I'm curious how the environment that actors act in affects the motion capture data. For example, I read online that many scenes of Avatar 2 were shot underwater, and they also simulated waves and currents. I wonder how different the performance capture process was for underwater scenes versus ones on land. For example, actors can only hold their breath underwater for so long, so how did they ensure this didn't interfere with the motion capture?
eugenek07
In strictly animation based films, motion capture seems to be an interesting point of discussion as within animation principles, they have different concepts like "ease in ease out" which don't really translate to how we move in real life. Are there specialized motion capture actors that train in this way or is that solved separately?
weinatalie
In what cases might an animator prefer to use a technique such as motion capture or rotoscoping over traditional animation with the twelve principles? It makes sense that an animator would use motion capture for a character like Gollum or Smaug, since these characters are meant to exist believably in a live-action environment. Having them move like traditional cartoon characters might break some of the immersion for the viewers. There are also movies such as Space Jam or Who Framed Roger Rabbit? that place 2D animated characters in a live-action environment. Using traditional animation suits these movies better, as they are fun comedies that center around visual gags.
J1ungle
I'm curious about how we locate these sensors on the actor's body. Do we use multiple cameras around the actor to capture their movements? Or can these sensors detect their relative positions using some physical laws?
jacky-p
I had always wondered how motion capture worked. It does make sense that although coming with more realistic movement and expressions (facial motion capture) it is very costly in computation and rendering the data collected. Although I do still wonder, like @J1ungle above, how cameras locate and process the information from the sensors and translate that to the animation.
OnceLim
I remember watching a BTS video of Avengers Infinity Wars and how they animated Thanos. Just like the photos in this slide, the actor's physique and height were very different to those of Thanos, so the directors made the actor put on heavy equipments and even had a camera directly in front of his face. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b1Zrr91R44&ab_channel=JoBloSuperheroes
I'm curious how the environment that actors act in affects the motion capture data. For example, I read online that many scenes of Avatar 2 were shot underwater, and they also simulated waves and currents. I wonder how different the performance capture process was for underwater scenes versus ones on land. For example, actors can only hold their breath underwater for so long, so how did they ensure this didn't interfere with the motion capture?
In strictly animation based films, motion capture seems to be an interesting point of discussion as within animation principles, they have different concepts like "ease in ease out" which don't really translate to how we move in real life. Are there specialized motion capture actors that train in this way or is that solved separately?
In what cases might an animator prefer to use a technique such as motion capture or rotoscoping over traditional animation with the twelve principles? It makes sense that an animator would use motion capture for a character like Gollum or Smaug, since these characters are meant to exist believably in a live-action environment. Having them move like traditional cartoon characters might break some of the immersion for the viewers. There are also movies such as Space Jam or Who Framed Roger Rabbit? that place 2D animated characters in a live-action environment. Using traditional animation suits these movies better, as they are fun comedies that center around visual gags.
I'm curious about how we locate these sensors on the actor's body. Do we use multiple cameras around the actor to capture their movements? Or can these sensors detect their relative positions using some physical laws?
I had always wondered how motion capture worked. It does make sense that although coming with more realistic movement and expressions (facial motion capture) it is very costly in computation and rendering the data collected. Although I do still wonder, like @J1ungle above, how cameras locate and process the information from the sensors and translate that to the animation.
I remember watching a BTS video of Avengers Infinity Wars and how they animated Thanos. Just like the photos in this slide, the actor's physique and height were very different to those of Thanos, so the directors made the actor put on heavy equipments and even had a camera directly in front of his face. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b1Zrr91R44&ab_channel=JoBloSuperheroes