Andrew Clement Serkis is an English actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his motion-capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for computer-generated characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy (2011–2017), Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Baloo in his self-directed film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), also portraying Kino Loy in the Star Wars Disney+ series Andor (2022).
Serkis at GalaxyCon Austin in 2023
Serkis at the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Wellington in 2003
Serkis at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con
Serkis promoting Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con
Motion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robots. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to recording actions of human actors and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. When it includes face and fingers or captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture. In many fields, motion capture is sometimes called motion tracking, but in filmmaking and games, motion tracking usually refers more to match moving.
Reflective markers attached to skin to identify body landmarks and the 3D motion of body segments
A dancer wearing a suit used in an optical motion capture system
Markers are placed at specific points on an actor's face during facial optical motion capture.
Body motion capture