3D animation is used in both the gaming and filming industry; creating realism through animation has become the focus of today’s entertainment. Such memorable characters like Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, or the gorgeous landscape and incredible creatures in John Cameron’s Avatar, were all created using 3D animation.
Avatar was possibly the greatest breakthrough for realistic animation; a whole new technology was developed for accurate depiction of muscle movement in the non-human Na’vi.
One of the more difficult aspects of 3D animation is the motion capture. Currently, actors have to wear a skin-tight suits with infrared markers attached to them. The sensors send out signals to a special camera system, which captures the human movement and can later be transferred to a virtual character. The suits the actors must wear are uncomfortable and inhibit natural movement because the sensors get in the way.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany, have developed a technology that may be able to eliminate the uncomfortable suit altogether. Because this is a new technology, and patented, not very many details are known about the science of how it works. However, this new method will allow actors to be filmed in their normal clothes, and the software will analyze their movements and transfer the information onto a virtual character in the form of a skeleton. The other benefit to this method, is that the need for special cameras is eliminated.
If this new technology were to be implemented on an international scale, costs that go into buying the special cameras and the suits would be eliminated.
And just because I love stick figure animation:
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