Bread mocap – A tribute to Charlie Chaplin

Bread mocap – A tribute to Charlie Chaplin

We were recently contacted to perform the motion capture for an upcoming short movie entitled “The Great Imitator” created by Boris Beer. This short animated movie will be a tribute to Charlie Chaplin. Without giving too much details, the goal of the shooting was to capture some iconic scenes of Chaplin’s most famous movies.

For example, the first scene we captured was the one from The Great Dictator where Chaplin plays with an inflatable globe. We also had to capture the famous nut screwing scene from Modern Times as well as some scenes from The Kid. Fabrice Bessire (the actor) did a great job reinterpreting Chaplin in those scenes.

Finally, among the selected scenes was the famous “Bread roll dance” from The Gold Rush. In this scene, Charlie Chaplin creates a small ballet by giving life to two forks and two bread roll in order to entertain his friends. As you can see on the pictures, this capture required a very specific and unique bread motion capture setup (patent pending!).

We will talk again about this short film when it will be finished. Stay tuned!

The famous bread roll dance from The Gold Rush Bread Mocap Charlie Chaplin Mocap

Mocap in the dark

Setup for the project "Motion and unconsciousness"Last week we tested the motion capture protocol for the research project Motion and unconsciousness. The setup is uncommon: subjects are asked to execute movements in the dark while still being able to see the other participant’s hands thanks to phosphorescent tape. They are also equipped with a respiration sensor and headphones with white noise to be isolated from external stimuli.

100 volunteers will participate to the study and be distributed in different groups according to specific criteria. One group will also be captured with simultaneous EEG recording. The goal of the project is to compare the subjective sensation of synchrony with objective data of motor coordination and synchronization acquired from motion capture when two people are engaged in joint action tasks.

 

Mocap and fluoroscopy for Shoulder3D project

Mocap and fluoroscopy for Shoulder3D project

In the context of our project Shoulder3D, we spent a day in radiology to acquire specific data required for the validation of our research methodology. The objective of the project is to develop a new kinematic model to reliably evaluate the three-dimensional motion of the shoulder based on motion capture data. In order to compare the kinematics estimated by our methodology with the real motion of the shoulder bones, we performed a double acquisition. We simultaneously recorded motion capture data using our Vicon system and fluoroscopic images.

As you can see on the pictures below, setting up properly the system in such a confine area and dealing with the occlusions of the fluoroscopic device were the tricky parts of our work!

Mocap in fluoroscopy room

Motion capture of a knight in armor

The Institute of Movement Science and Sport Medicine of the University of Geneva and the Willy Taillard Laboratory of Kinesiology of the University Hospital of Geneva contacted us for an unusual motion capture session. Daniel Jaquet, a PhD student in Humanities, focuses his research on the description of fights in full armor in historical documents from the 16th century. Part of his thesis work aims at analyzing the range of possible movements while wearing such a 30 kg medieval armor. By using motion capture, he will be able to get a comprehensive amount of data.

For this mocap session, the main issue was related to the reflective surface of the armor. Indeed, reflections can be perceived as markers by the camera, introducing a lot of unwanted artefacts. By tuning our MXT40S cameras’ parameters and the reconstruction settings, we were able to solve this issue and collect good data for his study.

Thanks to Stéphane Armand, Alice Bonnefoy and Daniel’s equerry for their help during the mocap session!

Markers attached to the armor Daniel - The Knight Mocap with a medieval armorI

Upcoming workshop on motion capture

Upcoming workshop on motion capture

Are you interested in learning more about motion capture or simply curious to discover the magic of mocap? On May 7th and 8th 2012, we will organize a workshop at artanim in collaboration with Focal.

The goal of this two-day workshop will be to put hands on our two motion capture systems: our 24 cameras MXT40s Vicon system and our Xsens MVN motion capture suit. From system calibration to final rendering, the whole pipeline will be covered.

Motion Capture with Vicon Mocap with Xsens Motion capture studio

Program:

  • The first day will be dedicated to capture data. After a brief theoretical presentation on motion capture, participants will be able to try each system and assess their advantages and drawbacks.
  • The second day will focus on data post-processing and their integration in a 3D authoring software. This will allow the participants to get a clearer view of what is involved when using motion capture for 3D animation.

Registration to this workshop is open until April 4th on Focal’s website.

Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2011

Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2011

Artanim participated in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2011 which rewards the finest watch creations of the year. The ceremony was held at the Grand Théâtre de Genève on Saturday 19th of November 2011. Simply the best Swiss watchmakers were present, as well as the President of the Confederation – Micheline Calmy-Rey – the Director of the United Nations in Geneva and Ambassadors.

Under the theme “Time in the cinema”, artanim created in collaboration with Move for Art a show combining dance and 3D animation, a leap into the future marked by the inevitable epic sci-fi film “Star Wars” created by George Lucas. Darth Vader, the head of the imperial army, was embodied on stage by a dancer (Manuel Vignoulle). Its 3D clone, as well as the imperial troops were projected on big screens behind him and animated by the rhythm of his motion.

GPHG  Artanim at GPHG