If you’ve ever gone to see a movie because it stars Andy Serkis, you’re probably familiar with how motion capture can map a human performance on to an animal, creature, or deformed Lincoln Monument. But mapping it on to something utterly abstract, like a fabric texture, a cloud of digital dust, or a virtual DNA model kit? Well, that may not be called for by very many movie plots, but as applied to martial arts, the results can be astonishing, as seen in this video discovered by Colossal:

Kung Fu Motion Visualization from Tobias Gremmler on Vimeo.

Tobias Gremmler, a digital designer with a flair for the immersive and the abstract, created this video for a kung fu exhibition, utilizing the actions of Master Wong Yiu Kau (Variation 1-3) and Master Li Shek Lin (Variation 3,4). It bolsters the case that the fighting skills are akin to a ballet dance, as the grace and gravity defiance of these practitioners becomes a piece of abstract art.

(Well, yeah, you can pretty much see the weapon in the last one. But other than that, it’s akin to what I imagine Wes Bentley saw in that floating plastic bag from American Beauty. Just exponentially cooler.)

It also makes us hope that one day, Andy Serkis will play a piece of fabric in the wind. Because you know you’d feel the soul in that sheet.

What do you think of Gremmler’s kung fu? Does it make you want to go test your skills against the wind? Hit us up in comments.

Image: Tobias Gremmler