Intro to Motion Capture for 2D Face Animation

This is the one. Animating using motion capture is in your grasp. Animate faces, facial features with After Effects. 2D animation. You can do this at home. To date this is one of the most cost effective ways. Act out the expressions you want your characters to express. Lip sync that looks fresh, not program produced. Using this method, your animations will come to life. Try it to see how simple it is. It's easy once you get started.

Animate the entire face all at once. Smile and your character smiles. Let me know if you try this. This approach is for the artists out there.

Make A Head Turn with Motion Capture

This video will show you how to set up a character's head for animating using motion tracking data. Animate a camera instead of the head to greatly simplify turns of the head. When the head seems to turn it makes the animation "pop." A 2D animation can seem more 3D. With some limits you can turn 2D heads and make them look 3D. You can do facial motion capture with one camera. (not the vertual camera in the software but a video camera) To motion capture for face first you animate the expressions with motion track data and then you track head turning movement by using After Effect's 3D capabilities. This video covers mocap for head turning in semi-3D.

Make Your Own Markers For Motion Capture

Markers for motion capture need to be round, light weight and a strong color that is different than the surroundings it will be shot in. All you need is an exacto-knife, cheater (found at fishing supply stores,) green paint and double sided tape. The green stands out from the red tone found in skin colors of all types. It's important that the markers are roughly spherical in shape and stand out from the face.