Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/589428
20 cgw s e p t e m b e r . o c t o b e r 2 0 1 5 t has been used to give lifelike performances to a wide range of characters. Gollum. Caesar the ape. Hulk. Tintin. Davy Jones. Beowulf. The Na'vi. The list is extensive and seemingly endless. And the technology? Motion capture. One of the more popular films to break the animation barrier by using motion capture extensively was Final Fantasy (2001). At the time, the industry had strong feelings toward mo- cap, either embracing it despite its technological limitations or avoiding it altogether. But as time passed and the equipment and soware became more robust and finely tuned, motion capture became a popular animation technique. Today, motion capture encompasses so much more than replicating a walk or a jump. The rise of facial motion capture through the use of camera rigs or laser systems has given animators nuanced performances that would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve manually via keyframing. P E R F O R M A N C E A R T Facial mocap can be done using markers or a markerless tracking system. With the for- mer, a multitude of tiny markers are placed on the actor's face and then the movement is tracked with high-resolution cameras (as was the practice used to replicate the facial expressions of actor Tom Hanks and apply them to the characters in 2004's The Polar Express). Active LED marker technology has refined this process, enabling real-time feedback. Markerless facial tracking, meanwhile, recognizes facial features (nose, lips) and tracks them. This technology was used in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Both marker and markerless facial systems must obtain very high-resolution data in order to capture the subtle raise of an eyebrow or the barely percep- tible movement of the lips, for instance. And, the end result is oen a particularly emotive performance of a CG charac- ter that is more relatable and believable to the audience. Another recent trend has been capturing the movement of an actor's hands and fingers. For this, various marker and markerless glove solutions are used. While hand capture has many applications within enter- tainment and beyond (motion analysis, 3D input, biometrics, puppeteering, and so forth), it Moving Performances MOTION CAPTURE HAS BECOME AN IMPORTANT SELECTION IN AN ANIMATOR'S TOOLBOX BY KAREN MOLTENBREY I Image courtesy Motion Analysis