What is motion capture?

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2024 Dec. 12

What is motion capture? Although many film, television, animation, and game works produced by motion capture technology are almost universally known, such as "Black Myth: Wukong", "Avatar", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", "Suspicion", etc., and some high-tech products that use motion capture technology to assist in research and development have also entered millions of households, such as floor cleaning robots, drones, etc. Even in the live broadcasts that people like to watch now, there are often virtual anchors who use motion capture for live streaming to interact with everyone enthusiastically. However, motion capture technology is still not well-known to the public.

Motion capture, in simple terms, refers to the use of motion capture devices to capture and record all movements and trajectories of the human body, animals, rigid bodies, flexible bodies, etc. For example, it can capture human limb movements, subtle finger or facial movements, as well as the trajectory of human body movements.

Someone might ask, what can be done by capturing these movements? In fact, the answer is already within reach. Can I become a broadcaster without appearing on camera? In fact, behind the distinctive personality and realistic image of virtual anchors, there is a real person driving them in real time using motion capture devices; How can the gorilla in 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' be so vivid and lively? Simply place the captured human movements and expressions onto the virtual gorilla; Why can some robots learn to dance like humans? Because motion capture devices can be used to remotely control robots.

I believe everyone has a preliminary understanding of motion capture and is more interested in it. Let's delve into how motion capture is implemented.

To complete motion capture, professional motion capture equipment is required. Firstly, hardware is used to collect motion capture data, such as various actions, three-dimensional spatial position coordinates, six degrees of freedom information, velocity, angle, acceleration, etc. The data information to be collected varies depending on the motion capture object, and the specific information to be collected can also be customized according to needs. After collecting motion capture data, it needs to be put into motion capture software for data calculation, processing, and can also be beautified, adjusted, and modified in the later stage. The processed data can be used to drive virtual images. Many well-known screen images are produced in this way.

Alright, that's all for today's introduction about what motion capture is. I'm CHINGMU. If you have any questions about motion capture, feel free to ask me, and I will answer them all!