Oxford based studio Audiomotion’s capture expertise was called upon by post-production company The Mill, to highlight the dynamics and the agility of the real car by using a speed skating “carbot” on a frozen lake. The live action was filmed on a frozen lake in Canada.

The effect of seeing the car behave like a real ice-skater was achieved by filming Nicky Gooch, speed skating coach for the Great Britain team and an Olympic medal winner. 

The motion capture filming was done in Sheffield, on an Olympic-sized skating pad – necessary to enable Nicky to reach the high speeds needed for full effect.

Audiomotion used 30 Vicon MX40 cameras to capture every last detail of the skating motion performed by Nicky Gooch, giving the finished commercial an element of reality that would otherwise have been impossible.

Due to very tight deadlines and the shortage of suitable venues, the motion capture filming had to be done overnight, with the Audiomotion crew setting up at 9pm, shooting started at 2:30am and was wrapped up by 6:30am.

Mick Morris, managing director of Audiomotion, explained how the Vicon cameras were a vital part of making all this possible: “Quite simply, the Vicon MX40 is an extremely portable and easy-to-use camera, and this made all the difference. We had such a tight timeframe to do the motion capture, and get it right, that the Vicon cameras had to be 100% reliable – and they were. Nicky Gooch’s commitment to making this work was also hugely important even when the rest of us thought we’d got great footage he was determined to keep going to achieve the perfect shot.”

Morris continued: “It was a great project to work on – the end result looks fantastic.”

The Vicon MX40 camera has been used in the production of many blockbusting movies and video games, as well as in the engineering and life sciences sectors. Vicon is part of OMG plc. OMG Chief Executive, Nick Bolton, said: “The Citroen carbot ads are simply incredible and have set new standards for the use of motion capture in advertising.”