A look inside this small but mighty motion capture studio

In 2017, Mount Horeb became home to the only independent motion capture studio in the midwest. Having temporarily moved to Middleton, Mad Marker Studios is small but mighty.

Their projects in motion capture and animation have included partnerships with video game development company Harmonix to make the original Guitar Hero, working with Sports VTS to create a training simulation for quarterbacks, and partnering with Madison-based company Kiio, an app that guides physical therapy patients in their exercises. They have even helped in the creation of an operating simulation, used for teaching in medical schools.

“We’ve really done it all,” said Mad Marker founder Bobby Duncanson.

Duncanson began his work at Raven Software in Middleton, where he spent the next 13 years. Raven, the video game development company most known for its game Call of Duty, has been a launching pad for some to branch out of the company and create their own studios around Wisconsin. Duncanson was one of those people.

A Mount Horeb resident, he first opened the studio within Viking Plaza, in the former location of Le Cork. Mad Marker has temporarily moved to Middleton, with plans to make Madison its permanent home soon. This will mean expanding from a space of 2,500 square feet to one of more than 7,000. It will also mean being close to the Dane County Regional Airport, convenient for clients to fly in.

With a team of five, Mad Marker is not nearly the size of Sony Picture Studios, but Duncanson said, “The advantage of us being independent and small is we like to work with smaller companies because we know how difficult it is to do what they’re trying to do. It costs a lot of money, and we usually won’t charge as much for them depending on the backend for us.”

“It’s sort of a gamble. It’s a risk. We don’t do it every day, but at times, we will,” he continued. 

And whereas many large studios were forced to shut down due to the pandemic, Mad Marker has had a different experience.

“I know [the pandemic] affected a lot of studios we compete with negatively, but for us, it didn’t,” Duncanson said. “We actually had a busy year.”

He said, lately, they have been taking advantage of what he called ‘virtual capture.’ Though this has always been an option, clients are able to watch and direct the capture from anywhere in the county.

To learn more, visit madmarkerstudios.com.