the motion capture team could get was a grumpy-faced blue cylinder on top of a wooden pole. Acting scared and intimidated by a slightly annoyed stickman face is no small task, and perhaps that's a testament to the performances of the game's actors.
Resident Evil: Village is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Sources: Mark Ruffalo, Monster Hunter World Behind the Scenes
