![]() ![]() Following this, the process moved to post-production, where Gollum’s face, hands, feet, and facial expressions were animated using Andy Serkis’ performance as a reference. He then recreated his on-set movements while ‘puppeteering’ a digital Gollum. He then went to a mocap studio stage, which is enfitted with numerous cameras used to capture an actor’s movements from all angles. First, Andy Serkis, performed as Gollum, sans mocap suit, on set with other actors. That particular performance was captured in three stages. This allows the team to ‘clean up’ the motion capture data, and refine the movements of the character for the final version.Ī notable example of ‘motion capture’ would be the performance of Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Once the desired performance is achieved, the post-production team then animates the digital character on top of the virtual skeleton within a program such as MotionBuilder. While a lot of people may be aware of the idea of mocap thanks to Hollywood blockbuster productions, fewer may have heard of the term ‘performance capture’, and even fewer would be able to name the differences between ‘performance’ and ‘motion’ capture.Īs we explained in, ‘Motion-Capture 101’, mocap can be described as the process of translating an actor’s movement through a mocap suit into data and then placing this onto a virtual skeleton through software such as GIANT, which mirrors the actor’s movements. How much of the production is a result of the actor versus the role of the post-production team? Is a studio needed to perform motion capture? Is mocap only used in big-budget productions? All of these questions and more result in a lot of misconceptions around mocap. The most common sensors used in IMUs are gyroscopes, magnetometers, and accelerometers.There is a lot of confusion surrounding the process of motion capture. It records movement through IMUs (inertial measurement units), which contain sensors to measure rotational rates. Inertial – This technique doesn’t necessarily need cameras to operate.Whilst more convenient in some ways, it’s generally considered less accurate than its optical or mechanical-tracking alternatives. It relies on depth-sensitive cameras and specialised software in order to track and record moving people and objects. Marker-less – This technique doesn’t require markers of any sort.The markers therefore require a power source. Optical (active) – This technique is exactly the same, but the markers emit light rather than reflect them.Once reflected, the light is used to calculate the position of the markers within a three-dimensional space, and recorded. Optical (passive) – With this technique, retroreflective markers are attached to bodies or objects, and reflect light generated from near the camera lens.Nowadays, there are four main motion capture techniques: The character and technology were created on the fly by Weta Digital’s Bay Raitt. The combination of the character’s voice and intricate facial expressions performed by Andy Serkis resulted in an unforgettable motion-capture performance. Among CG-created characters, The Lord of the Rings’ Gollum is recognised as one of the most impressive Hollywood has ever produced. The film was a flop, but its use of mocap was picked up and expanded on by Peter Jackson in his making of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in the early 2000s.įor the first time ever, actors wearing their bodysuits (complete with retroreflective ping-pong balls) could perform alongside their non-animated colleagues in the same scene. While mocap had been used sparingly in the 1980s and 1990s with films like American Pop (1981) and Cool World (1992), the first film to be used entirely using the technology was Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists (2000). They were also helped by the development of large tracking cameras as useful as they were, however, each was about the size of a fridge. The following decades saw improvements on Harrison’s designs, with bodysuits more accurately recording movement. ![]()
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