Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games

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In the world of computer animation, there is no topic more controversial than motion capture, the technique of isolating the movement of a real person and applying it to a computer-generated character. In Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games, Alberto Menache refrains from siding in the debate. Rather, he tries to educate the reader on how motion capture works, describing the strengths and weaknesses of this powerful but mismarketed technology.

Years of practical experience reveal themselves throughout the book, with concise writing and numerous examples from the commercial world (the passage on the motion capture tests for the Pillsbury Doughboy are worth the cost of the book).

The book describes the history of the technology, how it evolved, and the different types of capture systems that are currently used: optical, electromagnetic, electromechanical, etc.

The most valuable section of the book documents the complete breakdown of a capture session. The first thing to do before starting a project is to decide if motion capture is required, or whether to go with traditional animation. Once motion capture becomes the chosen alternative, a number of factors come into play. These factors, detailed chapter by chapter, include setting up the animated character, choosing the capture system, directing the talent in the suit, understanding the anatomy of both the character and the talent and how the two must relate, and understanding and tweaking the captured data.

Unfortunately, the book has no accompanying CD-ROM. Video examples from capture sessions, along with the animation that is generated from the sessions, would have been a wonderful and educational addition, along with the captured data itself. Also, there is scant material on capturing facial expressions. Still, for any animator, producer, or director with an eye toward using--or at least wanting to understand--motion capture, this book is a must-have. --Mike Caputo

Book Description

Motion capture is one of the most talked about and misunderstood technologies in computer animation because of its rocketing popularity and ambiguous implementation. In Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games, industry insider Alberto Menache tells the complete story of motion capture, examining its technical details as well as its growth as an industry. Menache's narrative voice and in-depth technical discussions allow the reader to not only learn motion capture, but also to understand the reasons behind its successes, failures, and increasing role in blockbuster films, such as Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. With its careful balance between technical analysis and industry trends, Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games is the first book to explore the controversial art and practice of modern character animation using motion capture.

* Provides descriptions of all the mathematical principles associated with motion capture and 3D character mechanics.
* Offers great ideas for character setup that can be used for any character animation, even without the use of captured motion data.
* Includes source code that will help readers write conversion and motion data manipulation programs.

Customer Reviews:

fun to read.......2000-02-23

Our department is working on Motion Capture research. This book helps us to direct a practical approach on not only academic perspective but also entertainment applicaiton.

Entertaining, useful, and well written........2000-02-03

The historical overview in the first half gave an excellent and entertaining background. It tells the stories of various well known motion capture projects so readers can immediately relate to the real world applications of motion capture and understand what sorts of applications will not work. The technical information was well organized and clearly written. This is a must have for anyone considering motion capture as a part of their project! ---Scott Whitney

An excellent guide!.......1999-12-29

At last a no-nonsense book for both users of the technology and those considering using it in their future productions.

The first half deals with the checkered history of motion capture and it's use and misuse to date. Unfortunately most of the stories fall into the negative vein and concentrate on the cases where the use of motion capture turned out to be a costly mistake, but this is all to the benefit of the reader lest he/she should be aligning themselves to make the same mistakes!

There is good practical advice on how to come out of a motion capture session with useable data and some extremely useful math to allow you to transfer it to your character. If you are using off the shelf software some of this may be superfluous, but if you have the opportunity to supplement it with your own proprietary code it could save you months of work. Either way it is genuinely useful in understanding how raw data can be used to drive a computer generated character.

It is hard to find fault with this book. If there is one it is just that the reader is left wanting more of the invaluable 'war-stories' from those who have used the process in the past, and possibly more recently on projects like 'Titanic' and 'The Mummy', if those studios are willing to divulge the detils. Mr Menache warns that facial motion capture is beyond the range of this text but hints that there may be another one to follow to make up for this. It is comforting to see that he himself ran a motion capture studio for many years, and you can be sure that the sum of his experience is inside the pages.

Book Description

Many animators and designers would like to supplement their Maya learning with a less-technical, more helpful book. This new self-study manual is both a general guide for understanding 3-D computer graphics and a specific guide for learning the fundamentals of Maya: workspace, modeling, animation, shading, lighting, and rendering.

This well-integrated and produced volume covers these fundamentals in each chapter so that readers gain increasingly detailed knowledge. After an initial 'concepts' section launches each chapter, hands-on tutorials are provided, as well as a chapter project that progressively adds newly learned material and culminates in the final animated short. This is the first book on Maya that teaches the subject using a sensible, proven methodology for both novices and intermediate users.

Topics and features: * Proven method that emphasizes preliminaries to every chapter * Integrates the "why" concepts of 3-D simultaneously with the "how-to" techniques * Skills reinforced with tutorials and chapter projects * Real-world experience distilled into helpful hints and step-by-step guides for common tasks * CD-ROM with practice animations, case studies and additional methods

The book, suitable for novices or intermediate users, presents all the basic 3-D animation concepts and Maya software background needed for learning animation techniques and creating sophisticated, state-of-the-art animations. It is an essential resource for animators, game developers, effects specialists, and computer graphic artists, as well as an ideal self-study guide for students or individuals pursuing interests in graphics or animation.

