What was once solely a technology-driven industry now sees the creative community, which has become well versed in the possibilities, pushing innovation. See final characters moving with real-time capture data in final environments. Has developed a system that moves data directly into the Unreal game engine to let directors The House of Moves, which offers optical motion capture using as many as 300 Vicon T160s, There are a few new players, such as Digital Domain opening a performance-capture studio at the high end last year, and Microsoft bringing Kinect to Windows at the low end this past February. Vicon and Motion Analysis offer cameras and software systems for optical capture at the high end Giant and House of Moves take those systems, add their own secret sauce, and offer high-end service another group of vendors, notably PhaseSpace and Xsens, offer variations on the capture theme using active markers and accelerometers to capture motion Image Metrics and Mova continue to offer facial-capture services and nipping at all these companies’ heels are vendors offering lower-cost solutions, such as OptiTrack and iPi.

Oddly, given all this acceptance, when you look at the industry from the outside, it seems much as it ever was. There are differences among the vendors, but the concept is standardized.” “People are well versed with what the technology does and how it is used.

“You no longer see people who don’t know what motion capture is,” says Bo Wright, director of Motion Analysis Studios. Indeed, today you can find hundreds of enthusiasts, most using systems professionally, on the Motion Capture Society’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr pages. The 18 million people who have bought Kinect devices for Xboxes since November 2010 might not call it motion capture, but they know they can wave their arms at a computer character and it will wave back. Credit James Cameron for showing people the top of the game with Avatar, and Microsoft for bringing mocap to the masses. After more than 20 years, motion capture has finally achieved mainstream acceptance by professionals in the entertainment industry and by consumers. Break out the champagne, pop the corks, and dance a jig.

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