What is Motion Capture Technology?
Motion capture technology is a process by which movement is digitally recorded. The technique was originally used for military tracking purposes and in sports as a tool for biomechanic research which focused on the mechanical functioning of the body, like how the heart and muscles work and move. In the last twenty-five years, motion capture has become an essential tool in the entertainment business, giving computer animators the ability to make non-human characters more life-like. It’s a techonolgy used in animated films and television as well as video games. Historically, motion capture in animated movies was created using an extension of the rotoscoping technique. In this technique, an actor is filmed making certain movements or gestures while wearing markers on specific points of his or her body. Each marker in each frame of film is then manually encoded into the computer. As animation software improved, it became possible to apply an algorithm to the markers that attach them to a 3
Motion capture technology is a process by which movement is digitally recorded. The technique was originally used for military tracking purposes and in sports as a tool for biomechanic research which focused on the mechanical functioning of the body, like how the heart and muscles work and move. In the last twenty-five years, motion capture has become an essential tool in the entertainment business, giving computer animators the ability to make non-human characters more life-like. It’s a techonolgy used in animated films and television as well as video games. Historically, motion capture in animated movies was created using an extension of the rotoscoping technique. In this technique, an actor is filmed making certain movements or gestures while wearing markers on specific points of his or her body. Each marker in each frame of film is then manually encoded into the computer. As animation software improved, it became possible to apply an algorithm to the markers that attach them to a 3
