Mocap - Misunderstandings About Motion Capture

There are several misunderstandings that give people a wrong idea about motion capture. these misunderstandings give them wrong impression and expectations about motion capture. most such misunderstandings or errors commonly stem from those who has never come in contact with the field of motion capture or with the technology itself. But that doesn’t mean people who deal with motion capture do not make mistakes. Those who have but have failed to get a good understanding about motion capture also do make the same mistakes. Let me give you some examples of such misunderstandings and mistakes.



Motion capture makes animators job easier.
It’s a myth to begin with, and no the myth busters haven’t busted it yet. the fact is that motion capture suffered some hard pounding from some animators due to crazily unrealistic expectations (not great expectations).Then again lack of knowledge and oh well good old laziness can make a animators life miserable when it should be a good and fairly easy task.



Motion capture will help save time.
This is debatable. In many cases the opposite has being proved true. how does it happen that way? Well it is the same as looking up a pair of socks from a heap of socks. its time consuming. Dealing with a large number of unorganized files can cause a real headache, and increase the time spent in post production greatly.



Motion capture will help save money.
Again the key word is organizing the project properly. In motion capture time is money. if the project is not organized properly then the time will b more and when the time taken is more the cost of the project is also more. taking actions on the spur of the moment when organizing, cutting too many corners or being blissfully ignorant of the details of the contract can easily increase the budget- well let me see -two times the original cost.



Underestimation of the importance of planning that is needed for the capture session.
Planning is paramount in motion capture. Every single sequence of the project has to b planned and the process details laid out in advance before the project even starts to take shape. Improper planning will lead to problems after problems cropping up during the process of motion capture. If planned on the other hand will ensure smooth and straightforward process insuring effectiveness and efficiency.



Being unorganized during motion capture sessions.
One myth is that motion capture is so easy that being unorganized and being spontaneous is considered acceptable. Its not. Being unorganized during motion capture will be similar to kids running around in the park. This behavior can cause the project to get behind schedule, motions captured improperly and worse forgetting to capture important motions.
Underestimation the importance of using a good motion performer.
What the performer directly reflects in the motion data captured. Therefore it is imperative that the performer does accordingly to what the requirement is. Bottom line – great care must be taken when selecting the performer.



Bad motion data can be fixed after capture session.
Wove a cloth with holes, lots of it, and expect the tailor to mend it while making the shirt. Double job right. The same goes with motion capture. Never mind whether the performer did a bad job or the capturing was poor or the processing was shoddy, fixing it in the post capture stage is a very unwise decision. Forget it. It is better getting right in the first place than going for damage control. Most probably more harm than good will come out of it.