Computer Animation, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6

Motion Capture

Creating physically realistic motion using techniques involving key frames, forward kinematics, or inverse kinematics is a daunting task. In the previous chapters, techniques to move articulated linkages are covered, but they still require a large amount of animator talent in order to make an object move as in the real world. There is a certain quality about physically correct motion that we are all aware of, and it only takes a small deviation from that quality to make what is supposed to be realistic movement quite distracting. As a result, it is often easier to record movement of a real object and map it onto a synthetic object than it is for the animator to craft realistic-looking motion. The recording and mapping ...