Siggraph

Mo cap is entering a golden age–or maybe a green one, as both new and established companies alike are churning out product to get or gain market share. As I mentioned in two earlier postings, established companies like Vicon as well as newcomers like Reallusion are just two companies at the show with cool gear in the booth or promised ‘real soon‘.

In part, it‘s because of the growing popularity of a more sophisticated generation of mo cap-based projects like Pirates of the Caribbean (just saw behind the scenes previews of Zemeckis‘ Beowolf at the Electronic Theater–looks great!).

The elements used in mo cap technology are being spun off for other uses too. Long-time motion tracking manufacturer InterSense (www.intersense.com) collaborated with 3D virtual studio developer Cinital (www.cinital.com) to create the latest in previsualization stages for Stargate Digital, which recently opened a virtual studio in Van Nuys, California.

There‘s also more interest on the floor for mo cap as new companies are dropping ‘get started’ prices radically; little wonder, since digital camcorder technology gets cheaper and easier to work with. Vicon designed its new 4-megapixel F40 camera system as the company figured it was straight forward enough to make a high-speed 370fps camera to its own spec, and not waste time trying to fit their ideas to existing gear.

While Vicon now sells an eight camera system with software for $50,000, Corvallis, Oregon-based NaturalPoint (www.naturalpoint.com) knocks a decimal point off that price with its $5000 Arena Full Body Motion Capture software. Some cameras are included in that price, and its OptiTrack FLEX:V100 camera is cheap, coming in at only $529, complete with electronic shutter and LED lighting ring. While the setup won‘t necessarily compare directly to the well-accepted Vicon product, it does point up a trend of the move to a mass market of once arcane production technology.