You Can Motion Capture With Only One Camera

Side by side, the actor and the animation the motion capture is applied to. What you need is After Effects, (Checked Craigslist lately?) a video or web cam, something to make marks on your face and an actor willing to be filmed with weird looking dots on his/her face. Notice that the movement is not an exact match but it is very effective. This technique works really good for lip sync. The nice thing about this technique is it exaggerates and dramatizes expressions and acting witch is what animators over the decades have discovered, works really well in the medium of cartooning and animation. That is why the use of "squash" and "stretch" has become prevalent in animating. This blog-site is dedicated to this type of cartoony, motion capture for 2D animation. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

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.