MIDDLETON, Wis. -- Video gaming is a fast-growing industry with even faster-moving technology that has become more popular with the advent of "next-generation" gaming systems that can use almost film-realistic environments.

A Middleton company is on the cutting edge of video gaming's future with the technology it's been using to create new games.

Raven Software is one workplace where you can say the employees are literally playing games all day. However, the ones that they're creating usually end up flying off the shelves and into game consoles like the XBox 360 or the PlayStation 3. The technology that they're using to make these games is at the cutting edge of the "next-gen" revolution, WISC-TV reported.

The company is currently working on a new game based on the "Wolfenstein" series, and with newer motion-capture technology, it is working with a local actress to be the character in its movie.

Actress Carrie Coon is put in a spandex suit that has 63 reflective markers at strategic places on her body. Twenty-four infrared cameras in Raven's studios track Coon's every move as she replicates movements that her character will perform in the game. Information will then go into a computer to create a virtual character based on her body, WISC-TV reported.

Coon, an actress who has been involved in Madison Repertory Theatre and American Players Theatre, said that she got involved with Raven after an audition process through the UW Theatre program.

"They had me kind of bust through doors with big guns and pretend I was an assassin being that didn't have a spine and club a body of something on the ground and sniff it," she said. "You know, it was one of the most bizarre audition experiences I've ever had in my life."

Coon's character will have a skin and costumes created in the computer on top of her virtual body.

"You recognize yourself in it a little bit, but then, there's this fantasy element that's so fascinating," she said.

Raven is even giving her character -- an elite force assassin -- Coon's face. A state-of-the-art face scanner takes a 3-D image that will be attached to her computer-captured body and will make her a living character in the game, WISC-TV reported.

The company has used this technology before, like in its 2006 released game "Marvel Ultimate Alliance." Raven designers said that the new technology is invaluable.

"Animation used to be a couple hundred motions for an entire game; now it's a couple hundred motions per character," said David Peng, art services coordinator for Raven.

Raven's team can create hundreds of movements in a day with a performer that from scratch could take an animator days or even weeks.

"This has really helped us as far as just churning out massive amounts of data," said Peng.

The designers said that it doesn't bother anyone that their months or years of work on a game can really go unnoticed by gamers.

"Part of our job is to hide that from them. We want to make an immersive environment that the player can feel they're a part of the experience," said Mike Crowns, director of Product Development.

The work to create the experience for its newest game is definitely not done yet.

"Even my grandmother is looking forward to it, and she's never played a game in her life," said Coon.

"There's a huge demand for these games right now, and it's just growing," said Peng.

The game won't come out until sometime in 2008, but the name and many other details about it are being kept secret, which is just one clue at how competitive this industry has become.

That competition spills over into the job market for gaming. Raven officials said that they can have a hard time hiring because of the amount of skills that they're expecting their employees to have, either computer- or animation-related.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison does offer a computer science program where students can learn those skills. Courses are offered on computer animation and game technologies. Associate professor Mike Gleicher teaches them and does research on things like motion capture, WISC-TV reported.

"I think if you wanted to look at what games (we) would be doing in five years you could look to the kind of things we're doing here," said Gleicher.

There's enough interest in the program to offer the game technology class every year, to mainly to undergraduate seniors and graduate students who are getting ready to enter the industry.