Motion Capture
Emilio Cantu, Jin He, Gerard Louis,
Brian Orchosky, Chelsey Salberg
What is Motion Capture?
Motion capture is the process of recording
the movement of objects or people.
Early Animation
Rotoscoping - animation technique where
animators trace over footage, frame by
frame for use in live action and animated
films
In Early Film
First movie to
use Motion
Capture:
Snow White
and the
Seven Dwarfs
(1937). Live
models were
used to guide
the drawings.
In Early Games
Highlander: The
Last of the
MacLeods (1995).
Employed Motion
Analysis
Traditional Animation
Keyframing - animation made up of key
frames (drawings) that define the starting
and ending points of any smooth
transition.
Motion Capture vs. Keyframing
A Brief Look In Movies
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Motion capture has it’s roots from movies (Hollywood).
Game developers as a consequence begin to
implement some of these new ideas or technologies to
enhance their games.
There’s really no significant difference in translating
motion capture technology from movies to games.To
give the audience a better sense on how motion capture
was incorporated into games, movie references using
motion capture are given.
Motion Capture In Movies
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Polar Express (2004)
King Kong (2005)
Happy Feet (2006)
Avatar (2009)
District 9 (2009)
Mars Needs Moms (2011)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Rango (2011)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
John Carter (2012)
The Avengers (2012)
Ted (2012)
Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs (1937):
• Actors and actresses
would act out scenes
and would be filmed.
The animators would
then use the individual
frames as a guide to
their drawings (early
form of mocap
technology).
Polar Express (2004) & Avatar
(2009)
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Actors and actresses would use a
mocap suit which translated their
movement into a digital effect
which was then animated into a
3D computer animation.
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
• Uses a mix of real actors and props,
mocap allows a more accurate blend of
images and film that can all be pieced
together in an amazing sight.
Ted (2012)
• Ted (the teddy bear) was actually
animated by using motion capture on an
actor, which is why Ted’s movements
seemed so realistic.
More Movie Examples
District 9 (2009)
Rise of the Planet of the
Apes (2011)
John Carter (2012)
Games
The term ‘performance capture’ is used to
describe advanced motion capture
In addition to body movements, more
minute details such as emotion, finger
movement, and facial detection can be
captured and used.
Examples
Since the movie Avatar, one of the earliest,
most famous, examples of performance
capture, it has also been used in games
such as L.A. Noire and Heavy Rain
Facial Motion Capture
Beginnings
100+ markers on an actor’s face to capture
facial expressions.
Very cumbersome for the actor - takes a
long time to put all dots on, and the
actor cannot touch their face
until they are removed
Facial Motion Capture
Markerless motion capture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bX0qp
sLfpE
Mixamo recently released Face Plus for
Unity - capture face data with only a
webcam.
Early motion detection in games
Sega’s Heavyweight Champ
(1976) for arcades
Two boxing glove controllers you
punch,
one for each player. A 1987 remake
gave one player control of two punch
controllers. The cabinet can also turn
from side to side, and the boxer
moves
too.
Sega Hang On (1985)
The ‘world’s first full-body
experience video game’.
Three arcade cabinet designs. The one
pictured enables turning by leaning on the
motorcycle.
NES Power Glove
1989 for NES
Move the glove controller around. The time taken for
ultrasonic sound to travel between speakers on the glove
and microphones on a receiver unit is used to triangulate
position.
Optical fibers can detect bending of the glove (light is
obstructed when bent).
Considered difficult to use
Sega Activator (1993)
Octogonal device on the floor that had
eight infrared light sensors beamed
upwards for detecting movement. Like the
Power Glove, also not well-received.
Dance Dance Revolution (1998)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExjhGrVJ8Do
Most game modes/variants
feature pressure sensors in
four directions.
These sensors must be
stepped on to match the
arrows appearing on screen
in time with music.
First major ‘exergaming’
(exercise gaming) series.
Konami’s Police 911 (2000)
Shooting game where players
duck for cover and dodge… by
actually ducking for cover and
dodging.
Uses infrared sensors.
Notable motion capture games
Prince of Persia (1989)
Rotoscoping - videos (like the one below)
were used as reference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAjRNU3DbSY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia_(1989_video_game)
(for animated GIF)
Metal Gear Solid
Used from the second entry in the
series (2001) onwards.
The upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5 uses
facial capture. Actors had their face and
expressions captured from many angles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DbPxvBbZAhs
Enter The Matrix (2003)
The actors (and stunt doubles) from the
original movies were the motion capture
actors for the game. Motion capture took 3
months.
L.A. Noire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIviB90Ih8
Used MotionScan for performance capture, with
32 cameras for facial animation.
The blooper reel above shows the tech better
than the game does because it features actors
breaking character and being more natural.
Other well-known games using motion
capture
Madden (from 1994 on)
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
(1998)
Devil May Cry 3 and 4 (2005, 2008)
Uncharted series (2007)
Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
The Last of Us (2013)
Motion Capture Technologies
Many types:
Optical (most prevalent)
o a series of cameras with strobing
lights are set up around an area
to be “captured.”
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Inertial
o Body suit or sensors attached to
a person that track gyroscopic
movement and transmit to a
receiver
o inertial sensors have 3d
gyroscopes, accelerometers, and
magnetometers
Motion Capture Technologies
Last type:
Mechanical
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o Suit that subject wears that transmits motion
data to a receiver
o Uses joint sensors to determine movement
Similarities between
technologies
• All are fairly expensive, need between
$5000-$10000 initial investment
• All require interfacing with a computer
running specialized software
• Each brand has its own proprietary
software or plugins for industry standard
software
Optical Motion Capture
• OptiTrack series
from NaturalPoint
• Prime 41 ($4,999)
o Resolution: 2048 ×
2048
o Frame Rate: 30–
180 FPS
(adjustable)
o Infrared Strobe
(won’t interfere with
video cameras)
Inertial Motion Capture
• XSens MVN
o Full body suit with 17 inertial sensors
o Flexible, since there are no special
harnesses to hold the sensors, rather they
are built in to the suit
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Used in “Paul”, by Seth Rogen to play the alien
Motion Capture Software
• Autodesk
MotionBuilder
o Industry standard
3d character
animation software
o Can import motion
capture data and
map motions to
imported
characters from
Maya, 3ds, etc
Questions?