Motion capture technology used to be only available within the realms of big budget feature films. However, new innovations in technology have massively reduced the costs and made motion capture an exciting new possibility for us to now offer to our clients! 🎉🌟🌟
What's motion capture?
Motion capture (mocap) technology is used to record physical movements and then apply them to a 3D (or 2D) model. Historically, physical motion capture suits (those ones with the white ping pong balls on them) would be used with specialty cameras, and advanced software to create photorealistic animations - like you might see in Planet of the Apes, Lord of the Rings and pretty much all superhero movies!
Movies like Avatar, Polar Express and Tin Tin are 100% reliant on their actor's motion capture performance which they then turn into a realistic and compelling 3D characters.
Almost all big Hollywood blockbuster's now use motion capture technology in some shape. The actor Andy Serkis is perhaps the most well known at this kind of performance.
But motion capture is not just for Hollywood movies!
As the use of motion capture has become more popular so the price point and availability of this tech has dropped. And because of that, Turbine Creative are now working with XSens motion capture technology to provide another innovative service to our clients.
Why should my marketing team consider motion capture?
Because motion capture opens up a whole world of new possibilities within promotional and explainer animations, human movement can be transformed into any character, creature or animal whether that is fictional or a digital recreation of an existing person. Motion capture techniques can also be used to create content for virtual reality and AR applications.
Within the world of health and sports marketing, motion capture can also be used to capture performance data and visualise physiological movement. Motion capture is also a great tool to enhance training and review performance.
If you're interested in exploring how you could use motion capture tools we'd love to chat through your ideas and how this technology could open up new possibiltiies for you.
6 reasons to use motion capture technology
1) It gives massive creative freedom!
Whatever you are looking to create; explainer animations, promotional videos, narrative films, VR or AR experiences - motion capture technology can help elevate the production value through capturing high-fidelity human movements ready for animation.
2) Recreate scenes that are problematic to film. There are some things that may be too challenging for a marketing team to get access to film - a surgical routine, a high security area, a dangerous manufacturing space etc. With motion capture technology you can recreate the scene using 3D location modelling and drop the human performances within that space.
3) Choose any character you like!
With motion capture you can create performances that are fully transferrable onto the character of your choice - any gender, ethnicity, age or species! (whatever you want your creative team to make!).
4) Faster and more natural movements Rather than animating characters by hand, in a long-winded process, just use the mo-cap suit and act out what you want the character to do (this works to create both 3D and 2D characters).
5) Accurately combine 3D and live action You can also combine your motion capture 3D content with live action footage to open up a perfect synchronisation and interaction between 3D characters and real world performances.
6) Record motion capture anywhere! You can record the motion capture performance anywhere. In a studio, in an office, a car park or even on a tow-path down by a river (it works...we tried it!)
Some great examples of motion capture in action!
If you wanted some inspiration on how you could use motion capture check out these great examples of motion capture below including music videos, live x virtual performance and gaming content.
Ed Sheeran - Cross Me
XSens Showreel
AICP Sponsor Reel
Apex Legends - Behind the Scenes
For more information about how our motion capture tools could benefit your marketing campaign content feel free to get in touch here. We'd love to chat through some ideas with you!