SWAT Characters

Image Capture
Each of SWAT 3's characters began as a simple description in the game's design document. From that point, Sierra artists worked with designer Tammy Dargan to create a series of concept sketches to further refine the visual details.

After the characters were defined, Sierra sent out a local casting call. Over 150 people were chosen and photographed to create the faces for the game's 3D models.

The 3D character textures were captured during a second 4-day shoot. Art Director Cyrus Kanga cast another round of actors, each with different body types, to serve as real-life body-doubles for the game characters. Each actor would pose in front of the camera, sometimes in as many as twelve different costumes, providing the resources for the textures used on the game's models.

Animation
To bring SWAT 3's characters to life, the SWAT team used motion capture, a technique that records a person's movements in 3D space and records them into a computer. At House of Moves, a Los Angeles-based motion capture facility responsible for work on films such as Titanic, the SWAT 3 team worked with LAPD SWAT cadre leader Ken Thatcher, a stuntman, and several others in a week long recording session. Working from a master list, each person performed hundreds of moves that would be later transformed into game character actions. Thatcher alone went through 500 unique tactical movements. Back at Sierra, 3D artists took the raw motion data and used it to animate the character models.