Customer Reviews:

Great........2007-03-09

This is a great book to learn to understand and use Maya. It's well organized and makes you understand not only how to do it, but also why to do it. Recommended.

minimises maths underlying the graphics.......2007-02-03

Park does a skilful job of minimising the amount of maths that a newcomer to Maya needs. Or, perhaps, it is Maya that does that. Anyhow, traditional texts on graphics (think Foley and van Dam) are replete with maths. Usually matrix algebra. But also for the physics of ray tracing etc. What this book demonstrates is showing how to use Maya for many 3D graphics tasks, often without having to explicitly deal with the underlying maths. Like manipulating NURBs or single or multiple light sources. Or dealing with shading issues.

As is common nowadays in graphics texts, there are several colour plates, with cartoon characters made with Maya. Impressive functionality.

Real World Instructions for Maya Users.......2006-06-22

I had long wanted to begin the process of learning Maya, but was intimidated every time I opened the damned program. John Park's book allowed me to grow past that fear and build a strong foundation in understanding the program. His instructions are easy to follow and his exercises (included on an accompanying CD) provide real world experiences for learning Maya's basics. Additionally, it is a well-rounded instruction manual that teaches about many aspects of the program (instead of a few particulars). Please buy this book, so Mr. Park is encouraged to release additional manuals!

If you get one book on Maya, this is it........2006-04-04

Park's book is exceptional because it has a simple, easy to follow tutorial format that has you modeling, shading, animating and rendering all in the first chapter. Each chapter builds on the last expanding the skills together as an integrated group. Maya is an awsome program that is fun work with, but its shear size can make it overwhelming for a beginner. Because of this most books either specialize in only one aspect of it, or serve as a general pictorial menu of what you can do but don't adequately tell you how. Park's book stays at just the right level so you feel excited rather than overwhelmed, and by the end you have developed a working knowledge of all the major menu sets, and you have completed a rather sophisticated animation. You can then move on to any other Maya book with confidence, or just continue working with the knowledge you've gained. You don't even have to buy Maya. It comes with a copy of Maya Personal Learning Edition on the tutorial CD.

Finally a book with real instructional focus!.......2005-12-15

A clear and concise exercise to understanding basic animation. As anyone who has ever used Maya can tell you, it's a HUGE program and can be overwhelming in its complexity. So many instructional books throw as much functionality of the program at you as possible, and as a result you end up walking away with only a few tricks that are often unrelated to each other in the context of seeing a project through from beginning to end. This book avoids the clutter and distractions of many of the flashier aspects of Maya and instead focuses on the information required to familiarize the reader with the basics of animation. Each chapter builds upon the knowledge acquired in the previous chapter and is reinforced by well thought out and pertinent tutorial projects.

By the end of the book you will feel ready to take on your own animation projects with confidence.

Average customer rating:

For the students of art science
Cud

Understanding Animation
Paul Wells
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415115973

Book Description

Animated film is commonly perceived as children's play and is often neglected as a serious form of cinematic art. With Understanding Animation, Paul Wells aims to change that.

Part history, part theory, part celebration, this book explores approaches to animation through an eclectic range of case studies from Betty Boop's Snow White, to Jan Svankmajer's Jabberwocky. Opening with a discussion of the early history of animation through experimental figures like Emile Reynaud and J. Stuart Blackton, Wells also discusses narrative, realism and Disney-esque hyper-realism, the construction of comedy, representations of race and gender, the construction of comedy, and animation and audience research. Engagingly written, Understanding Animation demonstrates that animated film has much to tell us about ourselves, the culture we live in, and our perceptions of cinematic art in the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

For the students of art science.......2002-09-18

This is essentially a scholar book for students of art science: lots of texts, few pictures, and in black and white. It contains a good discussion on the origin of animation, and it tries to specify its specific characteristics. It contains many and very diverse examples, but, of course, they work best as such, when one is able to see the mentioned films. I think this book really helps the reader 'understanding' animation (at least it helps to develop an analytical view towards animation as an art form), but I don't think it is suited for the average animation fan.

Cud.......2001-08-02

The desperate need for historical documentation and 'serious' academic thinking on animation has resulted in a lot of unnecessary books (ie. cud).

Wells lamely applies outmoded film theories from the 70s to animation....and they don't fit. In general...his formalist/structuralist approach is weak (just as it was in the 70s) because it fails to situate the films within their specific contexts.

The book is also filled with spelling errors (eg. Norman McClaren!!!).

Customer Reviews:

Thesis from outer space.......2007-06-13

From the title and the beautiful cover art from Starblazers, I couldn't wait to read this book. The subtitle is "Understanding Japanese Animation". Quotes on the back call it a "guide" and claim it reveals " a lot about contemporary Japan", and that the author uncovers the "hidden meaning" of Japanese animation, and "the symbols and stories drawn from Shinto, Buddhism, and Japanese art". That made me want to read it more.

Let's start with the givens. This book is almost ten years old, and shows signs of being edited to reach a wider audience. It also seems to consist of a number of papers or essays tied together. The author blurb on the back is about how she has a PhD in Japanese history and all her credentials for writing about things Japanese. That wouldn't be germane to the issue, except for the slant in the book. And it's very slanted.

