When it comes to getting character animation done, few methods are as powerful or as fast as using Motion Capture data. By using live actors to generate animation data, you get all the subtleties and nuances of motion that are incredibly difficult to replicate using keyframes. Instead of spending days keyframing a performance, you can potentially have your animated character brought to life with a single click.

It can really be like strapping on a rocket engine to get you moving through your animated project.

Imagine being able start animating a scene in minutes, rather than hours. How many more scenes could you get done in a single day? How many films could you get done this year?

As exciting as Motion Capture is, there are some issues with the technology that have to be anticipated when you’re planning your production.

• Motion capture is just a tool in your toolset rather than being the entire toolbox. There’s an old saying that goes: “When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” This is as true of animation as it is of anything else. It is tempting to use mocap exclusively for animation, but there are times when you need a particular shot and you don’t have the right motion capture animation available for it–that’s when you have to break out the keyframe tools. Being familiar with those tools is especially important; and there are a number of excellent tools built right into Poser including walk and talk designers, dynamic clothing and hair, layer animation, and an extensive expressions library.
• Raw Motion Capture data can need a lot of cleaning and editing to get right. When you import a BVH file into Poser or Daz|Studio, it writes a keyframe for every frame. Editing the motion once it comes in to Poser would mean adjusting dozens of keyframes per channel in a single second of animation, or using animation layers to overwrite the motion capture data. It is possible. But one of the selling points of using our Move Packs is that we have done all the cleaning for you. Characters move properly and–here’s the key part–they hold props correctly. If you do need any adjustment, such as setting a character’s starting position, you should be able to add an animation layer and set a keyframe or two and start animating.
• Motion Capture is not just for your main actors–in fact, it really shines when you apply it to the extras in your scene. Need to animate a crowd of zombies menacing your heroes? One click of our Zombie Moves will get that horde shambling along nicely. If you use the data to populate and animate the backgrounds of your scenes, you can elevate your project up to epic status. Cecil B. Demille had casts of thousands for his movies–but you can use motion capture data and digital extras to get your own cast of thousands.

When it comes to getting an animated film done, you want to get the animation done as quickly as possible, and spending less time keyframing poses is one of the ways to accelerate your production speed.

To learn more about motion capture technology, you can look check out the Wikipedia Entry.