Page of Puppeteer and Real Time Animator Marcus Clarke's CV/Resume   NBC's Peacock Logo Character  1997

While I was demonstrating the Medialab Performance animation system in 1997 I was asked by NBC to Real Time Animate the face of a CG Peacock Character they had developed.   The Vocal Promo track was already completed and NBC called the character Johnny Chimes.

From their brief I developed a very characterful set of facial movements and expressions as well as a lipsinc set that suited the beak shaped mouth and relaxed talking attitude. The body performance animation, using a motion capture system was done by another puppeteer (a brilliant one) Helena Smee. Helena managed to get just the right balance of strong characterisation and performance with accurate on screen animation.

Experimenting together with the movements, attitude and visual characterisation, mostly using music tracks, we developed the overall animation style. Which is different for each CG model and characterization. (or should be) Then we applied it to the character in performance putting together an integrated visual presentation and choreography of the pre-recorded and very funny NBC promo vocal track. It was loudly punctuated with Chiming Bells which I can sometimes still hear today!     Some other Motion Caption ideas were explored in Paris and a complete animated Promo was created which aired during the Superbowl. Ultimately though NBC didn't take the character any further.             Click here to see a Video Clip of our development work