It’s hard to overstate Genshin Impact’s absolute breakout success. Developed by Chinese studio miHoYo, it drew in a record-breaking 3 billion dollars the year of its release. There are several reasons for the game’s massive success, including its impressive gameplay and beautiful anime-inspired visuals.
However, part of Genshin Impact's success may come from the close relationship between the business and development side of miHoYo. Fans can see an example of this in the form of a behind-the-scenes clip of company CEO Da Wei performing motion capture for character Kamisato Ayaka.
On Saturday, Reddit user ChineseToTheBone posted the three-second video loop to the Genshin Impact subreddit. Unfortunately, the subreddit's moderators deleted the post, though fans should still be able to view the footage by clicking the embedded post below. The original poster says that the clip shows Da Wei performing the motion capture for Kamisato Ayaka’s fan dance scene from Genshin Impact. However, there appears to be some question of whether that is the case. It’s also not confirmed this was the actual motion capture used in-game.
The looped video originates from a Chinese-language blog post from miHoYo’s human resources department. Unfortunately, the page does not offer any context for the clip beyond the sentence, “The specific content will be explored after you join miHoYo.” The post mainly pertained to a recent employee meeting and was put out by the studio’s recruitment team. One Reddit user claimed that the video was part of a “prize” for the employees and not an actual motion capture session. However, the original article doesn’t explicitly state the latter to be true. The post also doesn’t provide any additional context beyond confirming that Da Wei is in the clip.
For those unable to see it, the clip shows Da Wei wearing a mo-cap suit and walking in a tight circle. He’s extending his right hand and clasping a rectangular prop, with his left hand held over his stomach. Behind him, a screen displays a blank but seemingly feminine 3D model mirroring his movements. The motions are a very close match to Ayaka’s when she performs her fan dance for the player character and their fairy-like companion Paimon.
The motion capture footage only shows three seconds of motion capture for a much longer cutscene. If a full-length video exists, it doesn’t appear to be publicly available. Still, the original post implies that Da Wei has significant involvement with Genshin Impact’s development. That may be why the game is substantially more enjoyable and nowhere near as blatantly predatory than many other free-to-play gacha RPGs.
Genshin Impact is free-to-play on Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Nintendo Switch version is currently in development.
Source: miHoYo