FREAK
Freak is a short animated music video inspired by Sub Urban’s song “Freak.” The animation follows a dark, circus-themed narrative centered around a jester and a sentient doll. The doll struggles to break free from the jester’s control, symbolizing the tension between autonomy and manipulation'; echoing the song’s mature themes of control, identity, and rebellion.
Designed for audiences aged 15–30, Freak embraces a dark, experimental aesthetic appealing to fans of alternative and indie art styles. Our creative direction was guided by audience research into similar music videos and viral trends across TikTok and YouTube, positioning the animation for engagement with young adult audiences drawn to expressive, unconventional storytelling.
FREAK animated music video created by REMA for Sub Urban’s song Freak
Production Process
Pre-Production
The project began with storyboarding, scripting, and choreography planning. As project manager, I oversaw the scheduling of motion capture sessions, booking studio space, and coordinating technical setups. We developed a detailed storyboard to align narrative beats with musical rhythm and emotional tone.
Motion Capture & Data Processing
We captured performances using Vicon’s Shogun Live, then refined the raw data in Shogun Post to remove noise, fix marker errors, and ensure clean tracking.
The cleaned data was imported into MotionBuilder for retargeting, blending, and F-Curve adjustments, allowing for precise animation refinement. Finally, we integrated everything in Maya for scene composition, keyframing, rigging, and rendering. The video was then assembled and finalized in Premiere Pro.
Technical Pipeline
Shogun Live → Shogun Post: Motion data capture and cleanup
MotionBuilder: Character mapping, animation blending, and motion refinement
Maya: Scene composition, rigging, keyframing, rendering
Premiere Pro & Media Encoder: Final editing, synchronization, and export
Our team employed two parallel workflows:
Animation refinement and blending in MotionBuilder.
Keyframe polishing and environmental adjustments in Maya.
Challenges & Creative Solutions
We encountered a variety of technical and production challenges that deepened our problem-solving skills:
Calibration Errors: Solved through dynamic movement recalibration techniques.
File Management: Established standardized naming conventions to prevent data loss.
Marker Occlusion: Reconstructed missing data through manual animation in Maya.
Prop Misalignment: Applied parent constraints and manual frame-by-frame adjustments.
Jittering and Clipping: Smoothed F-curves and corrected joint orientations to refine movement.
Unrigged Models: Re-rigged character models optimized specifically for MotionBuilder compatibility.
Head Tracking Issues: Reinforced motion capture caps with Velcro for stability.
Project Details
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University group project — motion capture (MoCap) production.
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2025
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Freak is a short animated music video inspired by Sub Urban’s song “Freak.” The animation explores a dark, circus-themed narrative centered on a jester and a sentient doll. The story portrays the doll’s struggle to break free from the jester’s control, symbolizing the conflict between autonomy and manipulation, reflecting the song’s mature themes of control, identity, and rebellion.
This project was developed as part of our university’s motion capture module, where we learned how to plan, record, and integrate motion capture data into an animated production.
Team Members:
Rai – Project Manager, Motion Capture Technician, Data Cleaner, Rigger, Storyboard Creator, Renderer
Ella – Actor, Animator, Script Writer, Motion Capture Data Cleaner, Choreographer, Video Editor
Mo – Environment Builder, Script Writer, Motion Capture Technician, Stunt Coordinator, Renderer
Adrian – Actor, Choreographer, Session Recorder, Equipment Manager
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Motion Capture: Vicon Shogun Live, Vicon Shogun Post
3D Animation & Rigging: Maya, MotionBuilder
Editing & Compositing: Premiere Pro
Visual Assets & Textures: Photoshop
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Through Freak, we gained hands-on experience in the full motion capture production pipeline and developed proficiency across multiple disciplines, including:
Motion Capture Setup & Calibration: Configuring and operating Vicon systems for multi-character capture sessions.
Data Cleanup & Retargeting: Processing and refining motion data using Shogun Post and MotionBuilder.
Rigging & Character Mapping: Preparing models and mapping captured motion to character rigs.
Animation Editing: Enhancing performance with F-Curve and keyframe adjustments.
Scene Composition & Rendering: Assembling final sequences and rendering in Maya.
Team Coordination & Project Management: Organizing schedules, managing assets, and maintaining an efficient workflow.
Most importantly, we learned how to transform a conceptual artistic vision into a fully realized motion-capture animation, merging storytelling, performance, and technology into a cohesive creative piece.