H79.2562 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Gauthier, Bregler
Motion Capture, with a long tradition in the sciences and art, is the process of recording human movement (or other movement) in physical space, and transforming that information in a computerusable form. The use of Motion Capture has increased in popularity, due to recent technological advances, and due to increased demand in entertainment, computer animation, visual input for new Human-Computer-Interfaces and scientific applications. Students will discover how to use motion capture for computer animation, and all the enthusiasm that it currently sparks. The course will introduce students to the use of state-of-the-art, marker-based and vision based motion capture set ups, working with dancers. As part of an effort to explore and understand motion from an artistic and from a scientific point of view, Chris Bregler (http://movement.nyu.edu) and Jean-Marc Gauthier (www.tinkering.net) will introduce students to the exciting and sometimes controversial art of capturing and recreating motion of living creatures. We will look at designing motion and the ability to create the illusion of life as applied to the expressions and the styles of a person or character. Students will have hands on experience with a motion capture set up that can measure full-body movements from dancers, for example the Pilobolus Dance Company, facial expressions from actors or motions of animals. Students will also explore the history of motion with recordings going back to Marey and Muybridge in the late 19th century and early applications of rotoscoping dating back to animated features like Disney's Snow White. Special emphasis will be placed on creating interactive story telling involving interactive character animation using Alias Maya, Alias Motion Builder and Virtools. There is no prerequisite for this class. Students will learn how to create character animation in Motion Builder, Maya and Virtools from scratch. Syllabus can be found at www.tinkering.net/animation
