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Performance-capture actors do not walk through a finished open-world map and perform the game from beginning to end. They act directed scenes on a capture stage, sometimes recording dialogue and movement together; other sessions capture reusable gameplay or everyday activities. Stunt performers and specialists may supply actions the principal cast does not, and editors and animators refine the recordings before they become playable characters. It is acting inside a larger animation pipeline—not voice work alone, and not a one-to-one transfer of every movement into the game.
What does performance capture mean in a game?
Performance capture is a way to record performers’ actions for later use in a digital character. Depending on the production and the task, that recording may include body movement, facial expression, voice, or several of those channels together. The term does not guarantee that every face, line, and gesture was captured simultaneously.
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The distinction matters because studios use “motion capture” and “performance capture” in different ways. Ubisoft describes motion capture chiefly as recording body movement, while its performance-capture director, Tony Lomonaco, said the studio captures “more than just motion – we capture a full performance.” CD PROJEKT RED Motion Capture Producer Paulina Lendzion has described its performance-capture shoots as recording voice at the same time as animation. The studio also has movement-only sessions that do not require the same quiet audio setup.
| Kind of recording | What it can include | Typical use described by studios |
|---|---|---|
| Body-motion capture | Tracked body movement; audio and facial performance are not implied | Movement-only work such as locomotion or gameplay action |
| Performance capture | May combine movement with facial and voice performance | Directed scenes where acting, dialogue, timing, and physical behavior need to work together |
| Artist-finished animation | Edited or adjusted source material integrated into the game | Final character movement and expression as implemented in playable or cinematic content |
These categories describe useful differences, not a universal production standard. A studio can capture dialogue and movement together for one scene, then record a separate movement-only pass for another task. A finished in-game performance is also not necessarily identical to the raw take: recordings can be edited, processed, adjusted, and integrated by other members of the production team.
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What does an actor do on the capture stage?
An actor performs a scene or action under direction, often with another performer, on a stage built for cameras to track movement. The stage represents the physical needs of a scene, not the finished digital world the player will explore.
Prepare for a particular scene or movement
Before a session, teams identify what they need: a cinematic exchange, a gameplay action, or an open-world activity. CD PROJEKT RED’s capture producer has described planning with animation, cinematic-design, and gameplay departments, including discussions about actions and props. Some work is booked months ahead; the studio has also used capture to test early combat ideas. The exact preparation varies with the production and the scene.
The request might be for actors to play a dramatic conversation, for performers to produce a reusable movement, or for a specialist to carry out an action that requires particular physical skill. A scene with dialogue and a movement reference for a blacksmith, climber, or combatant are not interchangeable assignments: the intended use shapes who is needed and what the crew records.
Work with physical stand-ins
Capture stages can use simple structures or props to give performers safe, stable surfaces and spatial cues. A rough vehicle interior can establish where someone sits and how they move; a rig can simulate the motion of a carriage. CD PROJEKT RED has described a constructed tank interior and a shaken carriage rig among its stand-ins. Such pieces are practical aids, not a full-scale recreation of the game world.
On that studio’s stage, Lendzion said there was no green screen. Cameras need to see the markers used to track performers, so structures have to be arranged with safety and visibility in mind. The digital environment is supplied later through the production’s animation and game-development work. An actor may need to imagine the landscape, distance, weather, or surrounding action that is not physically present.
Act with timing, physicality, and scene partners
For a narrative scene, the work is still acting: performers listen, respond, hit marks, maintain timing, and make choices about voice and physical behavior. Roger Clark, who performed Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, has spoken about developing Arthur’s dialect and physicality and about the imagination needed to work without the finished landscapes around him. He described the process as requiring “a lot of teamwork and understanding and imagination and attention to detail.”
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Clark said the stage sets for Red Dead Redemption 2 had dimensional accuracy and that animators helped performers understand what the virtual surroundings would become. He also recalled working on scenes set in very different in-game climates during a single stage day. That illustrates how performers can move between fictional places without traveling to those places; it does not establish that every line, action, or stunt in the game came from Clark.
Do actors perform the whole open world?
No. An open-world game can require many types of recorded and created movement, and the principal dramatic cast is not necessarily responsible for all of them. Studios distinguish directed cinematic scenes from gameplay and open-world animation, which may call for different actions, performers, and production choices.
Narrative scenes
A cinematic scene is organized around a specific dramatic moment: who is speaking, how people respond, and how the scene develops. When voice and movement are captured together, the recording can preserve their relationship in the same performance. This is one kind of work a principal actor may do, but it is only part of the animation needs of a large game.
Gameplay movement
Gameplay animation serves actions that players can trigger or repeat, rather than only a single scripted exchange. CD PROJEKT RED’s capture producer has described requests spanning gameplay animation, including combat prototypes. A movement session can focus on producing a usable action rather than playing an entire story scene. The source recording is material for the broader animation process, not a guarantee that the game will reproduce every part of a take unchanged.
Open-world activity
World activity can include actions such as blacksmithing, fishing, and climbing, as well as animal movement. These examples show why an open world creates a wider range of animation requests than a sequence of cutscenes alone. A character doing an ordinary task in the background may need a different movement reference from a lead actor’s close-up conversation.
