Line #78 Main/MotionCapture


1	[[quoteright:300:[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pirates22_6178.jpg]]]]
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3	->''"Motion capture is exactly what it says: it's physical moves, whereas performance capture is the entire performance - including your facial performance. If you're doing, say, martial arts for a video game, that is motion capture. This is basically another way of recording an actor's performance: audio, facial and physical."''
4	-->-- '''Creator/AndySerkis'''
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6	%% Quote changed per thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1327331003042025100&page=122
7	%% Please do not change or remove without discussing it in the thread.
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9	Motion Capture (or mo-cap for short) is a relatively new procedure that provides a more realistic alternative to the traditional process of animating a 3D computer-generated character. Depending on the goal (and how well the data translates to the CG character), anywhere from trivial to massive re-animating over top of the mocap data can be required. Motion Capture refers to capturing the movement of the body overall (head, torso, arms, hands, legs and feet), while Performance Capture refers to capturing the facial performance.
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11	For it to work, a performer wears a skin-tight suit with tracking points on it: initially this was done with reflective balls, but technology is now advanced enough that high-contrast black-and-white circles can be tracked with a camera array,[[labelnote:*]]in the picture above, compare the ball on Creator/BillNighy's shoulder with the black-and-white headband[[/labelnote]] although folks tend to talk about [[CommonKnowledge the nylon-suit-with-golf-balls imagery]] since that's a much funnier thing to imagine Creator/GeorgeClooney doing. The dots are placed on articulation and movement points (elbows, feet, knees, head, chest, etc), and an array of cameras track their position and movement. This data can then be applied to one or more CG characters (for example, in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' entire armies were animated this way).
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13	Performance Capture is a similar version that adds small dots applied to an actor's face, allowing a camera (such as one on a boom arm mounted to a cap) to record data on the facial muscles. Performance Capture exists because Motion Capture typically doesn't record facial data, nor fingers and toes. Before this the face was animated traditionally, and extra details not on the actor also need to be simulated or animated: Bill Nighy's tentacles didn't animate themselves!
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15	Motion and Performance Capture have several advantages over traditional animation, namely that it's less time-consuming to give characters incredibly lifelike movement that would take an animator weeks to do. Its limitations are the sheer amount of animation data created (if you need to adjust an arm, you may have to completely redo its animation), and [[UnintentionalUncannyValley it doesn't quite look right in more cartoony art styles]].
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17	{{Rotoscoping}} is the manual, pre-computer version of this process.
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19	Often a domain of the SerkisFolk.
20	----
21	!!Examples
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Advertising]]
26	* Advertising/{{Orangina}} used Motion Capture in their various CGI commercials. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnodhLxo0zA here]] for the "making of" vid.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
30	%% * Creator/RobertZemeckis is fond of this: he used it to create ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse'', ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Beowulf 2007}}'', ''WesternAnimation/AChristmasCarol2009'', and ''WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms''. %% Each example needs to be split into its own example with context.
31	* In ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'', most of the penguins sing, and so have talented singers for voice actors. Mumble, on the other hand, tap dances, so the producers brought in (and credited) famous tap-dancer Savion Glover to do the motion capture just for Mumble.
32	* Several Creator/JimHenson Productions that use CGI characters have used a puppet-like armature covered in sensors, to allow the company's puppeteers to animate the character in real-time using their existing skills; Henson puppeteers regularly perform by watching their own actions on a video monitor. Generally, the low-quality real-time render is redone as a better render afterward.
33	* The [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011 film adaptation of]] ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' is also based on these.
34	* The ballet dancing in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Barbie}}'' movies is this (or at least the earlier ones). (Producer Creator/MainframeEntertainment reused the motion-capture tech for the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', funnily enough.)
35	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Foodfight}}'' was among the first, production wise, animation films to use the tech. However, it wasn't exactly the best. It was noted by the WebVideo/NostalgiaCritic that it seemed as if the characters' expressed themselves mostly through awkwardly waving their arms, and it's more akin to watching [[Franchise/StarWars C-3PO]] suffer a seizure. Spending ten years in DevelopmentHell meant that it looked kind of dated compared to later films that used motion capture successfully.
36	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}: The Legend Reborn'', produced by the same guys as ''Foodfight'', contains a few scenes of this, but are pulled off much more effectively than that film.
37	* A few background characters in ''WesternAnimation/{{Barnyard}}'' were done this way.
38	* The guitar playing in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' was animated this way.
39	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan 2013}}'' is animated through the motion of actors.
40	[[/folder]]
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42
43	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
44	* One cannot even mention Motion Capture without Creator/AndySerkis, who played Gollum with much acclaim in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Film/TheHobbit'' film adaptations, as well as King Kong in ''Film/KingKong2005'' and Caesar in the ''Film/{{Rise\|OfThePlanetOfTheApes}}'', ''Film/{{Dawn\|OfThePlanetOfTheApes}}'' and ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes''. In all cases, the detailed motion capture performance was completed with the help of hand animation for the face and fingers, based on footage of Andy's performance.
