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Skeletal musicians do a Martian mash Mail Tribune photo by Bob Pennell The Martian band will be projected on a screen outside Ensign's garage tonight for the Halloween amusement of passersby. By MARK FREEMAN Picture for a moment a garage not unlike any other quiet, two-car garage in east Medford, except the skeletons in these closets know a good beat when they hear it. It's a garage where a Martian quintet tackles the guitar licks of "Outer Limits," and a skinless carcass dressed only in a cowboy hat and boots kicks up his bony heels to the tune of "Dem Bones." And the show is all projected onto the garage door-sized screen for you tonight at 2677 Longview Drive. The entertaining treats created by the cyber tricks of Doug Ensign and his pack of computers are redefining where the good Halloween haunts are after twilight tonight in Medford. With the help of a special computer-animation suit and two 14-year-old girls, Ensign has created computer-generated cartoons that are a high-tech salute to the Halloween huckster in everyone. The cartoons use real human motion "captured" on a computer, then transferred to the animated characters, so the aliens move just like their models - Ensign's 14-year-old daughter Ashley and her fellow North Medford High School freshman Tara Treadway. "I like to make things look realistic," says Doug Ensign, a self-employed electrical engineer. "It was a riot to do, and the people love it. They just stop and stare." The show comes courtesy of a technology called "motion capture" that is used in everything from cartoons to music videos and futuristic movies. Models don a 30-pound suit that has sensors on all the pivot points of the human body. As the model moves, the computer tracks the movement, which then is overlaid onto an animated character. The computer-generated amalgamation creates a cartoon character with human movement. For the Martian video, Ashley Ensign wore the suit while imitating the movements for three of the alien musicians, and friend Tara Treadway handled the other two. "It's a little heavy on the back, but it's not that hard to move around in the suit," Ashley Ensign said. "It was a lot of fun." The resulting two-minute show took months of computer time to create, but it was a chance for Doug Ensign to test the less analytical side of himself. "Doing this stuff takes advantage of the creative side of my brain, so it was a lot of fun to do," he says. The show is more than just for kicks. It's also practice for Ensign, who is launching his own motion-capture company in Medford called "Motion Pixel" early next year. Ensign has modified his suit, which cost $36,000, so it is wireless. Most motion-capture technology is anchored into studios, and wife Cheryl Ensign said his suit is currently the only portable one north of San Francisco. The motion-capture suit will be available for rent, and Doug Ensign hopes to dig a niche within the advertising, television and video world. But for tonight, Dem Bones will do. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.