Understanding Motion Capture (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) [Paperback]

Alberto Menache (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0124906303 | ISBN-13: 978-0124906303 | Publication Date: October 11, 1999 | Edition: 1

Motion capture is one of the most talked about and misunderstood technologies in computer animation because of its rocketing popularity and ambiguous implementation. In Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games, industry insider Alberto Menache tells the complete story of motion capture, examining its technical details as well as its growth as an industry. Menache's narrative voice and in-depth technical discussions allow the reader to not only learn motion capture, but also to understand the reasons behind its successes, failures, and increasing role in blockbuster films, such as Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. With its careful balance between technical analysis and industry trends, Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games is the first book to explore the controversial art and practice of modern character animation using motion capture.

* Provides descriptions of all the mathematical principles associated with motion capture and 3D character mechanics.
* Offers great ideas for character setup that can be used for any character animation, even without the use of captured motion data.
* Includes source code that will help readers write conversion and motion data manipulation programs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the world of computer animation, there is no topic more controversial than motion capture, the technique of isolating the movement of a real person and applying it to a computer-generated character. In Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games, Alberto Menache refrains from siding in the debate. Rather, he tries to educate the reader on how motion capture works, describing the strengths and weaknesses of this powerful but mismarketed technology.

Years of practical experience reveal themselves throughout the book, with concise writing and numerous examples from the commercial world (the passage on the motion capture tests for the Pillsbury Doughboy are worth the cost of the book).

The book describes the history of the technology, how it evolved, and the different types of capture systems that are currently used: optical, electromagnetic, electromechanical, etc.

The most valuable section of the book documents the complete breakdown of a capture session. The first thing to do before starting a project is to decide if motion capture is required, or whether to go with traditional animation. Once motion capture becomes the chosen alternative, a number of factors come into play. These factors, detailed chapter by chapter, include setting up the animated character, choosing the capture system, directing the talent in the suit, understanding the anatomy of both the character and the talent and how the two must relate, and understanding and tweaking the captured data.

Unfortunately, the book has no accompanying CD-ROM. Video examples from capture sessions, along with the animation that is generated from the sessions, would have been a wonderful and educational addition, along with the captured data itself. Also, there is scant material on capturing facial expressions. Still, for any animator, producer, or director with an eye toward using--or at least wanting to understand--motion capture, this book is a must-have. --Mike Caputo

From the Back Cover

Motion capture is one of the most talked about and misunderstood technologies in computer animation because of its rocketing popularity and ambiguous implementation. In Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games, industry insider Alberto Menache tells the complete story of motion capture, examining its technical details as well as its growth as an industry. Menache's narrative voice and in-depth technical discussions allow the reader to not only learn motion capture, but also to understand the reasons behind its successes, failures, and increasing role in blockbuster films, such as Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. With its careful balance between technical analysis and industry trends, Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games is the first book to explore the controversial art and practice of modern character animation using motion capture.

Features

• Provides descriptions of all the mathematical principles associated with motion capture and 3D character mechanics.
  
• Offers great ideas for character setup that can be used for any character animation, even without the use of captured motion data.
  
• Includes source code that will help readers write conversion and motion data manipulation programs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (October 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0124906303
• ISBN-13: 978-0124906303
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,227,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun to read, February 22, 2000

By 

"bookready" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding Motion Capture (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) (Paperback)

Our department is working on Motion Capture research. This book helps us to direct a practical approach on not only academic perspective but also entertainment applicaiton.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, useful, and well written., February 2, 2000

By 

Scott Whitney (USA - Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding Motion Capture (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) (Paperback)

The historical overview in the first half gave an excellent and entertaining background. It tells the stories of various well known motion capture projects so readers can immediately relate to the real world applications of motion capture and understand what sorts of applications will not work. The technical information was well organized and clearly written. This is a must have for anyone considering motion capture as a part of their project! ---Scott Whitney

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide!, December 29, 1999

By 

Albert Hastings (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding Motion Capture (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) (Paperback)

At last a no-nonsense book for both users of the technology and those considering using it in their future productions.

The first half deals with the checkered history of motion capture and it's use and misuse to date. Unfortunately most of the stories fall into the negative vein and concentrate on the cases where the use of motion capture turned out to be a costly mistake, but this is all to the benefit of the reader lest he/she should be aligning themselves to make the same mistakes!

There is good practical advice on how to come out of a motion capture session with useable data and some extremely useful math to allow you to transfer it to your character. If you are using off the shelf software some of this may be superfluous, but if you have the opportunity to supplement it with your own proprietary code it could save you months of work. Either way it is genuinely useful in understanding how raw data can be used to drive a computer generated character.

It is hard to find fault with this book. If there is one it is just that the reader is left wanting more of the invaluable 'war-stories' from those who have used the process in the past, and possibly more recently on projects like 'Titanic' and 'The Mummy', if those studios are willing to divulge the detils. Mr Menache warns that facial motion capture is beyond the range of this text but hints that there may be another one to follow to make up for this. It is comforting to see that he himself ran a motion capture studio for many years, and you can be sure that the sum of his experience is inside the pages.

Just buy it BEFORE you start your production!