Motion Capture, Animation and Sports

Bucks Motion Capture Animators hard at work

Here at Bucks we're excited by the huge possibilities for animators to work with other departments, such as graphic design, drama, dance and sound design. In short, collaborations with other film-makers, to create truly excellent projects.

One department that makes heavy use of Motion Capture Technology is Sports, who use MoCap to carry out detailed performance analysis on athletes, gathering data on biomechanical motion which can be used to make better players and performers.

According to Sports Lecturer Ed Burt, players recall "30-40%" of what went on in a match. Performance analysis helps to fill in the gaps and give detailed feedback to athletes on where they went right, and also wrong.

There's an obvious tie-in for animators here, not just for personal film projects but also linking in to the work being done in Steve Partridge's department, carrying out live broadcasts for local sports teams, creating graphics, idents and animation.

All animators are film-makers and, like any film-maker, collaborating with other talented people is a great way to raise our game and do better work.

----Alex

You can also read about our recent visit to Centroid, one of the UK's leading Motion Capture Facilities, here.