Motion capture holds a sexy allure for animators because it opens up the possibility to create a lot of lifelike animation quickly. Above are the GypsyGyro-18 (left) and Gypsy4. Courtesy of Animazoo UK ltd.

The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution are taking videogaming and gamers on a new roller coaster ride. All three consoles, with small differences making each one unique, promise to deliver more of everything.

“With the upgrade in hardware technology, we have been able to push the limits of motion capture,” suggests Scott Gagain, exec producer at House of Moves. “We are now able to capture an actor’s full performance all at once. Motion capture lets you capture the essence of distinctive signature movements that animators have a hard time reproducing with the same sort of accuracy.”

MoCap does hold a very sexy allure for animators because it opens up the possibility to create a lot of lifelike animation quickly and while it is not a new technology, the more powerful next-generation systems are expanding its uses.

Leaving the door open for the inclusion of even more motion capture techniques leading to even more lifelike animated characters, the next- generation consoles have taken an exponential leap forward delivering greater power, sequencing capabilities and true hi-def images.

Scott Gagain of House of Moves finds that motion capture catches the essence of distinctive signature movements that animators have a hard time reproducing with the same sort of accuracy.

Those hi-def images mean that we can see not only the bend in Tiger Woods’ foot as he follows through on his signature swing in the EA Sports game, but also the bend in the grass in front of his shoes.

Thus, images are going to become more and more visual and important to a demanding audience.

“At the core of game development has always been visual definition and how far could the animator go,” says Matthew Bauer, general manager, Motion Analysis Studios in Los Angeles. “With the next-generation console, the power will be there to put finger bones into a characters hands so they can realistically grip objects, bend their feet. There has always been the ability to give this definition to the game, but now with the next-gen consoles, the animator can actually use it.”

Creating all that data by hand would be time and money consuming and tiring — not to mention the fact that it is almost impossible to hand animate truly believable human movement, without motion capture.

Motion capture as a technology has grown with its gaming end-users. Today how an animator receives motion capture data can vary. The most widely accepted avenues are optical, using film cameras capturing data from markers, or full body systems, where the actor wears a suit on the body with attached sensors; either a frame that has motion capture devices at various joints, or tiny inertial gyroscopes attached to the body that capture movement data.

Pioneering the field of wireless, full body systems is U.K.-based Animazoo. Capturing realtime motion data, the Gypsy 4 and Gypsy Gyro-18 are both lightweight, fully portable motion capture systems.

The data is captured and processed on the suit and then transferred to a receiver that can be positioned up to around 300 meters away. This gives Gypsy systems a very large capture area; Suzuki for example has captured a motorcyclist going around a 500-meter track wearing the suit.

The difference between the body and optical capture systems is that the optical camera uses external sensors (the cameras) to collect data from reflective markers placed on the body. With the Gypsy, the sensors, the potentiometers or gyroscope sensors, are worn on the body with no need for external devices like cameras, meaning full body systems are not restricted to the studio.

The sensors show the rotation of the bones around the joints capturing accurate rotation data and join angles direct from the actor’s body.