Performance capture actors perform directed scenes and movements for a game; they do not walk around a finished virtual world and act out every moment in it. Depending on the shoot, a performer may record body movement alone or deliver dialogue and facial performance alongside it. Stunt performers, specialists, editors, and animators can all contribute before the material becomes a playable character.
That distinction matters in an open-world game, where a production needs both authored story scenes and a wide range of reusable actions—from climbing to combat or everyday activities. Here’s how the work fits together, using accounts from Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Grand Theft Auto IV.
What does performance capture mean in game production?
Performance capture is a way to record acting for a digital character, but the term does not mean that every production records every part of a performance in the same take. Studios use different setups for different needs. The useful distinction is between capturing movement alone and capturing movement together with elements such as dialogue and facial expression.
Ubisoft describes motion capture chiefly as recording body movement, with performance capture extending to face and voice. CD PROJEKT RED Motion Capture Producer Paulina Lendzion described that studio’s performance-capture shoots as recording voice alongside animation. She also distinguished them from movement-only shoots, which do not need the same quiet audio conditions. So a scene may have synchronized body, face, and voice data, while another session may focus on movement only.
| Production work | What it records or creates | Typical purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Movement-only capture | Body movement; voice is not necessarily recorded with it | Locomotion, combat, or other actions used in gameplay |
| Performance capture | May combine body movement, facial performance, and dialogue | Character scenes in which acting and speech need to align |
| Post-capture animation work | Edited, processed, refined, and integrated performance material | Turning recorded source material into an animation that works in the game |
These are useful categories, not a universal production recipe. The exact channels captured together depend on the studio, scene, and technical requirements.
What does an actor do before and during a shoot?
The work begins before anyone steps into the capture space: production teams decide what kind of material they need, plan the actions, and choose appropriate performers and props. On stage, actors perform against practical reference points rather than a completed virtual landscape.
Planning the material
CD PROJEKT RED’s capture producer described requests from cinematic, gameplay, and open-world teams. Those requests lead to different kinds of work: a carefully directed exchange between characters is not the same assignment as producing a reusable movement or a background activity. Animation, cinematic-design, and gameplay departments can plan the actions and props together so that what is recorded serves its intended purpose.
Planning can also include testing ideas. For Cyberpunk 2077, the studio described using early combat prototypes and booking some work months in advance. Those details illustrate that one open-world production’s schedule and planning; they do not establish a standard timetable for other games or for any individual actor.
Working on a capture stage
Capture cameras track performers in a defined volume. The stage may use simplified, stable structures to represent a room, vehicle, or other setting. These stand-ins give performers something physical to move around or interact with, but they are not a full location shoot, and the virtual world is not necessarily visible as a finished environment.
CD PROJEKT RED has described a stage without a green screen, with built pieces including a tank interior and a carriage rig that could be shaken. Such structures must be safe for the action and arranged so cameras can see the tracking markers. The setup is there to support movement and performance—not to recreate an entire open-world location on a soundstage.
Acting in an imagined setting
Roger Clark, who performed Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, said the stage sets had dimensional accuracy and that animators helped performers understand what the eventual environments would become. He also described moving between scenes set in very different in-game climates during a single stage day. Actors therefore have to build a believable response to a setting that may be explained or represented rather than physically present.
Clark discussed developing Arthur’s dialect and physicality as part of the role. That is acting work, not simply supplying a voice to be attached to a finished character. As he put it, the stage work required “a lot of teamwork and understanding and imagination and attention to detail.” His account describes his experience on that production; it does not show that one actor performed every line, action, or stunt in the game.
How is open-world animation different from a cutscene?
A cutscene is a directed narrative scene; open-world and gameplay animation also need actions that can be used during play or in the world around the player. An open-world production may capture both, but the purpose of the material changes how teams plan it.
| Kind of material | What the team needs | Examples described by the studios |
|---|---|---|
| Cinematic scene | Performances shaped around a particular dramatic exchange or story moment | Dialogue and character acting captured for a directed scene |
| Gameplay animation | Actions that can support player-controlled activity | Combat concepts and other movement planned with gameplay teams |
| Open-world activity | Actions that help populate a world beyond its main story scenes | Blacksmithing, fishing, climbing, and animal movement |
CD PROJEKT RED’s examples show why “acting out the game” is misleading: a production asks for particular scenes and actions, not a continuous performance of everything a player might do. Rockstar North animation artist Mondo Ghulam made a related distinction in a 2008 account of Grand Theft Auto IV production, separating gameplay animation from cutscene work. That account is useful for understanding the distinction, not as a description of current equipment or a universal workflow.
