The Future of Motion Capture: Analytical Essay

Real-time Computer-generated imagery (CGI) projects are taking off in the animation industry allowing bigger, better ideas and realistic motions. This allows animators to capture physical motion through a motion capture suit or tracking dots on the actor’s faces. Motion capture was first developed by Max Fleischer in 1915. The first full-length file that used it was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Within in that time Motion capture suits have advanced and have many different types of suits ranging from human, monkeys and even dinosaurs, the suits are limitless. It allows animators to capture the real time movements of the actors walking, jumping or running as human and even animal.

The process of using motion capture suit requires the actors to be in a suit with tracking markers all over them. Recording motion requires multiple cameras and an optical system to calculate the position of each tracker and how they move. This works by tracking two types of markers, active markers which light up distinctively, while passive markers use painted dots or white balls (Conditt, 2018). There is marker less suits that use analytical match-moving software to track certain features, such as the actor’s nose or clothes. Once the movements or motion has been captured by any of these methods it is then applied to the skeleton of the character. Instead of animators working with rough drawings animators can work with actual motions from an actor (Conditt, 2018). There are also face rigs that can capture the face of the actor, this is done by placing dots on their face and having a camera attached to a pole that’s attached to their head. This creates a realistic facial motion.

Motion capture is going to change and enhance animation and speed up the process of animation. For example, Game companies work on a very strict deadline and budget so they cannot afford an army of animators to animate their scenes, this makes motion capture a vital part in their pipeline. Companies are then forced to settle with animations that are subpar rather than exceptional content. Characters will clip through other objects or characters which can break the immersion of the game. With motion capture they only need a few animators and some actors to get fast and life like animations without objects clipping through each other. This allows the game companies to add motions that could be exceedingly time consuming and challenging for animators to create by hand (Metamotion, n.d). Games are getting more and more refined and needing a better quality of animation which is here motion capture comes in, it adds an immense amount of realism and immersion to their game. With the advancements of motion capture it allows the companies to focus on other areas that are equally important like programing and the game environment. It also allows them to add little Easter eggs into the game content.

Even with motion capture animators are still very important. It can only achieve so much and there is still work that animators must manipulate to achieve before the motion is perfect. For example, humans can only imitate animals to a certain extent before it requires an animator, when It comes to animals, they have different ways of moving certain body parts such as monkeys and how they move their mouths and interact with each other. because they are animating animals, they need to animate tails, ears, wings and more which can be hard with motion capture. Therefore, they still need animators who can create believable character. As an example, the movie Avatar used motion capture rigs for the basic movements like walking and talking, but for the ears, tail, feet and hands the animators were needed. For animators to achieve believable characters they would have a side by side comparison of the performance and the scene on the screen (Carter, 2013). This allows them to strengthen the act of the performance, increasing the original performance by editing features humans cannot make. Being that motion capture is still being developed and improved in many various ways, it has created a new role in the game and film industry call “Motion Editor”.

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Virtual reality (VR) uses motion capture and has started taking off giving people a realistic feel. It allows for a diverse array of interactive learning, entertainment and creativity. With VR people can be taught the best way to assess situations, as an example you can teach people Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In VR you can also create entire rooms and endless scenarios. For example, when you are leaning about medical procedures you can create medical rooms, where the students can practice their knowledge and gain a better understanding of their procedures. The student will gain a better understanding and confidence in their field by doing things rather than by reading a book. A lot of people learn better visually rather than reading, VR allows these types of people to better learn and understand, it also helps the students who get overwhelmed by too much information (Nick, 2018) It will help to keep the interest of the students rather than some of them becoming disengaged or bored. VR is also extremely creative allow people to develop their creativity with tools such as tilt brush.

Big movies such as Avengers: Endgame (2019) use motion capture for their characters such as Iron-man, Black Panther, Hulk and more. This allows the animators to put special effects on to their actors such as iron-man’s suit which is made from billions of nanos being released from his chest piece. It slowly envelops hip until his suit is completely covering his body. Without motion capture it would be extremely difficult to achieve the same level of work in the short amount of time they have, it would also cost a lot more money for the same yet inadequate results. Films with a larger budget would also be using face capture rigs which can help make the character feel more realistic. An example would be Hulk, when Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk the facial features would still be the same and yet it would be very difficult to animate and create from scratch. Using a face capture rig, it allows them to capture the actors little subtle facial movements that are specific to him as he is talking or eating (ILMVisualFX, 2013). They can also scan the actors face to create a three dimensional model which to apply the motion to. Once captured it would shorten the time of animation while improving the quality of CGI and keeping the character’s sense of realism, this also allows the animators to exaggerate some of the features as needed.

Motion capture is even being used in medical ways such as biomechanical analysis through rehabilitation. People who have suffered from strokes or some other forms of motor function disability now use motion capture suits. This allows the doctors to see exactly what area the need to rehabilitate. People who suffer from a motor function disability need to be constantly monitored and their movements corrected, while wearing the suit they can get real-time precise data about the patients and figure out the best course of action needed to correct their motor functions. It is also used to train athletes and better their performance. Athletes who suffer from the anterolateral complex can use motion capture to capture the muscles activity. The muscle that has undergone surgery typically moves less and with the suit they can put the patients through tests to determine how the muscle has healed and how strong it is. (the University of Delaware. 2017). All the test allows them to compile data and better inform the patient about the best way to avoid a second injury.

In conclusion, motion capture has come a very long way from 1915 and will continue to progress even further then it’s current state. Motion capture will help to improve games and the immersion they bring, animations will have much more realism that can put into it. It will also greatly increase how relatable character are because they will seem more human with their movements and micro-expressions. As for the students that are mostly visual learners, it allows them to still gain information without overwhelming them. It will revolutionize rehabilitation allowing for better understanding of the patients and their problems, creating a better recovery plan and better informing the doctors on how the patients rehabilitation is going. For assessment two my group will be using motion capture to produce a drunk character at a bar

Reference:

1. Carter, C., Van Opdenbosch, P., Bennett, J., & Mohr, S. (2013, October 3). Motion capture and the future of virtual production. Retrieved from https://eprints.qut.edu.au/63264/4/The_Animator_in_Virtual_Production.pdf
2. Conditt, Jessica. (2018, May 25), 100 years of motion-capture technology. Retrieved from https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/25/motion-capture-history-video-vicon-siren/
3. Metamotion. (n.d). ”3D Character Animation”. Retrieved from https://metamotion.com/motion-capture-uses/character-animation.html
4. ILMVisualFX. (2013, January 25). Behind the Magic: Creating The Hulk for 'The Avengers' (Part 2) [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQRwrgKOexw
5. The University of Delaware. (2017,March 28). ACL rehab enhanced with motion capture, EMG [Streaming video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdaOUHnAPxs
6. Nick, Babich. (2018, September 1). How Virtual Reality Will Change How We Learn and How We Teach [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://theblog.adobe.com/virtual-reality-will-change-learn-teach/