It may be telling that a great deal of the booths on the GDC show floor involve motion capture or motion control. With appearances from motion recognition software like LiveMove, which was used in Just Dance 2, to the NaturalPoint virtual camera rig we wrote about earlier, it's pretty clear that replicating natural motion, both in real-time and for use in animations, is the Big Thing of the moment.
Another company, Xsens, showed up with what it calls 'Inertial Motion Capture.' Xsens' MVN system does motion capture without cameras - instead, it uses "inertial sensors, biomechanical models, and sensor fusion algorithms" to detect and translate motion to 3D models. It's impressive stuff, but what's even better is that the company's demo made for some great photos.
And here's a picture of a guy making fun of me for taking so many photos:
And here's a picture of a guy who isn't Tiger Woods:
And here's a picture of some people who are very interested in Move:
And that was my GDC experience, roughly. A bunch of cameras capturing motion and putting it on screens.
Mar 2, 2011
