HollyShorts Film Festival Workshop
From Prompt to Presence: Motion Capture + AI Filmmaking with GRX Immersive Labs and Xsens
On August 20th, 2026, GRX Immersive Labs and Xsens brought filmmakers into the space between human performance and generative AI at the HollyShorts Film Festival. The workshop explored a simple but increasingly important question for the future of filmmaking: how do you actually direct when AI is in the pipeline?
Titled From Prompt to Presence: Motion Capture + AI Filmmaking with GRX Immersive Labs and Xsens, the session demonstrated how motion capture, real-time 3D tools, virtual cinematography, and generative AI can work together as part of a new filmmaking pipeline.
From Movement to Digital Character
The workshop was led by director Alton Glass who took the audience through the process of bringing human performance into a digital filmmaking workflow. During the live demo, creative technologist Enoch Oyetunji, mocap and virtual production specialist K.D. Christopher and GRX creative fellow/UE technical artist Keisha D’Souza showed how a performer’s movement could be captured using Xsens and brought into Unreal Engine as a digital character. From there, the team used Unreal’s virtual camera to frame and capture the performance before bringing it into an AI filmmaking workflow.
Xsens preserves the performance
Unreal preserves camera, blocking, and timing
Luma AI transforms the appearance
Keeping the Filmmaker in Control
What made the demo exciting was seeing how each step connected. A performance started with a real person, became a digital character, was directed through a virtual camera, and then became part of an AI-generated cinematic workflow. It showed how filmmakers can have a much more active role in the process instead of relying solely on prompts to determine what happens on screen.
For us, that's the bigger conversation around AI filmmaking. AI gives filmmakers new ways to create, but the goal isn't to take the filmmaker out of the process. It's about giving creators more control over performance, camera, world-building, and the final look. When motion capture, real-time 3D, and AI come together, filmmakers have more ways to shape the story and bring their creative vision to life.
Next Steps
The workshop was a great opportunity to share this workflow with filmmakers at HollyShorts and show what is possible when these technologies are brought together. A big thank you to Xsens, HollyShorts and the team for helping make the workshop happen. This is just the beginning. We're excited to keep experimenting, building, and finding new ways to bring human performance and emerging technology together. The future of filmmaking isn't just about better prompts. It's about bringing more of the filmmaker into the process.
Now go build something.
More details in workflow deck link below.
Xsens is running a contest and it's a real opening. You get mocap data performed by Terry Notary. You build the character, the world, the story, the visual style around that performance, then submit the video. The winner gets the next-generation Xsens Link with license, plus other creative prizes.
You don't need a stage or a studio to enter. You need a point of view.
Connect and Collaborate
Interested in immersive storytelling for yourself, organization or school? Reach out to us!
Our Skool just hit 100 members! Want to be part of the movement? Click below to join our Skool community to meet members of the team, other creators, and gain access to new events!
