Talk:Motion capture

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Contents 1 Spammed Link, What to do? 2 More Merge Talk 3 Advertising?!? 4 Merge with 'Performance capture' 5 History? 6 This article should change its name

[edit] Spammed Link, What to do?

The target of the link to the world records of motion capture has been usurped by WikiSpammers -- an amazing daily rate of edits, and no apparent way to restore a sufficiently-old page to restore sanity even momentarily. Judging by the varying content, it may even be competing spammers.

I was able to navigate to a good page by clicking on the Home tab on the target Wiki, and then World Records tab. But I'm afraid that if I were to update the link on this page, it would lead to the good page being spammed instead, if it were being found due to being linked from here.

Now, these folks at the Motion Capture Society somewhat deserve what they get for running their Wiki so poorly, but I'm not eager to cause them more grief, nor am I eager to remove a link to an otherwise good (if small) site (better than all these commercial links), and yet the link as it is does not serve the reader.

For now, I'm going to annotate the link. I hope someone has a better idea. I hope the people behind the Motion Capture Society get their Wiki act together and block these spammers... Bob Kerns (talk) 18:23, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] More Merge Talk

My feeling is this article should be about motion capture technology and not the use, i.e. the process of digitally capturing real life motion data. Performance capture is an application of motion capture, as gait analysis in biomechanics, as is tracking an object to shoot it down by the military, as is a camera watching an assembly line so a robot can pick it up, etc. I think all the applications should be separate articles, and this article should cover the various technologies and methods, not the implementation by application or industry (save for the other articles). --Peeldog 03:55, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't Merge: Peeldog makes a great argument. Performance capture is an application of motion capture and not motion capture. --Xmurdoch 01:53, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Advertising?!?

It seems to me that the External Links entirely consist of companies supplying mocap products or services — is this in keeping with Wikipedia policy? --OldCommentator 16:13, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, most if not all of the External Links consist of mocap companies and are not keeping with Wikipedia policy (Wikipedia:Neutral point of view). Ramirror 01:13, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the External Links to manufacturers websites should be removed. One compromise would be to create another article entitled "List of Motion Capture Companies". This has been done for a number of other articles. 007patrick 06:29, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

I did not add external links to the edit I just made, but if you want a source for the mention of Disney distributing the Motion Captured film "Christmas Carol", here is an article: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117968136.html?categoryId=13&cs=1

[edit] Merge with 'Performance capture'

• Merge: Absolutely merge. Performance capture is not new nor is it unique. It is motion capture. Very unprofessional marketing from Image Metrics and Phase Space.
• Merge: Extensive article on Motion capture covers the topic nicely. Performance capture is essentially the same thing (with facial capture added).
• I agree completely. In the film industry we use motion capture technology to capture a performance. It makes no difference if points are added to the face; it’s still mocap. This should be folded into the Motion capture article. --OldCommentator 00:47, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
• Don't Merge: Performance is different than canned the same way stage is different than film. Often you will see overlapping components, but the intent is that motion capture is a subset of performance capture. The reason this is relatively new is high power video cards, with dual or quad core computers only recently made real time performance possible. KWCC and PDI did early demonstrations almost 20 years ago, but it has taken two decades for this to become a potential. As far as I know there is not yet a major TV show using live performance capture, although several were tried over the last decade. Let's not write it off yet. Bias of PhaseSpace Optical Motion Capture [1] Tmcsheery 23 March 2006

• Merge: I must beg to differ. In both the film industry and in life sciences research there is no distinction made between "motion" capture and "performance" capture, except that the former is the generally accepted term. Please see: Vicon Peak, MetaMotion, or Motion Analysis.

True, in the early days of "mocap" (as it's now more commonly known), only gross motor movements were captured. As the technology progessed it became possible to capture ever higher resolution spatial data, including finger movements and facial expression. We now routinely output the motion data in real time. On the television show I'm currently on, a director directs two motion-actors while watching their CGI characters interact in real-time on the monitor.--OldCommentator 00:21, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Also, don't forget to sign your comments.--OldCommentator 00:21, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

• Merge As stated before, the terms are often use interchangeably, and Hollywood has not made statements of any sort declaring the two to be seperate techniques. (Although motion capture is used more frequently, as also stated before) ViceroyInterus 02:06, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
• Merge To the layman, these are essetially terms for the same concept. Any minor distinctions between the two should be explained in a single article. ~MDD4696 01:45, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

• Merge I agree that in the feature film business there is a considerable difference between the two - mocap and performance capture. However, I do agree that the two should share the same "space". I am more concerned that the article has some false or at least misguided statements regarding the use of mocap instead of animation. For instance Gollum was largly key frame animated with motion capture used as an underlying layer or reference. I would also venture to say from a politically correct point of view that mocap is used in Computer Graphics production. It has yet to be determined in my mind that if something is mainly "captured" using hardware and software that it can be called animation. And if so, mocap is not part of computer animation, but rather part of computer graphics production.

• Merge. Big Mac is to double hamburger as performance capture is to motion capture. 81.156.138.210 19:43, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

• Don't Merge: Motion capture is the more generic term; performance capture is a specific application of motion capture. As noted in the main article, motion capture has many applications: animation, game development, biomechanics research, virtual environments, robotic control, and more. Motion can be captured without knowing what use will be made of the data. Using the term "performance capture" connotes an artistic or theatrical use and does not give proper recognition to its more hard-science applications. RobertM52 19:49, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Merge As mentioned above any minor distinctions between Performance and Motion capture should be explained in the motion capture entry. "Performance" is a more artistic term favored by actors, some of whom feel uneasy about the success of CGI movies. Use of that term then, may make them feel more comfortable with participating in a CGI project. All I've gathered from the 'don't merge' proponents is that Performance Capture is a good mocap system. 219.101.155.61 03:41, 17 May 2006 (UTC)Matt Smith, Polygon Pictures

Merge: Performance capture is a variant of Motion capture. The concepts are not distinct enough to warrant two articles. Furthermore, the term "performance capture" doesn't describe anything new, as we have been able to capture performance for over 100 years.... Porlob 20:57, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Dont Merge: I see them as seperate. Motion capture deals with capturing motion, which could be a crash test dummy or any other object in motion. Performance capture is the process of capturing an actors performance, and honouring that performance through the process of recreating it digitally in a 3d render. Peeldog 00:22, 5 September 2006 (UTC) Merge: Dah!!

Merge: Performance Capture does capture the motion of actors, objects, props, and the camera, as does Motion Capture. Performance Capture is the name used at ImageMovers studios for their Motion Capture process, while other studios such as House of Moves capture actor's performances with similar Motion Capture techniques without using the term Performance Capture.

[edit] History?

The beginning of the Motion Capture article explains a brief history of Motion Capture in the 70s and 80s. Later in the article there is a section entitled history, where it looks like several different people are trying to claim inventors rights to motion capture in the 80s and 90s. I think that the second history section should be deleted, save for the bit about the Sinbad movie. Comments?

007patrick 01:56, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This article should change its name

Instead of being called Motion capture, it should be called Performance capture. Motion capture is the original and more primitive version of performance capture, which is much more sophisticated. Actors act, they just don't move, which means it is their performance which is captured, not simply their motions. 193.217.195.123 12:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

There are many more applications for motion capture besides animation and film -- medical research, auto engineering, virtual reality, etc. -- all of these applications are capturing motion, not a "performance". Even animation and film are really only capturing motion. Truly capturing a performance would require much more data collection (i.e. audio, texture, lighting, etc.). From the arguments I've seen so far, Performance capture, as the term is used today, seems to be just motion capture and audio recorded at the same time. 24.213.129.138 06:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)