Motion Capture Advancements in Video Game Technology

Motion Capture Advancements in Video Game Technology

Motion capture has been around for ages but in the last decade it has made leaps and bounds in company’s motion capture performances. It has gone from rarely being used, if used at all, to being part of almost every video game in the market. Here are the top five advances in video game motion capture over the last ten years that have enlightened the beautiful worlds you get to play in.

1. Capturing Multiple People At Once

While this wasn’t impossible 10 years ago, it was extremely difficult and rarely attempted. This created a very long performance capture process and forced every character to be shot one-by-one. Capturing multiple people in motion capture suits was among the impossible due to most systems inability to focus on more than one movement at a time.

2. Facial & Digit Capture

Imagine playing a video game where body movement was captured but the idea of facial performance capture was unheard of. They weren’t able to capture an actor’s facial movement or finger movements. Motion Capture technology is now so advanced that they can capture these facial movements without motion capture markers!

3. Storytelling

As motion capture has advanced, so have video games ability to tell a story. Games now incorporate back stories to the plots and allow a personal connection between character and player to be formed. This also means that over half of the work on a video game is done to create the story behind the game.

4.Software Tools Are User Friendly

Due to the popularity demand of motion capture in gaming, it has allowed processing teams to get the work done faster. Its user-friendly software (after you take the time to learn how to use it) significantly enhances a post processing team’s ability to increase their output.

5. Actor-Driven Games

With several games stemming from professional sports and popular movies, video game companies are hiring the professional athlete or the movie actor for performance capture. This allows their exact movements and expressions to be portrayed in the video game, making their characters as human-like as possible.

While these are some of the biggest enhancements over the last decade, they are by no means the only enhancements. Motion capture is finding new limits every day. People are constantly trying to make everything faster, clearer and easier to use. With its rapid growth, there is no way of predicting how far motion capture technology will progress in the next decade.