An in-depth guide to the process of digitizing motions from the acquisitions stages all the way to the animation enhancement and file integration phases. Provides step-by-step instructions, practical exercises and illustrated examples of the different steps of the mocap process that include acquisition, tracking, solving, integration, animation and motion mixing. This edition covers a Cortex to Motion Builder to Maya motion capture pipeline.
Make motion capture part of your graphics and effects arsenal. This introduction to motion capture principles and techniques delivers a working understanding of today's state-of-the-art systems and workflows without the arcane pseudocodes and equations. Learn about the alternative systems, how they have evolved, and how they are typically used, as well as tried-and-true workflows that you can put to work for optimal effect. Demo files and tutorials provided on the downloadable resources deliver first-hand experience with some of the core processes.
Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation discusses the latest technology developments in digital design, film, games, medicine, sports, and security engineering. Motion capture records a live-motion event and translates it into a digital context. It is the technology that converts a live performance into a digital performance. In contrast, performance animation is the actual performance that brings life to the character, even without using technology. If motion capture is the collection of data that represents motion, performance animation is the character that a performer represents. The book offers extensive information about motion capture. It includes state-of-the-art technology, methodology, and developments in the current motion-capture industry. In particular, the different ways to capture motions are discussed, including using cameras or electromagnetic fields in tracking a group of sensors. This book will be useful for students taking a course about digital filming, as well as for anyone who is interested in this topic. - Completely revised to include almost 40% new content with emphasis on RF and Facial Motion Capture Systems - Describes all the mathematical principles associated with motion capture and 3D character mechanics - Helps you budget by explaining the costs associated with individualized motion capture projects
A compilation of key chapters from the top MK computer animation books available today - in the areas of motion capture, facial features, solid spaces, fluids, gases, biology, point-based graphics, and Maya. The chapters provide CG Animators with an excellent sampling of essential techniques that every 3D artist needs to create stunning and versatile images. Animators will be able to master myriad modeling, rendering, and texturing procedures with advice from MK's best and brightest authors. Divided into five parts (Introduction to Computer Animation and Technical Background, Motion Capture Techniques, Animating Substances, Alternate Methods, and Animating with MEL for MAYA), each one focusing on specific substances, tools, topics, and languages, this is a MUST-HAVE book for artists interested in proficiency with the top technology available today! Whether you're a programmer developing new animation functionality or an animator trying to get the most out of your current animation software, Computer Animation Complete: will help you work more efficiently and achieve better results. For programmers, this book provides a solid theoretical orientation and extensive practical instruction information you can put to work in any development or customization project. For animators, it provides crystal-clear guidance on determining which of your concepts can be realized using commercially available products, which demand custom programming, and what development strategies are likely to bring you the greatest success. - Expert instruction from a variety of pace-setting computer graphics researchers. - Provides in-depth coverage of established and emerging animation algorithms. - For readers who lack a strong scientific background, introduces the necessary concepts from mathematics, biology, and physics. - A variety of individual languages and substances are addressed, but addressed separately - enhancing your grasp of the field as a whole while providing you with the ability to identify and implement solutions by category.
Many are familiar with Andy Serkis’s groundbreaking motion capture role as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings film series. But motion capture has come a long way since it first began! This title introduces the technology behind motion capture, using many of today’s most popular movies as examples. Special features highlight famous uses of motion capture, and pioneer profiles introduce some of the most influential mocap filmmakers in history. This high-interest title is sure to capture the attention of readers!
A unique guide to creative shutter speed techniques, illustrated with striking full-color examples Along with available light and aperture, shutter speed is one of the variables that determine exposure–the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor. Set on automatic modes, cameras typically attempt to reduce or eliminate blur in a picture. But by manipulating shutter speed creatively, photographers can achieve a range of striking motion blur or stop-action effects. Using an array of inspiring photographs depicting people, wildlife, and landscapes, Creative Power of Shutter Speed explains how to "read" the light and movement in a potential photograph and identify the best shutter speed for the desired effect.
This is the first book which informs about recent progress in biomechanics, computer vision and computer graphics – all in one volume. Researchers from these areas have contributed to this book to promote the establishment of human motion research as a multi-facetted discipline and to improve the exchange of ideas and concepts between these three areas. The book combines carefully written reviews with detailed reports on recent progress in research.
Animating with Stop Motion Pro is comprehensive, hands-on guide to achieving professional results with Stop Motion Pro 7.0 software. Gone are the days of stop motion guesswork and waiting to see the finalized result of your meticulous, labor intensive animations. With the push of a mouse button and the Stop Motion Pro software, animators have ten times the capability of simple camera stop motion capture. Re-visualize stop motion character movements, graph these movements and composite characters into a flawless animations with the techniques and step by step tutorials featured in Animating with Stop Motion Pro. Detailed exercises allow you to develop professional animations with the included free trial of Stop Motion Pro 7.0.
Internet of things (IoT) is an emerging research field that is rapidly becoming an important part of our everyday lives including home automation, smart buildings, smart things, and more. This is due to cheap, efficient, and wirelessly-enabled circuit boards that are enabling the functions of remote sensing/actuating, decentralization, autonomy, and other essential functions. Moreover, with the advancements in embedded artificial intelligence, these devices are becoming more self-aware and autonomous, hence making decisions themselves. Current research is devoted to the understanding of how decision support systems are integrated into industrial IoT. Decision Support Systems and Industrial IoT in Smart Grid, Factories, and Cities presents the internet of things and its place during the technological revolution, which is taking place now to bring us a better, sustainable, automated, and safer world. This book also covers the challenges being faced such as relations and implications of IoT with existing communication and networking technologies; applications like practical use-case scenarios from the real world including smart cities, buildings, and grids; and topics such as cyber security, user privacy, data ownership, and information handling related to IoT networks. Additionally, this book focuses on the future applications, trends, and potential benefits of this new discipline. This book is essential for electrical engineers, computer engineers, researchers in IoT, security, and smart cities, along with practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in all aspects of industrial IoT and its applications.
Motion capture is a technique for recording a performance and then translating it into mathematical terms. Animating motion is critical for the development of applications such as animation, virtual environments and video games. Character animation is the process by which natural movements are modelled and digitized so that digital character movements appear as natural as possible. There are three approaches to character animation: keyframe animation, motion capture, and simulation.