Studios may plan these actions with gameplay, animation, and cinematic teams, but the precise division of work differs by game. There is no established universal percentage for how much of an open world’s animation comes from actor capture, nor a single schedule that applies to every studio.
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Does the principal actor do the stunts?
Not necessarily. Productions can use professional stunt performers or specialists when the required action calls for them, so a starring or voice credit alone does not prove that one person performed every movement associated with a character.
Performer choice depends on the action and the production. CD PROJEKT RED has described recording early material for Jackie in Cyberpunk 2077 with three actors. It also said inconsistent movement led the team to prefer one performer where practical. That account is specific to the project; it should not be treated as a rule that every studio or character uses one performer, or that the same casting arrangement applies to other games.
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What happens after the recording?
Capture produces source material, not a finished game character. The recordings pass through editing, processing, animation, and integration work before a player sees the resulting movement in the game.
- Record and synchronize: The crew captures the required movement and, when the session calls for it, facial and audio performance. Reference footage may also be recorded to help the production review what happened on stage.
- Edit and process: Teams organize and edit the recordings, then process movement data so it can be used in the animation pipeline. The exact tools and steps depend on the production and the type of capture.
- Refine the performance: Artists can adjust details that need attention after the take. CD PROJEKT RED has discussed occasions when animators changed hand or finger performance after capture; not every small detail has to survive exactly as recorded.
- Integrate it into the game: The resulting animation is incorporated into the character and game. It must serve the intended cinematic or gameplay use, which can involve further work beyond what the actor performed on stage.
Rockstar North animation artist Mondo Ghulam’s 2008 account of Grand Theft Auto IV described production stages including rehearsals, capture, solving, motion editing, facial animation, in-game integration, and audio. The account is useful for understanding the distinction between gameplay and cutscene animation, but it is a historical production description—not evidence that every current studio follows the same equipment setup or exact workflow.
Ubisoft’s description makes the collaborative nature explicit: synchronized face, audio, motion, and reference video can move through editing and then to artists. Seeing a recorded performance, therefore, does not necessarily mean the footage is raw or that the actor alone created the final on-screen result.
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How large can a capture production be?
Published figures give a sense of scale for particular studios, but they should not be mistaken for industry averages or a typical actor’s schedule.
| Published figure | What it describes | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 311 shooting days | Cyberpunk 2077 production | Motion Capture Lead Tomasz Kowalczyk gave this project-specific retrospective figure in CD PROJEKT RED’s June 2026 transcript. It is not the number of days any one actor worked. |
| 74 cameras; capture volume approximately 50 by 7 meters | CD PROJEKT RED’s described capture setup | Kowalczyk described this studio’s setup in June 2026. The dimensions are not a specification for other studios. |
| More than one terabyte of capture-related data per week | Ubisoft Toronto’s mocap, reference-camera, head-mounted-camera, and audio data | Performance Capture Director Tony Lomonaco cited this figure in 2019. It describes that studio at that time, not a current industry-wide average. |
The scale figures help explain why capture is a coordinated production activity rather than a performer simply stepping in front of a camera. They do not tell you how many days a particular actor worked, how much data another studio produces, or how much of a game’s animation was captured.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do the examples from major games show?
Red Dead Redemption 2: acting in an imagined landscape
Clark’s account is especially useful for understanding the actor’s perspective: performers had accurately dimensioned stage sets and help from animators, but the final environments were not physically around them. It supports the point that acting and imagination coexist on a capture stage, not the broader claim that one actor supplied all the game’s performance.
Cyberpunk 2077: varied requests and a large schedule
CD PROJEKT RED’s account describes planning for cinematic, gameplay, and open-world animation; physical props and rigs; choices about performer suitability; and a substantial, project-specific shooting schedule. It offers a detailed example of how varied the work can be, not a template that can be assigned to every open-world production.
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Grand Theft Auto IV: gameplay and cutscenes are distinct
Ghulam’s 2008 account is a historical example of a production distinguishing gameplay animation from cutscenes and carrying work forward after capture. Its value is in showing that recorded acting is one stage in a wider pipeline, not in describing today’s standard camera count or stage technology.
What should you remember about the actor’s role?
Think of performance capture as one way a production gathers acted material for a digital character. A performer may deliver a directed scene, record voice and movement together, or contribute a physical action that artists later adapt. Other performers may supply specialized movement, and animation teams shape and integrate the material into the game.
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The actor’s contribution can be central without being solitary. A convincing character in an open world is the result of performance, direction, capture, editing, animation, and game integration working together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can players see which movements in a game were captured from an actor?
Usually, the finished character does not identify the origin of each individual animation. Credits and interviews can describe a performer’s role, but they do not by themselves map every gameplay action or background movement to a specific take.
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Why can a captured performance look different from the stage footage?
The recording may be edited, processed, adapted, or refined by animators before integration. The final camera framing, virtual setting, and gameplay context also differ from the capture-stage reference footage.
Is a capture-stage set supposed to look like the game environment?
Not necessarily. A stand-in’s job can be to provide safe, stable dimensions or a physical cue—such as a seat or moving platform—rather than visually reproduce the finished location.
Does performance capture mean the actor’s face is always recorded?
No. The term does not guarantee that all channels are recorded for every session. Studios may capture voice and animation together for a performance-capture scene and use separate movement-only sessions for other work.
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