WIRED Staff
Culture

Slideshow: May I Have This Avatar?

Billy Idol danced with himself. Lionel Ritchie danced on the ceiling. Now, real dancers are set to boogie with an animated avatar to explore the connection between humans and technology. By Katie Dean.
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Amber McCall wears reflective markers on her body to record her movements during the motion capture process.

See related story: May I Have This Avatar?

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A "gaming skin" is the blue wrap around Ava's body that gives her a female form.
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Ava the avatar dances with her human counterpart.
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During the performance of the Ava Project, dancers thought of Ava as another human dancer, and not as a computer-generated figure.
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Ava the avatar was designed by Kathleen Ruiz. Ava's movements were created using motion capture, a process of recording human body movement to animate a synthetic character.