The Advance of Markerless Motion Capture Technology and Its Impact on Animation

The motion capture industry has enabled animators to produce realistic and high-quality animations but is still plagued by the need for expensive equipment. Much research has been done to provide accessible and efficient motion capture technologies, as well as develop methods to improve animator efficiency. Advancements in the medical industry have inspired motion capture technologies as kinesiologists are looking for effective ways to better analyze kinematics in the human body. A common goal for a kinesiologist is to obtain a fine-grained understanding of an athlete's motion as well the physics of how their joints are moving to provide feedback towards peak athlete performance. Towards this goal, a fully automated system was developed that takes input videos from an agnostic set of cameras to create a 3D kinematic model unique to the actor and their motion. This originating technology is being transitioned to be usable by the animation industry. During this transition, new features are in development including speeding up processing time and building compatibility for common animation software. The work presented herein describes the challenges, strategy, and impact expected during the transition of a biomechanic inspired motion capture system to the animation industry.

Published

2024-10-21

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

artificial intelligence, computer vision, motion capture, animation, sports science

DOI

10.5594/MOO/3047

ISBN

978-1-61482-965-2