Motion capture

Motion capture records the movement of performers or objects and transfers that movement to digital models. Systems track markers, body features, or sensors over time to reconstruct motion.

Optical motion capture: A motion-capture method that uses cameras to track markers or visible body features in three-dimensional space. Camera triangulation reconstructs a performer’s movement from tracked points.
Performance capture: A production method that records an actor's bodily movement, often alongside facial expression and voice, for digital characters. It extends motion capture to preserve more of an actor’s complete performance.
Skeletal animation: A computer-animation technique that deforms a model using a hierarchical digital skeleton. Most body-capture data is applied to a skeleton that drives the character mesh.
Keyframe animation: An animation method in which artists specify important poses or states and software interpolates between them. Unlike captured performance, keyframe animation builds movement from artist-chosen poses.
Marker occlusion: The obstruction of a tracked marker from one or more cameras or sensors. Occlusion creates gaps that systems must infer or repair in recorded trajectories.
Inertial motion capture: A motion-capture method that uses wearable inertial sensors to estimate body movement and orientation. Wearable sensors track movement without requiring a camera-observed capture volume.
Facial motion capture: The recording of facial movements for driving or analyzing a digital face. Facial tracking captures expressions that whole-body systems may not resolve.
Coordinate system: A framework of axes and reference points used to specify positions and orientations. Capture data must be expressed in compatible coordinate systems to reconstruct motion.
Procedural animation: Animation generated by rules, algorithms, or simulations rather than specified entirely by hand. Procedural motion can be generated without recording a performer.
Motion-capture accuracy: The closeness of a motion-capture system's reconstructed measurements to the subject's actual movement. Accuracy depends on calibration, tracking conditions, and the reconstruction method.

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