motion capture

ADVANCED CHARACTER ANIMATION & MOTION CAPTURE

UNIT 34

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Motion CaptureMotion capture is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. In video game development, it works by recording the actions of human actors and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. When it shows fingers, face and subtle expressions, its called performance capture.

Below is a link to a video showing how LA Noire have made the characters facial features and expressions look realistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL9wsEFohTw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v-aL9wsEFohTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v-aL9wsEFohTw

Advantages & Disadvantages of Motion Capture

Advantages

The director can choose any angle he wants to shoot a scene, even if those angles that would be hard of impossible in a live action movie.

Limitless possibilities for rotating effect.

Theres no need to have light, colours and filters whilst filming, the motions as this can be done digitally after.

Disadvantages

The real life performance may not translate on to the computer model as expected.

Movement that does not follow the law of physics generally cannot be represented.


Rise of the RobotsRise of the Robots came out in 1994. It was the first game to use motion capture technology to create fluid and real movement in characters. It used CGI sprites rather than pixel art.

The game, however, received negative feedback, it was considered too easy and critics felt the makers had sacrificed gameplay for graphics.


The Last of Us This link below takes you to YouTube and it shows how you how the animated characters are brought to life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFnfxzrqqXA




Marker-Based System

Using a marker based system is the traditional way to capture facial expressions. You can apply up to 350 markers on the actors face to track the marker movement with high resolution cameras. This system can also capture subtle movements.


Markerless Face CaptureSnappers System Markerless Face Capture Technology.

Snapper Systems provide high quality 3D face capture technology solutions for commercial and independent purposes. The link below takes you to a page where theres a video showing a different technique to capture the actors facial expressions without using camera markers.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Snappers-Systems-Markerless-Face-Capture-Technology-Looks-Impressive-58733.html

The problem with this 360 camera capture is that it takes up a huge amount of memory.






Technical Challenges - Facial Animation

The aim with facial animations is to make it look as realistic as possible. The main challenge with this is the detail in the animated characters face. They have to make sure that the facial capture can pick every movement in the expression. If they don’t pick up these movements, the actor may have to record that scene again or the animator will have to edit it digitally. If the actor smiles, the animator digitally animates this so that the smile is bashful or sarcastic.


Technical ChallengesThe marker based system has a few issues. Even though it captures every movement of the face, its very expensive, its a very big system and it needs post processing to reduce internal noise.

The markerless face capture system is very simple as its a camera device with no markers on the actors face. The technical challenge for this is to capture a users 3D expression using a monocular camera and to track subtle facial movement without marker.


Resourceshttp://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/epapers/e2011Papers/eJBKimTRIZSymp2010/eJBKim-TRIZSymp2010-110917.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL9wsEFohTw

http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/advantages-disadvantages-and-applications-of-motion-capture-217465.html

http://en.wikinoticia.com/Technology/games/124614-beyond-two-souls

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/beyond-two-souls-motion-capture-video/2300-6386906/


http://www.osaka-gu.ac.jp/php/nakagawa/TRIZ/eTRIZ/epapers/e2011Papers/eJBKimTRIZSymp2010/eJBKim-TRIZSymp2010-110917.htm




















motion capture

Business