Open-world animation also does not imply that every ambient action is recorded as a complete scene. A request for fishing, for example, has a different purpose from a conversation: it supplies movement the game can use in the relevant context. The sources describe these types of work but do not establish what percentage of any game’s world animations actors perform.
Does the lead actor perform every movement and stunt?
No. A character’s final performance can draw on more than one performer, especially when a scene calls for specialized movement or a risky action. A starring or voice credit alone does not establish who supplied every stunt or animation.
Productions can select professional actors, stunt performers, and specialists according to the required action. CD PROJEKT RED has discussed three actors appearing in early recordings for Jackie in Cyberpunk 2077. Because their movement was inconsistent, the studio said it came to prefer one performer where practical. That is a specific production lesson, not proof that every game uses one body performer per character—or that one person always supplies voice, face, movement, and stunts.
It is more accurate to think of a character as the result of coordinated contributions. The dramatic performer may deliver a scene, while a stunt performer or specialist supplies movement requiring different skills. The production then has to shape those inputs so that the in-game character feels coherent.
What happens to the performance after the take?
Capture is source material, not finished game animation. Recorded movement and facial performance must be processed, edited, and integrated, and artists may refine details so the character works in the game.
- Record and sync: The production gathers the relevant performance material. When a shoot records dialogue alongside movement, the channels need to remain aligned; movement-only work has different audio needs.
- Edit and process: Teams review and edit the recordings, and movement and facial information go through processing before artists work with it.
- Refine the animation: Animators can adjust parts of a captured performance. CD PROJEKT RED has described occasions when hands or fingers needed changes after capture, so a final gesture need not be a literal, untouched transfer of what an actor did.
- Integrate it into the game: The material must fit the character and the game context. Rockstar North’s account of Grand Theft Auto IV listed rehearsals, capture, solving, motion editing, facial animation, in-game integration, and audio among its production steps.
This is why neither “the actor did it all” nor “the actor only provided the voice” is a reliable generalization. The finished on-screen result combines performance with decisions and work from the wider production.
What do the published production figures actually tell us?
Published numbers can give a sense of a particular studio’s scale, but they should stay attached to their source and project rather than be treated as industry-wide standards.
- Cyberpunk 2077: In a June 2026 studio transcript, Motion Capture Lead Tomasz Kowalczyk gave a total of 311 shooting days for the project. That is a project-level figure, not the number of days any one actor worked.
- CD PROJEKT RED’s stage: Kowalczyk described a setup with 74 cameras and a capture volume of approximately 50 by 7 meters. Those figures describe that studio’s setup, not the dimensions or camera count of other stages.
- Ubisoft Toronto: In a 2019 interview, Performance Capture Director Tony Lomonaco said the studio handled more than one terabyte of capture-related data per week. He was referring to mocap, reference-camera, head-mounted-camera, and audio data at that time; it is a historical studio figure, not a current industry average.
The figures underline the scale of recording and data handling, but they do not reveal how many days a particular performer worked or how much animation in a game came directly from actors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does motion capture footage include video of the actors?
It can. Ubisoft Toronto’s 2019 account describes reference-camera and head-mounted-camera recordings alongside motion-capture and audio data, giving teams additional recorded material to work with.
How many shooting days did Cyberpunk 2077 take?
CD PROJEKT RED Motion Capture Lead Tomasz Kowalczyk cited 311 shooting days for the project in a June 2026 transcript. That total covers the production’s shooting schedule, not the work calendar of an individual performer.
Can you see the actor’s performance unchanged in the finished game?
Not necessarily. Captured material is edited and processed, and artists may alter details such as hand or finger movement before it is integrated. The finished animation is a production result, rather than a guaranteed one-to-one copy of a take.