45	* Everything in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' is mocaped, or like Creator/JamesCameron likes to call it, "performance captured", which means full body movement including facial muscles and the eyes without any additional animation.
46	* ''Film/JurassicPark'' did this for some of the dinosaur shots after they decided to go with CGI instead of stop-motion. The puppeteer crew was kept on and essentially did motion capture puppeteering: they made dinosaur armatures connected to servos, which animated the dinosaurs on the computers. This was done to ease the jarringness of transferring to CG for mostly stop motion animators.
47	* The Martians in ''Film/JohnCarter''. Interestingly enough, the film was directed by Andrew Stanton (whose old company, Creator/{{Pixar}}, wasn't very big on the process).
48	* Pictured above, Bill Nighy in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movies, playing ruthless and [[YourSoulIsMine devilish]] captain Davy Jones.
49	* In ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' director Ang Lee himself "played" the Hulk via motion capture.
50	* Used InUniverse in ''Film/GrudgeMatch'', where Razor and Kid both get motion captured for a boxing video game.
51	* Creator/RosaSalazar portrays the titular character using this technique in ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel''.
52	* Creator/AhmedBest as Jar-Jar Binks in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' Prequel Trilogy was the TropeMaker. The technology and the program coding was created almost from the ground-up for him.
53	[[/folder]]
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55	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
56	* From 1995 though 1998, there was a satellite TV channel showing a bingo program called ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kobunPimqjg Basil Basset Bingo]]'', hosted by the titular Basil. Bizarrely enough, Basil himself was [[PropRecycling reused]] for ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpoWbUrfZM Macaroni tout garni]]'', a Québécois kids show.
57	* "Cyber Lucy", the hostess for the short-lived 1997-98 [[YoungerAndHipper kids version]] of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', ''[[Title2000 Wheel 2000]]'', was a CGI creation portrayed via motion capture by actress Tanika Ray.
58	* This trope is oddly OlderThanTheyThink. The spectacularly-failed[[note]]as in "effectively cancelled halfway through the premier"[[/note]] sketch comedy Series/TurnOn from 1969 used a very rudimentary analogue version of mocap to create a computer generated dancer for the insert segments, that, in-show, was to appeal to the computer that was ostensibly scripting the show. This was achieved by a rig that the dancer wore that could translate her movements to the computer dancer sprite shown on screen. It could only get gross movements and couldn't do rapid movements well, so she had to alter her usual dancing performance to compensate by making it broader and slower.
59	[[/folder]]
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61	[[folder:Music Videos]]
62	* Kraftwerk's Musique Non Stop video was mocaped.
63	[[/folder]]
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65	[[folder:Theatre]]
66	* In the original Broadway production of ''Theatre/ShrekTheMusical'', this was how the Magic Mirror's face was portrayed on the stage.
67	[[/folder]]
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69	[[folder:Video Games]]
70	%%Entries should be made in chronological order%%
71	* More and more common in video games, especially {{Fighting Game}}s. Incredibly helpful to make 3D martial arts maneuvers look authentic to have an actual martial artist recording said maneuvers. Granted, there's some problems if the move's mapped onto someone drastically different from the attacker or defender, but adds a little verisimilitude.
72	* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' (1989) - credited by the Guiness Book of World Records for first use of motion capture in a video game, albeit via rotoscoping.
73	* The Interplay adaption of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' was motion captured in the cheapest, most primitive way imaginable. For example, Gandalf was 'played' by one of the developers wearing a bathrobe, sombrero, and Santa Claus beard.
74	* ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden NFL Football]]'' 1994
75	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Some of Link's stunts were done with motion capture.
76	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' used motion captured animations in the Zelda series for the first time since 1998. The motion capture is especially evident in cutscenes.
77	* Experimented with in the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid VR Missions'' add-on (2000), brought into all later games in the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, with Creator/HideoKojima directing the actors as if it were a movie.
78	** Nearly caused problems when, during the development of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' (2001), Kojima's son (who had been taken into the studio by his father so he could have company) toddled onto the set, picked up a prop sword and started poking the reflective dots on the motion capture actors' suits with it.
79	** During development of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' (2008), the additional time needed to render the cutscenes meant the voice actors had to sync along with camera-recorded motion capture footage instead - weirdly enough, it improved performance. Facial motion capture was also used for the first time, and to great effect.
80	** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' had the voice actors perform their own facial and motion capture, blending in some InkSuitActor elements to make the characters feel more plausible.
81	* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'' has Mokap, a motion capture actor as an actual playable character.
82	* Capcom's ''VideoGame/ClockTower3'' uses motion capture in its cut scenes.
83	* ''VideoGame/{{Primal}}'' (2003) When it works, it works really well. A couple of times it seems to be wildly overdone, perhaps to draw attention to the fact that it's motion capture.
84	* ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'' (2003) had all actor's movements, combos and speech mo-capped. This resulted in the very smooth movements, unfortunately overshadow by graphics, obsolete even by 2003 standards.
85	* ''VideoGame/GhostHunter'' (2003)
86	** They even seem to have captured Michael Gambon's characteristic stoop.
