Blue Team
Joe Alter
Brent Haley
Madhavi Muppala
Keith Ruston
Vinay Sharma
Final Animation
Planning Sheet
Story Board
Shot list (.doc)
Marker Sets
Marker Sets (flying phase)
Capture Session
Character Setup
Leg Joint Hierarchy
Dynamic Tail Setup
Motion Editing
Motion Blending
Presentation Notes
1. WHAT DID YOU USE MOTION CAPTURE FOR?
For our project we used motion capture to create a short action sequence. In our action sequence an evil looking monster traverses a limited world using a varity of different methods. Using this sequence we are able to visually study the motions and determine those that appear the most natural for our particular creature.
2. WHY WAS MOTION CAPTURE USEFUL FOR THIS? COULD IT HAVE BEEN BETTER ATTEMPTED THROUGH 3D OR 2D ANIMATION?
By using motion capture we were able to rapidly prototype several different methods of travel for our demon in a relatively short time span. While one could argue the existance of a mythical animator, capable of utilizing more traditional approaches to generate superior animations from scratch, the time spent doing so would probably be highly ineffective (and costly). Rather, I think that motion capture provides one with a great vantage point to start from. Once that vantage point has been firmly established other methods, such as keyframming, can then be employed to gain greater control over the animation.
3. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF MAYA TRAX EDITOR vs. MOTIONBUILDER FOR BLENDING MOTIONS
The trax editor embedded within Maya is a powerful tool for blending limited motion into an existing animation. For example, in our work we created clips to control the clenching of the demon's hands. We were then able to place and reuse those clips throughout the entire animation in a non-linear fashion. However, the option to specify a pivot point, like that used in MotionBuilder, appears to be lacking from Maya (there is probably a way to do it, but I didn't find anything when reading the documentation for the trax editor). Without the ability to specify a pivot point it may not be easy to blend between more complicated motions.
4. SHOW THE COMPLETED MOVIES
Shown Above
5. SHORT EXPLANATION OF WHAT WENT RIGHT AND WHAT WENT WRONG. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY IF DOING IT AGAIN?
Our group had significant difficultly due to skeletal differences between our capture subject and our model. To try and address these problems in the future there are a couple of places we could try to do things differently.
To begin with there are some things we could have done differently when capturing the data. For example, we probably should have used an actor closer in stature to the demon then Joe. As thats not a likely option, the next best thing would have been to add props to Joe. To start with he could have worn extensions to lengthen his legs. Also, it probably would have helped to put huge hands on Joe to make sure he kept them far enough away from his body and high enough above the ground. Doing so would have prevented alot of the penetration problems we ran into further down the road. On the bright side of things Joe did an excellent job in crafting alienesque movements for our demon, and even with the problems they still come through.
In addition to changes in the capturing process, there also are some we could have made when applying the motion to the character in MotionBuilder. To start with the demon's skeleton was not in a humanoid t-pose, but rather the t-pose a demon would strike if asked to. As suggested by Brian the MotionBuilder software specifically relies on a humanoid t-pose, so making that change to the skeleton might have helped.
6. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THIS COURSE?
In this course we gained first hand exposure to the motion capture process, and developed an understanding of the pipeline involved with turning raw data into cgi. Although there are obviously a significant number of things that we didn't fully explore, at this point our grasp on the fundamentals of motion capture should be strong enough to easily learn that material on our own.