Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive, launched to strong critical acclaim, earning a 9 out of 10 from IGN and a 92 percent rating on Metacritic. Set in a dark, painterly fantasy world, the game combines emotional storytelling, stylized visuals, and deeply expressive character performances. From its first release, it was clear that performance capture played a central role in bringing the world and its characters to life.
The characters of Gustave and Sophie anchor much of the game’s emotiobnal weight. Their performances were captured over the course of a full year, allowing the actors to explore nuance, progression, and subtle physical storytelling. Gustave was performed by Maxence Cazorla, with Sophie brought to life by Estelle Darnault. Their work formed the foundation for characters that feel grounded, human, and present throughout the game’s journey.
To translate these performances into the game, the team relied on a combination of MANUS data gloves and Xsens full-body motion capture. Xsens technology captured full-body movement, posture, and physical intent, while MANUS gloves recorded precise hand motion and finger articulation. This combination allowed the actors’ performances to carry through in detail, from large, expressive gestures to small, character-defining hand movements.
The performance capture setup supported long recording sessions and consistent data quality, giving the animation team reliable material to work with across the project’s extended production timeline.
The captured data served as a strong base for animation, helping the team preserve the actors’ timing, emotion, and physicality while adapting the performances to the game’s stylized visual language. By grounding the characters in real human motion, the developers were able to maintain a sense of authenticity even within a highly artistic world.
With its critical success and enthusiastic player response, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 demonstrates how performance-driven motion capture can elevate storytelling in games. The project highlights the value of using detailed hand tracking to create characters that feel human, expressive, and emotionally resonant.
