Motion capture

Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap is a technique of digitally recording movements for entertainment, sports, and medical applications. In the context of filmmaking (where it is sometimes called performance capture), it refers to the technique of recording the actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 3D animation. motion capture session, the movements of one or more actors are sampled many times per second. High resolution optical motion capture systems can be used to sample body, facial and finger movement at the same time. A motion capture session records only the movements of the actor, not his/her visual appearance. These movements are recorded as animation data which are mapped to a 3D model (human, giant robot, etc.) created by a computer artist, to move the model the same way. This is comparable to the older technique of rotoscope where the visual appearance of the motion of an actor was filmed, then the film used as a... full article at wikipedia