CD Projekt RED Used Real Animals for Motion Capture During The Witcher 4 Development

And although this week, the most discussed project in The Witcher universe from CD Projekt has been the new expansion for the third game, Songs of the Past, work on the fourth installment, which is assumed to be the studio's most important title, is actively continuing, and CD Projekt RED continues to reveal unusual details of its development.

The developers recently held another AnsweRED podcast, during which it became known that the studio used real animals, namely a horse and a dog, during motion capture for The Witcher 4. This decision was made to make the gameplay more realistic, and it also caused quite a stir in the studio. However, the team also admitted that these were really challenging moments, as animals can behave unpredictably. By the way, Ciri's horse in The Witcher 4 is named Kelpie.

CDPR on Kelpie's motion capture (Ciri's black mare): "That was a real horse that had been motion-captured. And no harm was caused to the animal, which is important to mention."

- 'I remember everyone around the studio was talking about it. People would say, 'Do you know what the mocap team did?'

- What?'

-'They took the cameras to a stable and they're recording a horse.'

- 'A horse? Really? For what?'

- 'For Witcher 4.'

- 'And everyone would react with, 'Oh my God, they're recording a horse!'

The release date of The Witcher 4, as well as the plot details of the upcoming project, remains unknown. Considering that the new expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released in 2027, fans expect that the release of the fourth installment will likely take place in 2028 or even 2029. CD Projekt RED is also actively working on a new Witcher trilogy, which will be started by the fourth game, a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, Project Sirius—the multiplayer spin-off to The Witcher franchise—and a new IP—Project Hadar.

You can also check out everything we know about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt—Songs of the Past so far —release date, new system requirements, story, and more.

The Witcher 4 is in development for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.