Motion Capture Case Studies and Controversy

Motion capture technology rose to the top of the hype machine among entertainment industry watchers, and then became a topic of major controversy for various reasons. For many years, motion capture couldn't find a place in the film industry. Some studios used it to create digital stunts and some background character work, but the technology had an overall bad reputation in the industry. It wasn't until 2004, when Robert Zemeckis released “The Polar Express,” that motion capture started to find its place in the film industry, although not without some new controversy. Creating a digital human is a very difficult endeavor and since people are used to what a human must look like to the last detail, anything that is not perfect receives negative attention. In the recent past, the use of performance animation in a project was largely driven by cost. Many projects failed or fell into trouble due to lack of understanding, or because the decision to use motion capture was taken very lightly and made by the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. In some cases, the problems occurred early in production, resulting in manageable costs whereas in other cases, the problems weren't identified until expenses were so excessive that the projects had to be reworked or cancelled.