![]() Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed its LED-based " graphical marionette": one of the first optical motion-tracking systems. One company created the "Waldo" face and body capture devices (shown above), used by an actor to drive a Nintendo Mario avatar, who interacted with crowds at trade shows. Bio-kinetic researchers like Simon Fraser University's Tom Calvert were breaking new ground with mechanical capture suits. To automate that process, animators looked to motion capture. ![]() Creating digital animation by hand is known as "keyframing" - or filling in the movement of a character between different "keyframe" poses over time. Not now Turn on Turned on Turn onĮven when animators are creating character movements by hand, they often reference video footage, study someone acting out a scene or even look at themselves in a mirror. You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu. The first use of rotoscoping in a feature film was in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1937. Animator Max Fleischer invented " rotoscoping" in 1914, a method of creating cartoons like Out of the Inkwell by tracing live-action footage, frame by tedious frame. The process doesn't even need a computer. But what the heck is going on, exactly? Simple: The producers of a game or film want to transmit the complex motion of the performer's body (and face) to an animated character. You probably get that motion capture involves performers prancing around in tights that have ping-pong balls attached. But what is mocap, exactly, and how is it done? Will it ever replace live actors or put 3D animators out of business? To answer all that, let's head back in time 100 years. And let's not forget games - The Last of Us has some of the best mocap done in any medium and Electronic Arts has used the technique since Madden NFL '94. Now, let's forget all that and move forward to a time when the tech started hitting its stride - from Lord of the Rings' Gollum to Avatar to The Avengers' Hulk. I know these aren't pleasant memories, but new technology like motion capture (mocap) can be. Picture Jar Jar Binks or Polar Express, movies that put the " Uncanny Valley" on the map.
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