Digital Character Development, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 25

Motion Capture

M

OTION CAPTURE, OFTEN CALLED “performance capture,” is the recording of motion in

the real world through various sampling means to drive the action of a digital character

or representation of a performer. Historically, motion capture is descended from rotoscoping

where the motion of an animated character is derived from the frame-by-frame tracing of pre-

recorded video or lm footage. Motion capture, often simply called mocap, and often jokingly

referred to as “The Devil’s Rotoscope,” is the sensor-based capture of performance motion in

3D. Sensors range from magnetic markers to video and essentially try to keep track of