Motion Capture

By Lorenzo Mazzon

Aspects of Motion Capture

Motion capture is a technique used in filming to create a realistic and reliable frame for CGI animators to use in the creation of computer generated characters or certain scenes in a film

It is an expensive process to heavily animate films so motion capture is usually only used by big companies like 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios

Motion capture usually ties into computer generated scenery so it is usually filmed in front of a greenscreen so that the whole image can be animated upon

How it has affected film

Motion capture has given films the upper hand when it comes to creating imaginary scenes for the viewers, it allows for smooth, anatomical and realistic movement for any characters that are computer generated, some famous characters that were animated to life in this way include…

‘Jay’

Gollum (Smeagol)

Caesar

techniques

Earlier techniques of motion capture consisted of using many high speed cameras to get an approximate model of whatever is being recorded

New forms of motion capture include capture points and motion capture suits, each capture point(s) is bound to different joints in whatever is animated, like the knee or elbow

As motion capture progressed it gained the skill to capture facial expressions, binding different points on the face of the motion capture professional to muscles on an animated character

Progression

Motion capture has progressed rapidly throughout the new age of films

One of the newest way to capture movements or expressions is the same way that the xbox kinect works, low powered infrared lasers are projected in a grid like fashion onto the body or the face, an infrared camera then picks up the position and distance from the camera which can be used to map movements and facial expressions

Audience Appeal

Motion capture increases the audience appeal of movies by making some of the characters that are impossible to shoot as raw footage, easier to animate by professionals because lifelike movements are given to certain characters and things in the film

This makes them more relatable and believable, giving the film a sense of emersion so the viewers feel more buried in the film, instead of thinking ‘these graphics are terrible’

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