1/26 Direct Control Interfaces

Motion capture can definitely help to animate characters more quickly, but in lecture today I realized how many limitations there are to this technology. A lot of things are physically impossible for the actor to do without creating a whole set for him/her to perform in. For example, I think someone in class mentioned pushing a car. I have far too much experience pushing cars, and I can tell you that you can't convincingly mime that action. When you push a car, you're leaned over really far, throwing your whole body into it - you simply can't do this without something to lean on! Another thing, which we talked about a lot, is showing force. I'm saying "leaning" onto the car, but really that's the wrong word - you're pushing it with your whole body. To a motion capture system, leaning and pushing look pretty similar. Your body is in almost the exact same position, so why do the two look different? People can differentiate easily between the two actions. Is there a way to make the motion capture system automatically know when a person is exerting a lot of force, or just leaning casually? It's a pretty difficult question. I think what we saw today, though, would be really cool for games. The video mentioned actors interacting on screen even though they were performing miles away from each other, and I immediately thought it would make for cool multiplayer games. Imagine playing tennis online with your friend across the country!