How Has Motion Capture Developed?

The Standard Motion Capture Suit

The standard motion capture suit that actors use in movies and games are made up of a black tight costume that are covered in balls that light up. How it works is the actors are surrounded by cameras and the actors will act out their scene in the suit and the cameras record just the balls of light which is why the suits are black. The recorded footage on the cameras will only have the floating lights and they will be in the shape of a person, then the footage is imported into animation software and applied to a 3D model of a character who will act out the exact same movement as the actor did.

Facial Expression and Lip Movement

As technology improved, new techniques appeared for people involved with motion capture. Before motion capture could only capture a broad overview movement of the persons body but now it can capture the facial expression and lip moment of the actors face. This feature speeds up the character development process because now animators can allow motion capture to move the characters face automatically without them having to input them in manually. It also increases the realism of characters because if the lip movement and facial expression comes from the actors during their scene then that is the accurate emotion for the character during the story.

Xsens MVN The Modern Day Motion Capture Suit

The company Xsens developed a new motion capture suit that is designed to be more universal and comfortable for people wearing the suits. The suit looks like a everyday jump suit that people would wear for exercise but just inside the zip is the battery that allows the suit to be wireless. Now instead of the glowing balls stuck on the suit they are plastic flat pads the cameras can pick up and the reason for this is so the actors can do more stunts without anything on the suit getting in the way. 

Motion Builder

Auto Desk is a company that make various 3D modelling and animation software and they developed a program called Motion Builder. Motion Builder is software that specifically supports motion capture, someone uploads captured motion and a 3D model and the program applies the movement straight to a virtual skeleton that now moves the same way the actor did when they acted out the scene.

Virtual Cinematography

Early in days of motion capture the process was the actors acted out the scene and the animators took the footage and applied it to a 3D model to see what the final outcome looks like, if anything is wrong like the movement itself it would have to be filmed all over again. Now because processors have improved in computers motion builder has the ability to see what the motion capture applied to a 3D model looks like in real time so the actors can adjust there and then until it is right.

  
Reference List

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/a-brief-history-of-motion- capture-in-the-movies-91372735717.html

https://www.engadget.com/2014/07/14/motion-capture- explainer/

http://www.xsens.com/products/xsens-mvn/

http://listverse.com/2010/06/30/15-more-firsts-in-video- game-history/