Research artefact 3: Making Mocap Suit

This artefact explains the process for creating a motion capture suit and how it may improve the motion capture process. A motion capture suit is tried out due to multiple problems trying to a get a clean capture in the previous artefacts. First problem encountered when trying to get a clean capture was that the reflective markers had trouble sticking to the actor’s skin and during rapid movement would fall off. This was solved by attaching the markers to the suit using Velcro and fabric glue. The second problem was with reflective markers disappearing throughout the capture due to the back ground being too bright. The third problem was with the markers getting confused with each other for two possible reasons, the first being the lightness of the background and the second being the close proximity between them. A motion capture suite was developed using black sport under armour, which is a skin tight top and trouser set made of elasticised fabric. This was to create a dark surface to attach the reflective markers to and helps the cameras detect them. The choice of this clothing was based on research on existing motion capture sessions performed to create motion inside video games and films such as resident evil 5 and for Golum in The Lord of the Rings. The decision on the amount of reflective markers to use and their placement on the suit was based on the MotionBuilder marker sets for the CG actor and successful captures performed by others and published on the internet. The suit was created using the minimal amount of markers to avoid too much confusion for the cameras, as well as to cut down on the amount of time spent cleaning the data later on.