SINCE 1828
motion capture
nounDefinition of motion capture
: a technology for digitally recording specific movements of a person (such as an actor) and translating them into computer-animated images
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Alita: Battle Angel is James Cameron’s next big film to use motion capture (the main character, Alita, is a cyborg heroine). — Rachel Hahn, Vogue, "Dua Lipa Goes Cyberpunk in Her New Music Video," 24 Jan. 2019 For a character like Kaa the snake [voiced by Scarlett Johansson], motion capture isn't that helpful. — Popular Mechanics, "The Wonderful Visual Effects of 'The Jungle Book' and the Future of Movie Magic," 21 Apr. 2016 Behind the scenes, one computer rig is dedicated to handling the motion capture from the live actor and turning it into real-time character animation. — Bryan Bishop, The Verge, "Chained mixes virtual reality and live actors to tell a dark Christmas tale," 5 Dec. 2018 Six films in, the franchise is largely defined by its thrilling action sequences, in no small part because the stunts are executed practically rather than done against a green screen or via motion capture. — Karen Han, Vox, "Tom Cruise’s most death-defying Mission: Impossible stunt, explained," 2 Aug. 2018 Chappie follows its titular character (played by Sharlto Copley in a form-fitting motion capture suit), a defective robot who once served as a scout in an autonomous police force employed by the Johannesburg Police Department. — Ramy, Popular Mechanics, "Neill Blomkamp: Artificial Intelligence Will Do What It Wants," 3 Mar. 2015 Then the virtual-characters’ actors would record their performance in a motion capture lab, supplying data to 3D animators, who would refine the performance and render it to be incorporated in the scene. — Adam Bargteil, Smithsonian, "How ‘Jurassic Park’ Made History 25 Years Ago, Propelling Computer-Generated Animation Forward," 9 June 2018 Cameron has already promised that Avatar 2 will introduce a brand-new technology that allows underwater motion capture. — Scott Meslow, GQ, "Can James Cameron Predict the Future of Sci-fi Movies?," 1 May 2018 Oculus VR is developing an immersive theater experience to debut next year that will feature real-world actors who perform in virtual reality using motion capture. — Nick Statt, The Verge, "Oculus is developing an immersive theater VR experience with real actors," 30 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'motion capture.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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