h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Mo-Cap and Performance Capture - A87901158
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

A look at a popular effects and animation technique.

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Thank you for this - you have captured excellent details that would have been too much in a specific film Entry, so it makes a useful standalone Entry

"The basic level of the technique is called Mo-Cap" - I was a bit confused by this sentence at first, because the Entry is called Mo-Cap, but then later I realised that the technique has been developed to capture more intricate movements. Perhaps you need to tweak the sentence, or mention Performance Capture in the Introduction, or something, just to clarify.

Particularly interesting about how Mo-Cap is combined with green screen to create part-human characters from human actors...

"A T-Pose is nothing to do with standing around waiting for the kettle to boil so you can make a nice cuppa." I like your description of Uncanny Valley, too

"As The Polar Express was heavily criticised for the characters' dead eyes, from Beowulf onwards " - is this referring to ImageMovers films only, or is it applicable to other films made before/after Beowulf?

Who made 'Happy Feet'?

Ah, yes I thought the 2011 Tintin movie was mo cap - uncanny valley came into it when I saw the trailer, so I wasn't tempted to see the film...

The last few paragraphs are really informative, but I wonder if tweaks are needed... Maybe "ImageMovers Studio" would better match "Other Studios" as a header. The Entry ends on a sad note - do you have any news about what Andy Serkis plans to do in relation to The Jungle Book?

Thanks for the read-through – you can probably tell this evolved out of the 'ImageMovers' entry but I think it stands on its own well allowing ImageMovers to concentrate on the studio's story more.

I've tweaked the entry as suggested so hopefully it makes more sense now – glad you liked the mention of !

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Tin Tin is the first film that sprung to mind when I saw "mo cap" although the recent Planet of the Apes films are, of course, also famous examples. Off to read the entry now. Sorry for commenting before I'd even read it.

Yes, 'Planet of the Apes' is (very briefly) mentioned – but you can't mention every film and not in great detail. Hope you enjoyed reading it

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I'm sure you don't mean "Serious" in the paragraph on T-pose.

Otherwise, no quibbles.

One question that's been bugging me - do you know when "blue screen" changed to "green screen"? Or do they have different purposes? You don't seem to hear about blue screens any more.

Both blue screen and green screen still exist and each have their advantages and disadvantages. For example blue screen is preferred if you are filming in dark conditions, but green screen when filming in daylight or more normal conditions. As blue is a more common colour than green in everyday life, green is easier to edit out. Green is also considered to be a 'cleaner' colour than blue as it doesn't 'spill' into surrounding colours on film as much.
There has also been yellow screen, which was developed by Rank Productions. The reason Ray Harryhausen moved to England to make 'Jason and the Argonauts' and all his later work was because Rank was the only company in the world to do yellow screen, which is by far the most effective for stop-motion animation.

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As your ImageMovers Entry has been picked, I'll give this a thorough readthrough now as it will be an asset to the Guide alongside your other one

"In order for the character to interact with the environment, full-scale props are built, which are wire-framed hollow models to allow the infrared light to pass through and do not block the receptors." - pass through and not block the receptors?

" Each prop has a barcode to allow the computer realise which prop is in use" - computer to realise?

"In Beowulf (2007) to recreate the animation of a ship for, a boat-shaped rig was built that actually swayed side-to-side" - "for"?

"the rules for qualifying for the Best Animated Feature Oscar were amended to cover motion capture" - you don't need the words "to cover motion capture" there.

"Monster House was the second film to make extensive use of mo-cap following The Polar Express and was even nominated" - maybe you can trim the sentence, as your handy list shows that Monster House was second after Polar Express.

"ImageMovers Digital announced plans to make six animated films rather than two" - I don't think you need the words "rather than two"

The ending is pleasing now, thank you

Good points all – I've tweaked the entry accordingly.

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