Motion Capture

SynthEyes lets you perform motion and facial capture using two or more video cameras. You can place them in any suitable location, and no gen-lock is required. One or more could be film cameras too.

The number of cameras required will depend on the size of the area you want to cover, and the range of directions. For a simple facial capture, only two cameras are required. If the head can spin all the way around to the back, then three or probably four are required.

You will take and then track a short calibration sequence. Once your setup is calibrated, you can take as many live shots as you want. For motion and facial capture, usually (but not necessarily) you will put tracking markers on specific parts of the performer that you need to track, that correspond to how you will rig the CGI character. This might be little dots on the face or table-tennis balls on joints of a dancer.

After you track and solve the shot using SynthEyes, you will have the independent path of each of your markers. Results can be exported to most major animation and compositing packages.

For more information, try the free demo and see the Motion Capture and Face Tracking portion of the manual.