First, Jones improvised different sequences of movements according to motifs and rules formulated by all three collaborators.

In the motion-capture studio, infrared cameras recorded the positions in time and space of the reflective markers attached to Jones’ body.

The resulting motion-capture file animated the “biped,” a kinematic model created in Discreet’s Character Studio software. With its intricate structure of dependencies and constraints, the biped is like the most sophisticated marionette imaginable, but here its motions came not from a puppeteer pulling its strings, but from Jones dancing.

An alternate body made of mathematical curves (splines) was modeled in 3D by Shelley Eshkar, who used the underlying biped as an invisible armature.

Sampled charcoal and other scans were texture-mapped to the splines of the new body, so that when rendered it looked like a gesture drawing – but a gesture drawing inhabiting a 3D space and moving to the phrases of Jones’ improvisations as recombined by Kaiser and Eshkar on the computer.

Each frame of the final animation was a new drawing, created by the juncture of 3D model, motion-capture position, and virtual camera viewpoint.