87	* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' (2003) had Creator/ReubenLangdon, Daniel Southworth, and Stephanie Cheeva mocap as Dante, Vergil, and Lady respectively.
88	** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' (2008) had Reuben reprise as Dante, while Creator/JohnnyYongBosch was Nero's mocap actor.
89	* ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'' (2007), ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' (2009) and ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'' (2011), although Naughty Dog still insists on doing facial animation manually. They are continuing the trend with ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''.
90	* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'' (2007) and its expansion ''Soviet Assault'' use motion-capture for cutscenes; some raw footage of motion-capture sessions plays over the credits with the final cutscene next to it for comparison.
91	* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderUnderworld'' (2008) used motion capture of gymnast Heidi Moneymaker for Lara's acrobatics.
92	** ''Underworld'' is the first of the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games to use motion capture.
93	** Ironically, quite a few players complain about Heidi's ...I mean Lara's incredibly fast movement looking jerky.
94	* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' (2010): All major character's performances are fully mocap, including the face and the eyes, just like in ''Film/{{Avatar}}''.
95	* For ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', MMA fighter Bas Rutten was used as the motion actor for Niko's martial arts. Bas was also given a cameo as himself in one of the in-game TV shows.
96	* This was used for ''VideoGame/LANoire'' to help achieve detailed emotions on characters faces.
97	* ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' used this for facial expressions in cutscenes.
98	* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'' onward make extensive use of [=MoCap=] for cutscene animations, both body and face.
99	* ''Videogame/BeyondTwoSouls'' (2013), another David Cage game just like VideoGame/HeavyRain, also used full motion capture and starred Creator/ElliotPage and Creator/WillemDafoe as ink suit actors.
100	* The original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' used motion capture, including the player character's attack animations. One of the major criticisms of the game was battles felt clunky and slow due to the "weight" the animations had behind them plus their animation locks (though this was just one of many problems the game had). After the game was rebooted, the majority of cutscenes used generic animations while the more important main story cutscenes tended to use mocap animations.
101	* ''VideoGame/MidnightFightExpress'' (Summer 2022), an indie beat-em-up brawler that uses motion capture for a large majority of the attacks/skills/counters. Creator/EricJacobus and his company were [[https://youtu.be/89ZSOi8Tt9M the ink suit actors.]]
102	* ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2021'' used Motion Capture for pretty much everything. This included Cosmo and his pups, meaning they put dogs in a mocap suits.
103	* Creator/MaggieRobertson provided both the voice and motion capture of StatuesqueStunner Lady Alcina Dimitrescu in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'', helped by Robertson being pretty tall herself (she's 6').
104	[[/folder]]
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106	[[folder:Web Animation]]
107	* WebAnimation/RedVsBlue: starting in Season 8, battle sequences started being done using motion capture (including most of Episode 10). Seasons 9 and 10 furthered the motion capture work with all of the Freelancer scenes being entirely motion capture.
108	[[/folder]]
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110	[[folder:Webcomics]]
111	* In-universe in ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'': Part of Sandra's job as the new model for Carmen Chamelia is to do motion capture for the new ''Carmen Chamelia'' game.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Western Animation]]
115	* This sorta fits in some computer-animated college demo reels.
116	** The one from 2006, [[https://ia601009.us.archive.org/14/items/bigdog2stupid_gmail/web%20friendly%20reel.mp4 in particular,]] has a female character with unnatural Jigglepsychics, which explains why the animator tried so far to use her expressions. But the next half which shows the models have the same girl except different [[BoobsandButtPose boob and butt size]]; albeit the latter much larger than her breast themselves; plus the posture and color schemes. Even the [[http://web.archive.org/web/20120315222227if_/http://www.gradshow.com/gallery/2006/digital/ChristouVangelis.jpg profile picture is different from the demo reel itself]] in which her boobs much bigger; probably resembling more of [[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia The Prince]] and [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]].
117	* The ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' cartoon used this for the animation process.
118	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMoxyShow'' was a ''very'' early AllCGICartoon by Creator/CartoonNetwork. Moxy himself had his first appearance was in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmrDVqu85gg this]] Creator/{{TBS}} cartoon special, which he was rendered in real time, making it among the first TV shows to use mo-cap.
119	* The humans in ''WesternAnimation/JaneAndTheDragon'' were animated this way at Peter Jackson's Weta Digital in New Zealand.
120	* The planes' faces in ''WesternAnimation/JayJayTheJetPlane'' were animated this way.
121	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tigtone}}'' is a groundbreaking example of using motion capture for ''2D'' animation, with digitally painted characters whose mouth movements and facial expressions are controlled by motion capture acting. Since the characters don’t move in three dimensions, the face actor for each performance not only wears motion capture dots on their face, but must also sit in a special reclining chair which immobilizes their head so they are always facing straight into the camera positioned above.
122	* Several of Mike Young Productions/Splash Entertainment's [=CGI=] productions -- such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Bratz}}'', ''WesternAnimation/JakersTheAdventuresOfPiggleyWinks'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures]]'' -- have mixed this technique with traditional [=CGI=] animation (with the motion capture performers being credited as "character performance artists").
123	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / MotionCapture