With all of that visual data, animators can duplicate lifelike facial movements and emotions. Too much movement makes it harder for MotionScan to detect minute facial details.Īfter the actor is done performing, game producers can select views generated by many cameras at many different angles. The director may occasionally remind performers to remain relatively still. All of this adds up to a major technological accomplishment, and, as you'll see, it's one that takes a lot of work to set up. This processed data can then be applied to a digital puppet that animators manipulate with great precision.

These servers power animation software that interprets the video feeds, immediately creating animated textures and shapes that correspond to the actor's movements, all the while keeping images and sounds perfectly synchronized. The cameras send their data to nine powerful computer servers, which can each process about 300 megabytes per second. That adds up to about 1 gigabyte of data per second. The cameras are meticulously positioned in pairs at specific spots all around, above and below the actor in order to capture all of the nuances of human head and facial movements at up to 30 frames per second. Producers use 32 high-definition (2-megapixel) cameras that cost around $6,000 each in fact, they're the same cameras used by NASA to record space shuttle launches. MotionScan is different from regular motion-capture tech because it records so many angles simultaneously, creating a 3-D image on every take. As you'll see on the next page, this is no easy task.

It does so by capturing facial features of performing actors that clearly show the difference between, for instance, disgust and happiness, curiosity and disinterest, and other indicators of a character's emotional state. įirst introduced to the public in early 2010, MotionScan technology aims to create animated characters that convey readable body language. We're able to recognize about 250,000 facial expressions and depend on visual body language for up to 65 percent of our interactions with other people. But these animations often lack accurate human body language and facial expressions.įor game designers, this is a major problem because humans are driven by body language. In effect, the animators become puppeteers of sorts, moving the character through scripted scenes. With the help of powerful software, animators overlay this puppet with whatever wacky and imaginative animated character they like. Later, animators can use these recordings to create a digital skeleton or puppet that moves just like the actor. The backgrounds are blank, so that the cameras record the actor's performance without any distracting extraneous objects that would clutter the recording or throw off the movement-tracking process. Those markers help the cameras track and record the actor's movements as he moves in front of the backgrounds, which are called blue screens or green screens.

Actors in front of blank blue or green backgrounds, don tight-fitting suits studded with little markers (often resembling golf balls) that cameras recognize. If you've ever watched behind-the-scenes outtakes of animated movies or films that blend animated characters with live action, such as ' The Lord of the Rings,' you might recognize part of the motion-capture process. With MotionScan facial animation technology, created by an Australian tech company called Depth Analysis, gamers will be seeing character facial expressions that are truer to life than ever before.įacial animation technology is a specialized version of motion capture technology, which for years has been used to add all sorts of special animation effects to movies.

Motion capture in games