Motion Capture to the People: A high quality, low budget approach to real time Motion Capture

Abstract: Motion Capture is currently a widely used technology for character animation, and can be seen as a common ingredient of many contemporary animated feature films and video games. Compared to traditional character animation, the Motion Capture technology can quickly produce very high qualityanimation data with high resemblance to real life motion. Unfortunately, the technology is very expensive, and commercial systems with a price tag below $20.000 can today be considered as a bargain. Hence, using Motion Capture as a tool for incorporating high quality live motion in a low budget animation project seems impossible as of today. However, since the underlying theory and principles behind capturing live motion are relatively straightforward, it should be possible to develop a Motion Capture system without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars. This thesis presents a full body Motion Capture system developed with strictly limited resources, at a total cost of $950. The system consists of an electromechanical, exoskeletal suit, constructed with cheap and lightweight materials, and a client-server software solution capable of real time visualization and data export. This diploma work has shown that it is possible to construct a high quality, real time Motion Capture system at a considerably low cost, compared to commercial alternatives. By offering blueprints for mechanics, schematics for electronics and source code for the software solution, this project opens doors for further development by other technical institutions and hobbyists.