Here's how a professional martial artist created the motions of the Baldur's Gate III monks

Larian Studios has released a video that shows how motion capture movements for the Monk class of Baldur's Gate 3 are performed by a real-world martial artist. Michael Li, a French martial arts expert with 15 years' experience in Shaolin and Wu Dang styles, is a Frenchman. Li also portrays the Elf combat animations in addition to the Monks' unarmed combat.

Li says in the video that he trained in China in order to "perfect, to learn both styles." He also shows some of the ideas and concepts he brought to motion capture, along with video of him capturing himself for the game.

"For the Monk, I was inspired by styles that I am familiar with, namely Shaolin and Wu Dang," said Li. "I then looked for movements that were similar to these two styles, like the Dragon Style which has large, circular movement and a dragon's paw. It was important for me to make the player feel this energy."

"We also worked with the different elements," said Li in reference to the magical movements of the Four Elements Monk Subclass. "For example, I wanted the water to have circular, fluid movements, like water flowing. When we spoke about fire, it was more lively and sharp movements.

You can view the video of Li in action on YouTube or above.

This is Larian's second video about motion capture for Baldur's Gate 3 in recent times. Last month, the motion capture choreographer revealed Lae'zel’s alien swordfighting is based on a technique that was taught to an ancient samurai in a dream.