What's your job? Aaron McHardy, motion capture producer

When Aaron McHardy put on a lycra motion capture suit his fate changed. As a soccer player, he was supposed to be helping producers at video game developer Electronic Arts Canada mimic human likeness and movements to make digital characters for the FIFA Soccer franchise. But as he dribbled, passed and shot the ball, McHardy was captivated by the behind-the-scenes process.

It was a serendipitous encounter. For several years before, McHardy, 34, had traveled between Jamaica, Canada and the United States -- where he studied business administration at Oregon State University--struggling to make a career playing professional football. When he realized his dream job might not be within reach, McHardy zeroed in on the next best thing: making soccer video games.

Now as a producer at EA, McHardy combines his knowledge of being a former professional footballer with the creative, technical and business elements of designing and developing the company's wildly popular FIFA games, a job that not only keeps him in the game, but also opens the door to the video gaming world and celebrity athletes. 

How did you get into this job?

When I finished university I came home to Vancouver. I was at a point in my life where I was trying to decide whether to pursue trying to be a professional athlete or use my degree and find a career elsewhere. I had a friend who I grew up playing soccer with and he worked here as a software engineer. He recommended me to the guys making FIFA Street as somebody who could do some motion capture.

That's all it takes to become a producer at EA?

I actually started in the suits doing a lot of the moves in the motion capture studio.

What's motion capture?

Motion capture is a tool we use to get the motion of the characters in a video game. We have to create thousands of animations to be able to play the game. We have to have a solution for whatever you ask your player on the field to do.

Walk me through the process

There's a team of people suiting you up so you kind of feel special because they get you in that tight suit, they're marking up your boots, they put three or four little balls with reflective tape on your shoes. Then they start working up your body to your knees, hips, shoulder, neck. Then you put on a helmet with a bunch of balls on it, too. I was a kid in a candy store wanting to have fun kicking the ball around and see it be recreated in a video game, which is another thing I've been a fan of my whole life.

Games are pretty complex these days. How do you create a move for every situation?

We have to have a myriad of shot animations that work for any specific scenario that you might be in when you press that shoot button. The same things goes for passing, running, heading so you can imagine all the components of a soccer game broken down into the smallest parts. In a motion capture session, we can take anywhere from 100-200 shots in a day. It all depends on the types of shots as well. If you're doing highly choreographed sequences for things like celebrations that may take longer to get right.

And the actual playing?

It was shot after shot of all these outlandish tricks. If you play FIFA Street you can see the kinds of things we were doing. They were circus act moves that you don't normally see in a regular match, but you're able to see on FIFA Street.

Tell me about your playing days
I was probably one of the worst professional soccer players anyone has come across. I was trying to catch on at a number of clubs and I was never really able to get the work permits I needed to get my career underway. Having said that, I did play internationally for Jamaica at the under-21 and under-23 level. I never made a fortune playing football professionally.

And now? What's the pay like?

Depending on the size of the studio, the scope of the project, and where you are in the producer job family there can be quite a large range. Having said that I believe the median salary for a video game producer in Canada is approximately $72,500.

Who are some of the stars?

We've gone to Europe to do shoots. Last year we went over and captured (Real Madrid star) Gareth Bale, which was a big shoot for us. We've done (Manchester United star) Wayne Rooney. Locally we work closely with the MLS. At any given time throughout the year you might turn your head and see a professional basketball player like Baron Davis or someone like that walking through the studio.

How do you convince them to do it?

You'd be surprised how many professional athletes love playing video games, especially in the football world. FIFA is a big name among all the players. You approach someone and say we want to get your likeness for a game and a lot of times they're over the moon and want to make sure they can help you out.

How much knowledge do you need?

As a producer, you have to be a creative person to come up with the ideas and the ways we might build the solutions, you have to have the technical knowledge or at least a base level of it and then you have to know the sport inside and out. For me, I did a lot of calculus in school and took a year of computer programming as well. That has helped me immensely. What we do effectively is code the game and that's where the bulk of the work happens with that group of software engineers turning everything into code.

Is there a downside?
I’ve often said if being a professional footballer was the perfect job for me, then being a football video game producer is number 2.  So I guess you could say the downside to my job is that it’s not being a professional footballer, but that’s kind of cynical.

Describe a great memory from doing motion capture?

I think the pinnacle was my buddy once said to me: 'Did you see that move that (Brazilian star) Ronaldinho did in FIFA Street where he banged the ball into the ground, turned around and then volley it?' I was able to say to him: 'Well, that wasn't Ronaldinho. I did that.'
*Interview has been edited and condensed