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/ 

When and How Did Motion Capture Start?

Snow White Rotoscoping

The first recorded version of motion capture was in the feature film Snow White in 1937. The version of motion capture that Disney used was called rotoscoping. Rotoscoping is when someone traces over real footage frame by frame and then uses the drawings in an animation, they capture the movement that happens in the video footage and then apply that movement to a character in a cartoon. The scene in Snow White where Snow White is dancing with the dwarfs was made using rotoscoping, the animators of Disney recorded a man and a women dance exactly how they visioned Snow white would dance with the dwarfs and then they traced over the video footage frame by frame replacing the people dancing with Snow White and the dwarf. 

Waldo

During the 1980s a couple of students in University designed and developed the first ever motion capture suit and named it Waldo. Waldo was then used in the Nintendo's Mario trade show to create an exciting experience for the fans of Nintendo, there was a giant screen with a projection on it and Waldo was linked up to the giant Mario that would appear on the screen and then an actor behind the scenes would  make Mario move and interact with the audience.

Rise of the Robots (1994)

In 1994 a game came out on the Sega Mega Drive called Rise of the Robots and it was the first game to attempt to create the movement of characters in motion capture. The game was a fighting game one player stood on the left and the other player on the right and they would fight until one of the players health completely depleted. Games at the time were made and animated using pixels because video games were animated frame by frame but because this game used motion capture it couldn't use pixels as captured motion can't be applied to pixels, so the game developers used sprites which is when the character is morphed from an object to an object and not created from scratch. The game received mixed feedback with good reviews about the how the game's movement looks really real and fluid however the bad reviews came from the games gameplay that most people found too simple which overall made the game boring to play.

  

Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars The Phantom Menace)

In 1999 the first prequel of the Star Wars saga was released and it was the first live action movie to create a character in CGI using motion capture. On the set of the Star Wars movie an actor was wearing a motion capture suit and at the same time wearing a costume of the character Jar Jar Binks, the motion capture suit was used to digitally capture the movement of the actors during his scenes while his character costume was to remind the actors which character he was playing. After the filming was done the motion caught from the Jar Jar Binks actor was applied to a computer generated Jar Jar Binks that would replace the actor on set in the movie.

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/ 

Presentation Preview

In this seminar session we received feedback on our draft presentations to prepare us for our assessment.

At this point my presentation had very brief information on what I wanted to say in each slide with the subject I want to look into and the research question I will be answering.

Feedback: Get rid of "3D Modelling" in the subject title.

My subject title in my presentation was "3D Modelling: Motion Capture in the Video Game Industry". 3D modelling in the video game industry was my original subject but I decided that it was too vague of a topic to research into so I chose something more specific like motion capture, now I should delete 3D modelling from my subject title to prevent confusion.

Feedback: Add images to your presentation.

At this point in time I hadn't got round to adding images to my presentation but I got told that I should have images because they are vital in a presentation to keep the interest of viewers.

Feedback: In the research question delete "video games" and "the success of".

My research question was "How has motion capture affected the success of video games in the video game industry in the last 10 years?". First of all I repeat myself in the question by mentioning video games and then the video game industry so I deleted the first mention of video games. Secondly I say "the success of" which can lead me to fall in to the trap of not answering my question because the question asked me to only research in the positive things motion capture does for video games and not the negative which I probably would talk about on default. After acting on the feedback my research question now says "How has motion capture affected the video game industry in the last 10 years?". 

Lip Sync

This process and production session focused on how we can apply speech to an animated character. Learning how to go about this skill will be very helpful as most animations will have some kind of dialogue to give. The tasks involved filling in a x sheet, creating a character sheet and finally using these resources to put the animation together.

X Sheet

This sheet is used for breaking down dialogue into separate syllables and sounds so it is easy to apply the sound of the words to the characters mouth shape frame by frame. On the sheet there is frame numbers and next to that is space to write down the word, the sound of the word and then the mouth shape the character will make when making these sounds.

At first sight of these sheets my first thought was that this task was going to be complicated and confusing but like anything else when you start the task and get in to it, it is quite easy. The dialogue I chose was of a man saying "And now for something completely different." To fill the sheet in I had to listen to the dialogue over and over again frame by frame to accurately extract the different sounds from the track.

Character Sheet

The character sheet is used for creating a visual of the characters mouth shape and facial expressions when they make a specific sound for a word or letter. Because the dialogue I chose sounds like a well spoken victorian man in London I decided to make my character a man in a top hat with a monocle. On the left there is a space to draw the head of the character without his eyes and mouth and then on the right there are spaces to draw the mouth an eyes separately each one different depending on the sound that will be made. After the character sheet is finished I scanned it on to the computer and opened it with Photoshop ready to animate.

Final Output




Using the character sheet I opened in Photoshop I cut and pasted the drawings in a photoshop timeline while following my x sheet so I knew where exactly to put each mouth shape in each frame to match up the dialogue track that played in the background.

What Did I Learn?

Unfortunately I didn't have time to finish the animation adding the eyes and reaching the end of the dialogue but I certainly know how to visually add dialogue to a character now. Before this session I had an idea how to attempt applying dialogue to a character but without learning the use of an x sheet or character sheet it probably would have taken me much longer to do.   

