Motion capture technologies are becoming an increasingly staple part of the computer animator’s toolkit. Animation has come a long way from the days of drawing every single frame by hand. Now, computers lie at the heart of the process, helping to make animation more fast-paced and fluid. The animators of today are often more capable with the mouse than with the pen, and can create much more accomplished end products as a result. Without the innovation, and the consistent development of motion capture technologies, it would have been less possible to achieve these results for the same cost.
There are a good many advantages to utilizing motion capture technology. These primarily lie in the entertainments industries, and with the animation of characters or features in movies. While there are numerous other applications for motion capture technologies, the entertainments side is where most of these advantages are directly felt.
Motion capture technologies are becoming an increasingly staple part of the computer animator’s toolkit. Animation has come a long way from the days of drawing every single frame by hand. Now, computers lie at the heart of the process, helping to make animation more fast-paced and fluid. The animators of today are often more capable with the mouse than with the pen, and can create much more accomplished end products as a result. Without the innovation, and the consistent development of motion capture technologies, it would have been less possible to achieve these results for the same cost.
There are a good many advantages to utilizing motion capture technology. These primarily lie in the entertainments industries, and with the animation of characters or features in movies. While there are numerous other applications for motion capture technologies, the entertainments side is where most of these advantages are directly felt.
Motion Capture Technology Is More Cost-Effective
Motion capture technology saves a lot of time, and in these industries, time is money. The more time it takes to animate a sequence, the more it is going to cost in terms of paying for the specialized skills of animators and visual artists. With motion capture, there are still jobs for these people to do. But they are made significantly more efficient through the use of these types of technologies. This translates into making cost savings over the lifetime of animation projects, which can be used to pay for improvements in other areas of the production. With motion capture, you can set up the system and run for hours, capturing a wide range of movements to make for easier animation. This is much more cost-effective than having someone undergo manual animation processes, which can take much longer to happen.
Motion Capture Technology Provides More Realistic Animation
As if the time and labor efficiencies that come from motion capture were not enough, there is also the technical benefit to consider – namely, that motion capture technologies allow for a more realistic animation of motion. Whether it is a person, an animal, or some other moving object, motion capture will more accurately track the dynamics of the movement to provide a more realistic, more authentic appearance. More sophisticated systems will invariably produce better results. But it is not solely the motion capture technology that will make or break a video game or a special effect – the animation and visual art surrounding the motion must also be of a good standard to reflect the real benefits of this kind of software.
Most animation teams now have access to this kind of technology, and while the capital costs can still be significant, it is a worthwhile investment to make. Those who can integrate these systems within their animation studios are on the path to producing better animation, more fluid graphics, and ultimately a better end result from their animations.
Motion capture technology has a crucial part to play in the wider business of animating and synthesizing natural movement. When this corresponds with effective creative visuals, and robust back-end programming, the results become even more impressive and far-reaching. While the technology has been developing for several decades, there remains room for improving the realism and the feel of the output from these motion capture systems. But in terms of the cost and time efficiencies it brings, not to mention the improvements in visual quality, motion capture artists can expect to benefit from these systems for many years to come.
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