 Featuring essential resources for professionals and students in many areas of media and mass communications, Focal Press books keep you up-to-date and demystify ever-changing technologies to help you gain success. Check out the Focal Press store. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
". provides a comprehensive motion capture foundation for 3D artists at any level of experience. It's well organized, interesting, and articulate... I'm making it required reading for our technical directors!" - Michael McCormick, co-Founder/director, Pendulum ". clearly explains the motion editing concepts and techniques one needs . a great resource for animators .." - Bill Lorton, senior software engineer, Giant Studios "From the history of the technology to practical examples of how to plan for and work directly with the data, this book is an excellent resource .." - Demian Gordon, chairman, Motion Capture Society; motion capture supervisor, Sony Pictures, Imageworks
Product Description
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 companion CD deliver first-hand experience with some of the core processes. This title includes: an accessible introduction to motion capture principles and techniques that does not require a computer science background; survey of the state-of-the-art hardware and software tools, workflows and techniques; and, a CD with sample motion capture data, clips, scripts, and Maya/Motion Builder tutorials.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Really easy to read! Very easy to understand and gain good practical ideas for the mocap beginner like me! Thanks
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Great book on motion capture process
7 May 2008
Format:Paperback
This is a great book on motion capture process and is a must read for producers wanting to use motion capture and tech artists and animators that want to understand how to get usable data from a shoot and on to their final characters. Any project that plans on useing or is currently useing mocap should have a copy of this book and make it required reading for all project leads.
The parts of the book that deal with MotionBuilder and the tutorials that take readers through re-targeting and editing of skeleton data are unfortunately out of date and in some places give the reader a workflow that is not practical in production; most of what is show has been replaced completely with tool updates or better editing techniques over last few years.
That said, The ideas for how to pick a blend point and the hows and whys of doing the editing and re-targeting are very valuable. Also the optical cleaning chapter is good with regards to the tools and issues both in and out of MotionBuilder and the rest of the book is well written.
The parts of the book that deal with MotionBuilder and the tutorials that take readers through re-targeting and editing of skeleton data are unfortunately out of date and in some places give the reader a workflow that is not practical in production; most of what is show has been replaced completely with tool updates or better editing techniques over last few years.
That said, The ideas for how to pick a blend point and the hows and whys of doing the editing and re-targeting are very valuable. Also the optical cleaning chapter is good with regards to the tools and issues both in and out of MotionBuilder and the rest of the book is well written.
Motion capture or MoCap An eye opener
15 Dec 2008
Format:Paperback
Authors Midori Kitagawa and Brian Windsor start their introduction in the book "MoCap for Artists: Work flow and Techniques for Motion Capture" with ..... Is a book written for artist, educators, and students who want to create 3D animation for film and games using mocap technology.
In 230 pages they cover the mature and intricate field of motion capture Starting with an overview and history of Motion Capture from the late 19th century to the present day, with a description of Mocap types (optical, magnetic and mechanical). Then they explain the various steps required for pre-production, production and post production of the Mocap process. A pipeline is defined that includes:
* Setting up a skeleton for a 3D character
* System and subject calibration
* Capture session
* Cleaning and editing the data
* Applying the Mocap data to the 3D character
* Rendering the animation and post production
Various chapters cover in detail the above steps. Then hand and facial motion capture is covered along with a full chapter on Puppetry capture. There is a chapter on mocap data and math that look at mocap data generation, data types and formats commonly used in mocap (C3D, ASF/AMC,BVH,FBX), and mathematical definitions and concepts that frequently appear in mocap and other areas of 3D computer graphics and animation. Mathematical topics covered in this chapter are coordinates and coordinate systems, order of transformation, Euler angles, gimbals lock, and quaternion's.
I wish the book included a brief description of the tools and commercial software available out there like: 3D Studio Max Biped, Motion Builder, Life forms, Diva, Endorphin Gypsy and Massive, not to mention the vast array of LipSync software for lips movement and speech synchronization. And since it is a book for artists and the mimicking of human motion and applying the Mocap data on 3D characters (mostly Human 3D models).I would have liked to read about " the uncanny valley" . I leave it to the reader to discover what" the uncanny valley" is.
All in all "MoCap for Artists: Work flow and Techniques for Motion Capture" is a great book for anyone interested in learning about the ins and outs of mocap. After all there are not many books on Mocap and this one is a real life saver.
Originally posted :
[...]
In 230 pages they cover the mature and intricate field of motion capture Starting with an overview and history of Motion Capture from the late 19th century to the present day, with a description of Mocap types (optical, magnetic and mechanical). Then they explain the various steps required for pre-production, production and post production of the Mocap process. A pipeline is defined that includes:
* Setting up a skeleton for a 3D character
* System and subject calibration
* Capture session
* Cleaning and editing the data
* Applying the Mocap data to the 3D character
* Rendering the animation and post production
Various chapters cover in detail the above steps. Then hand and facial motion capture is covered along with a full chapter on Puppetry capture. There is a chapter on mocap data and math that look at mocap data generation, data types and formats commonly used in mocap (C3D, ASF/AMC,BVH,FBX), and mathematical definitions and concepts that frequently appear in mocap and other areas of 3D computer graphics and animation. Mathematical topics covered in this chapter are coordinates and coordinate systems, order of transformation, Euler angles, gimbals lock, and quaternion's.