My Subject Decision

In this seminar I chose the subject I want to research into for my presentation. The idea was to break down my chosen subject so I would have a specific topic and not have something that could distract me from answering the overall question. My chosen subject was 3D modelling in video games but the topic 3D modelling was too broad so I chose a technique that game developers use for 3D modelling which is motion capture. 

Feedback - Originally I chose 3D Modelling as my subject but after speaking with my tutor I was told that 3D Modelling was too broad of a topic to look into, so I suggested motion capture a technique game developers use for 3D modelling. 

Next I had to come up with some research questions because they are seen as tasks or reminders to reach the overall goal and find out what it is I am interested in with my chosen topic.

Questions

• How has technology improved 3D modelling in the gaming industry in the last 10 years?

• How has motion capture improved animation in the video game industry in the last 10 years? 

• Which video game developers has had the most influence with the use of Motion capture in the video game industry in the last 10 years?

• What effect has the latest console generation had on the way motion capture is used in the video game industry?

Animatic and Storyboard

This process and production session was about how to get the important basic structures of an idea down on a storyboard and then how to use the drawings on the storyboard to create a basic animatic. The session was to help us get into the habit of getting ideas into the physical world in a format that is easy to animate from.

Storyboard

This is my storyboard for the animation for my cybernetic self project. Before starting the storyboard I made a list of keyframes that would tell the story of our animation if it was just still images. The list will now be the drawings of each scene with a description under each frame describing the movement in the scene. Finally in the storyboard I wrote down details for the camera angles and transitioning between scenes. When creating a storyboard it is best to keep in mind that it needs to be presented so a animator who has never seen the storyboard before can create a animation from it.

Feedback  - After finishing my storyboard I was told I shouldn't put information horizontally on the sides because of the simple fact of saving time for people having to turn the page to read it. Also instead of describing camera actions in text it is best to draw them within the frame as a diagram because it tells the reader more about what you would like to happen within the animation.  

Animatic

To create a animatic I scanned in the storyboard and then used Photoshop to cut and crop each drawing to then import them into After Effects as a folder. I dragged each image into the After Effects timeline and then organised them to show for so many frames and put them in chronological order. Now I have a idea that I can watch and review so I can make any changes if need be, also when I come to animate my idea I can use this animatic to animated in-between the key frames like filling in the blanks.

What Did I Learn?

This task has been really helpful to me because now I know what I can do with an idea I come up with that will be a big benefit when it comes to making the animation and reviewing the idea as a whole. I will be sure to use and get in the habit of using this method to present my ideas. Overall I learnt how to professionally create a storyboard with directions for camera actions that will happen in the animation, I also learnt how to create a animatic using my storyboard and I learnt how to use a feature within after effects that quickly sorts out layers into a order on the timeline that then can be played without the layers overlapping each other. 

Market Data and Research

Primary and Secondary Data

Market research consists of primary data and secondary data.

Primary Quantitative 

Primary consists of people walking around the streets with clip boards asking questions.

3 types of questions are asked: 

• Geographic - These questions are about where the person lives and how different factors change in that area.

• Psychographic - These questions are about how the person thinks and their interests to determine what they will buy.

• Socio-economic - These questions are about finding out the amount of people in a certain class and where they are finically.

The advantage with this method is it acquires a lot of reliable data. However the disadvantages are that it is a very expensive and time consuming plan. 

Primary Qualitative

A way to get data and information through hosting interviews and focus groups with people who are targeted consumers.

The advantage of using this is it is cheap and easily done. The disadvantage to using this is no statistical validation and it can be subjective.

Secondary Data/Desk Research

Data thats has already been discovered it is just the case of finding it. There will be a huge amount of data so it will need breaking down into groups that can help your market.

• Age - Information that shows the age range who are interested in a specific product.

• Sex - Information that shows which gender is interested in a specific product.

• Social Class - Information that shows the rich, middle class and the poor who are interested in a specific product.

• Geography - Information that shows where in the world a specific product is more popular. 

• Hobby/interest - Information that shows which people depending on what they like to do and are interested in who want a specific product.

Market for books (example)

Split it into two groups: Fiction and non fiction

then into more groups: Genres etc. Keep breaking the groups down until every possible aspects on why a consumer would buy the product to have a more clearer insight.

To successfully segment ate (break the market down into groups)

• Measurable/Identifiable - The group is a reasonable size to collect data.

• Accessible - The data for the group is easy and cheap to access.

• Substantial - The group is important or large enough to include. 

• Meaningful - The group has something to do with the market that a product is been produced for.

Important note

• Define what the product has to offer very clearly.

• Only compare the product with other products that are similar. 

• Don’t try and analyse different products.

Data Sources

Use data sources to find out how a company or a product is doing in the market. Don’t look for profit but the turnover.

Mintel - Compares products. (Uni library source)

FAME - Reports for company performance. (Uni library source)

Finding information

Magazines and newspapers - Try WH Smiths.

Company websites - Many products and prices.

Retailer websites - Prices and reviews.

Summary and What Did I Learn?

This lecture was about how to successfully do research on the market within design industry to prepare promoting a product in development. The lecture has taught me where I should look for information about a competing company and product and what information I should be looking for. I also learnt how I should conduct my own research effectively. In the future when I become apart of the design industry I feel I would know where to start and have brief knowledge on what I would need to do.