Use of Motion Control in Animation

Motion Control in Animation

In day to day life if we go and check out the motion control technology related to the entertainment division you might hear this complex terms as multipass, go motion, streaking which you might not be aware of, but you have seen it on the screen in the films and television ads.

The use of motion control technology for creating the animation and visual effects and to have the more control over it with the help of various computer programs. So it is the medium of technology to combine all the elements needed to create the special effects.

What is Motion Control Photography?

Motion Photography enables precise control of and also optionally allows repetition of camera movements. It can be used to expedite special effects photography.

Filming process can involve several elements using the camera motion and then compositing the components into a single image.

Other effects are used along with it, such as chroma key to aid the compositing. Also, motion control camera rigs are used in still photography with or without compositing. Example in long exposures of moving vehicles.

Computer technology allows the programmed camera movement to be processed, such as having the move scaled up or down for different sized elements. A common application of this process includes shooting with miniatures either to several composite miniatures or with full-scale elements composite miniatures.

This process is commonly used when duplication of a character or object which cannot be physically duplicated is required motion control. The method of featuring multiple instances of the same character or object in a shot that involves camera movement. For this technique, the camera typically films the same motion in the same place while the actor performs different parts.

Nowadays in films, the reference take is also useful for digital manipulation of the shots, or for adding digital elements. A duplication shot confines each copy of an element to one part of the screen. It is more challenging and difficult to composite the shots when the duplicate elements cross the paths, though digital technology has made this easier to achieve.

Basic camera tricks are sometimes utilized with this technique, such as having the hand of a body double enter a shot to interact with the character or object while the duplicate’s arm is to be off-screen. For the sake of compositing, the background scene element must remain identical between shots, requiring anything movable to be locked down; the blank reference take can help in solving any differences between the other shots.

Advantage of Motion Control

The advantage of motion technology is that we can take a shoot of various special effects shots in less time instantly, which are impossible to create without using motion control or can only be possible to do using a non-moving camera. Using motion control, we can get stunning looking shots like we want to move in camera in a scene to follow a pattern of an action or a subject.

In live action movies, we have to focus on too many things at the same time. It can repeat the camera movement accurately and adequately which includes a change of focus, zooming and to control the lights so the motion control rig does all important work so the director can mainly focus on the actors and their actions without any worry about camera movements and continuity. This is a beneficial reason for using a motion control rig as it saves time and money too.

Example of the special effect which is pretty simple as a scene including a guy is walking on a road and gradually starts disappeared into the air while walking on a road. This can be done only in 2 takes shooting. In the first take, the guy will walk on the road and in the second take will be the road.

In the editing process, the editor will take the two takes and will merge with each other so that it appears like a guy is disappeared in the air. This kind of shot is quite simple to achieve only if the camera is the steady position, but when there is the camera movement this shot is not possible without it because this 2 takes shot will not match in perspective and speed so we cannot merge it. Like this, with motion control, we can shoot many scenes of the special effects.

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