I wish the book included a brief description of the tools and commercial software available out there like: 3D Studio Max Biped, Motion Builder, Life forms, Diva, Endorphin Gypsy and Massive, not to mention the vast array of LipSync software for lips movement and speech synchronization. And since it is a book for artists and the mimicking of human motion and applying the Mocap data on 3D characters (mostly Human 3D models).I would have liked to read about " the uncanny valley" . I leave it to the reader to discover what" the uncanny valley" is.
All in all "MoCap for Artists: Work flow and Techniques for Motion Capture" is a great book for anyone interested in learning about the ins and outs of mocap. After all there are not many books on Mocap and this one is a real life saver.
Originally posted :
[...]
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A CLEAR approach to understanding Motion Capture: Systems and Applications
18 Sep 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Where does the dancer end and the dance begin?"
Great Line for late coffee house discussions and also a fundamental question for new - possibly undiscovered - disciplines. If you are an animator, illustrator, dancer, game designer, film maker, video dude, or an all around artist - then the book's content and attractions are pretty obvious. But there is a LOT MORE...
This book is just a STARTING place for new MoCap related technology waves. If you are an engineer, an athlete, a medical researcher, a medical product developer, or are someone concerned about quality of life issues for an aging population, then you NEED to understand current MoCap technologies and how to use them.
If there are negative aspects - then its a "turn off" that the MoCap process is presented using (very) expensive tools and software. But that is how technology works: something revolutionary starts out expensive and is the province of a "chosen few" - like IT was in the '60s/70s. MoCap software and tools are going to get more affordable: FAST. (It will add some difficulty in absorbing the material if you are not familiar with these tools.)
In the 60s/70s, I wanted to play on the university computing system but the (then) High Gods of University Computing did not let "peon students" have unfettered access to the systems... Well... these days my 9 and 10 year old children do systems and IT maintenance. My last computer purchase was a $599, 4g DDR, Quad (2.1G) core PC that - I believe - would out perform the total of ALL COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE THAT EXISTED in 1970. Point is that MoCap systems cost will drop. The APPLICATIONS will explode - and you MUST start somewhere.....
You should buy this book... Get a sense of where things are headed.... In technology, you come in early - and then start to apply the concepts to an exploding sea of applications - far beyond the immediate artistic implementation. If you are going to techno surf - then this is a good place to start....
You may know all about the Wii... Motion Capture was also used, for example, in the last Olympics to analyze Olympian's bicycle motion - and then provide the DETAIL to make SUBSTANTIAL training improvements... You may be able to use those same MoCap systems as a consumer in the very near future.. the list of applications goes on and on...
As as systems designer, I get to see very early on how some technologies just diffuse everywhere.. MoCap is one of those core technologies that apply to robotics, medical/fitness systems, motion analysis, communications, or even the book's initial target application of entertainment.
Great Line for late coffee house discussions and also a fundamental question for new - possibly undiscovered - disciplines. If you are an animator, illustrator, dancer, game designer, film maker, video dude, or an all around artist - then the book's content and attractions are pretty obvious. But there is a LOT MORE...
This book is just a STARTING place for new MoCap related technology waves. If you are an engineer, an athlete, a medical researcher, a medical product developer, or are someone concerned about quality of life issues for an aging population, then you NEED to understand current MoCap technologies and how to use them.
If there are negative aspects - then its a "turn off" that the MoCap process is presented using (very) expensive tools and software. But that is how technology works: something revolutionary starts out expensive and is the province of a "chosen few" - like IT was in the '60s/70s. MoCap software and tools are going to get more affordable: FAST. (It will add some difficulty in absorbing the material if you are not familiar with these tools.)
In the 60s/70s, I wanted to play on the university computing system but the (then) High Gods of University Computing did not let "peon students" have unfettered access to the systems... Well... these days my 9 and 10 year old children do systems and IT maintenance. My last computer purchase was a $599, 4g DDR, Quad (2.1G) core PC that - I believe - would out perform the total of ALL COMPUTERS WORLDWIDE THAT EXISTED in 1970. Point is that MoCap systems cost will drop. The APPLICATIONS will explode - and you MUST start somewhere.....
You should buy this book... Get a sense of where things are headed.... In technology, you come in early - and then start to apply the concepts to an exploding sea of applications - far beyond the immediate artistic implementation. If you are going to techno surf - then this is a good place to start....
You may know all about the Wii... Motion Capture was also used, for example, in the last Olympics to analyze Olympian's bicycle motion - and then provide the DETAIL to make SUBSTANTIAL training improvements... You may be able to use those same MoCap systems as a consumer in the very near future.. the list of applications goes on and on...
As as systems designer, I get to see very early on how some technologies just diffuse everywhere.. MoCap is one of those core technologies that apply to robotics, medical/fitness systems, motion analysis, communications, or even the book's initial target application of entertainment.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Design Studies > Graphic Design
- Books > Computing & Internet > Digital Lifestyle > Online Shopping > Amazon
- Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia
- Books > Computing & Internet > Software & Graphics > Graphics & Multimedia > Image Manipulation & Creation
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
