A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation

Motion capture is the recording of human body movement (or other movement) for immediate or delayed analysis and playback. The information captured can be as general as the simple position of the body in space or as complex as the deformations of the face and muscle masses. Motion capture for computer character animation involves the mapping of human motion onto the motion of a computer character. The mapping can be direct, such as human arm motion controlling a character’s arm motion, or indirect, such as human hand and finger patterns controlling a character’s skin color or emotional state.