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WRITTEN COMPONENT ENTRY Motion Capture notes.

The VES held an event in August 2008 on educating producers, directors and visual effects professionals on the techniques and software used. The panel consisted of 10 professionals from 10 different companies, entitled “Demystifying Motion Capture Techniques”.

Some quick notes (each speaker was given 10 minutes);

Eyetronics (Nick Tesi)

- Inertial-based system. Occlusion was not an issue, since optics are not involved.

Motion Analysis (Dave Blackburn)

- Using mocap for artistic applications.

Henson Studios (Kerry Shea)

- Development of the Waldo > Henson Digital Puppet System – performers performance for puppets.

Vicon/House of Move (Brian Rausch)

- Technology should never get in the way of performance. Discussed Uncharted Territory. Talked about animation and motion capture working together.

Sony Pictures Imageworks (John Meehan)

- Animation-enhanced motion capture for I Am Legend. Stressed the partnership between animation and mocap at Sony, with focus on I Am Legend.

Giant Studios (Kevin Cushing)

- Stressed their ability to do complex motion capture, including retargeting, in real time. Showed examples of the system in practice on The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. The examples were filmed on set.

Industrial Light and Magic (Mike Sanders)

- Discussed their proprietary iMocap system. Notable point was that they never use motion capture as a 100% solution; but as a starting point for animation. The ILM mocap stage is live all the time so if an animator needs reference for a shot they go down, pull on a suit and perform it themselves. The captured motion is usually ready for the animator when they get back to their desk.

ICT (Paul DeBevec)

- Facial capture. Research resulting in Light Stage technology.

Image Metrics (Patrick Davenport)

- Dedicated to analysis of markerless facial performances. Example of tech involved digital replacement of Marilyn Munroe, in partnership with Double Negative.

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