Manuel’s Dance of Death

Manuel’s Dance of Death

Manuel's Dance of Death

An animated short film bringing Niklaus Manuel’s Dance of Death to life through motion capture.

Project Info

Client

Simon Tschachtli

Year

2016

Summary

Manuel’s Dance of Death is an animated short film created for the exhibition Mercenary, Iconoclast, Dancer of Death – Niklaus Manuel and the Reformation Period at the Bernisches Historisches Museum.

The film is based on Niklaus Manuel’s Dance of Death, a mural cycle of 24 scenes depicting Death dancing with figures from across society, including an emperor, a queen, an abbot, a soldier, a beggar, a cook, and a mother with her child.

Choreographer Nina Stadler and dancer Fhunyue Gao created an expressive performance inspired by the original imagery. Artanim captured the dance through motion capture and contributed to the animation of the film.

Credits

Client
Bernisches Historisches Museum, Bern

Project
Mercenary, Iconoclast, Dancer of Death – Niklaus Manuel and the Reformation Period (October 13, 2016 – April 17, 2017)

Concept, 3D modeling and secondary animation
Simon Tschachtli

Choreography
Nina Stadler

Dancer
Fhunyue Gao

Motion capture and animation
Artanim

Music
Salvatore Sciarrino, Annalena Fröhlich

Motion Capture of a Knight in Armor

Motion Capture of a Knight in Armor

Motion Capture of a Knight in Armor

A biomechanical study of movement in full medieval armor using motion capture.

Project Info

Year

2012

Summary

Motion Capture of a Knight in Armor is a research project investigating the range of motion of a fighter wearing approximately 30 kg of late medieval armor. The study was carried out as part of the doctoral research of Daniel Jaquet at the University of Geneva, combining historical sources with modern movement analysis.

One of the main technical challenges was the highly reflective surface of the armor, which could generate false marker detections in the optical motion capture system. Artanim adapted the Vicon MXT40S camera parameters and reconstruction settings to reduce these artifacts and obtain reliable motion data for the study.

The project was conducted with contributions from Daniel Jaquet, Bengt Kayser, and researchers from the Kinesiology Laboratory – HUG/UNIGE, including Stéphane Armand and Alice Bonnefoy-Mazure.

Related Publications

Jaquet D, Bonnefoy-Mazure A, Armand S, Charbonnier C, Ziltener JL, Kayser B. Range of motion and energy cost of locomotion of the late medieval armoured fighter: A proof of concept of confronting the medieval technical literature with modern movement analysis, Hist Meth, 49(3):169–186, 2016.
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