The opening chapter is extremely intriguing and asks, in essence, "Are you Otaku?" which is to say, a fan of anime. Then the author defensively asserts her chops, a tendency which becomes far more prevalent as the book goes on, continually saying "I know more than you do." Or sometimes, "You think you know what's going on, but you don't." It reminds me of the love- hate relationship sci- fi writers have to Star Trek conventions. The only time she mentions Star Trek, incidentally, is to point out how later anime fan writers sneak in references to anime and opt for more ambiguous story lines.

Almost every chapter (or essay) ends with an unstated thesis that would have made an interesting book: that Gen X (so called) viewers are drawn to anime because of ambiguity in their own lives. However, she usually outshouts that thesis with another one-- that this proves they're not the attention deficit slackers they're often written off as. Even that would be an interesting thesis were it supported by even one example.

The Otaku viewpoint is significant because the author judges a work based on its audience. While she pays the necessary tribute to Osamu Tezuka, she nevertheless dismisses Astro Boy (Mighty Atom), one of the early popular anime shows in the US, because the audience didn't know it was Japanese. That would seem to be in its favor, but it conflicts with another hidden thesis that anime is made for Japanese and not Westerners. To support that thesis requires ignoring all other early anime offerings, including Speed Racer, Gigantor, and Battle of the Planets. It also ignores the long history of live action films like Godzilla in the West.

But then, the West is, of course, the problem. The author's way of explaining the Japanese view of anything is to contrast it to the "Judeo- Christian" view we in the West all believe. Never mind that a great number of people in the West don't believe these views which are held by Judeo- Christians, whatever those are. The author is so sure "we" believe these things that she never checks facts, and is therefore content to repeat one sentence myths about the Middle Ages, long discredited, that we all know. All this does is make me wonder about the Japanese views the Western views are contrasted with. Since again, not one example is given of any Japanese thinking this way, they seem at best inconclusive.

Quick! Retreat into the I know more than you do mode (or transform into it, for Mecha fans). The Japanese word is, of course, untranslatable. I, genius that I am, think this, whereas stupid fans-- that would be you watching the show-- mistake it for that. Ha ha! Aren't those Otaku amusing? It's like a Star Trek convention.

The parts about Shinto stories inspiring anime are intriguing. You knew something like that was going on in Pokemon, and with eight million gods, souls or spirits to choose from, the results are endless. But again, the author must assert a hidden thesis which eventually seems based merely on personal preference and Freudian double speak. You can't possibly enjoy this advanced anime because you don't know a nosebleed always represents something else. If it comes to that, you wouldn't notice this god from this ancient story because the gender has been changed and she is an executive in Tokyo (no, you probably wouldn't notice that). But when she admits an obvious connection in a well-known and much studied anime like Dragonball, she then asserts there's no relation to its source material. Freudian lit analysis plays the same game of now this gun represents something else; presto! now it's just a gun.

The one place to connect with the casual viewer is in the section on mecha. But the author's thesis that the Japanese have a horror of cyborgs since they involve replacing body parts in no way explains something that far more puzzles and intrigues Western viewers-- their fascination with giant robots. Her way of explaining this is to not explain it, and instead concentrate on exoskeleton suits.

This is the sort of pop cult book by an academic that is all answers and no questions. You learn a lot more about the author than you do about anime or Otaku. You learn, for instance, that she likes (or at least chooses to continually write about) Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Bubblegum Crisis/ Bubblegum Crash, Doomed Magalopolis, and grudgingly, Akira, which was, of course, changed to accomodate Western audiences, who ruined it by making it popular, but fortunately didn't understand it. Transformers is conspicuous by its absence. Neither did Battle of the Planets, or its Japanese original, Gatchaman, make the cut.

Of course one can't cover everything, and one doesn't need to. But if the author hoped to convince readers to watch new anime, as maintained in the Preface, the effect on this reader was the opposite. By ignoring anime I am familiar with, and which has long been available in the US, by stereotyping the "West" in one sentence dismissals, and by expressing continual disdain for the unlettered, unwashed anime audience, she's convinced me to stay away from her favorite anime, which I otherwise might have watched. After all, even ten years ago there was plenty of anime to choose from, and no lack of zealous Otaku eager to share their favorites.

Good book on cultural background.......2005-12-02

This is actually a very good book despite the awful title and uninspired cover work. It's strength is in the detail with which it deals with the cultural and mythological subtexts of anime. While this is only one way of approaching anime, "Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke" takes a differnt, sociological approach, it offers interesting and useful insight into what to look for in watching anime. Where else, for instance, would you learn to look at how the heroine in "Zenki" controls her demon as an allegory for how Japanese wives control their husbands?

Anime fans, present & future-- Read this Book!!!.......2005-06-10

Samurai from Outer Space is a little dated. However, the cultural information is valid, relevant, and amusingly presented. As a diehard, long-time fan of the medium, I also consider the examples listed to be a basic primer of classic anime. Like watching old American movies, watching older anime helps a viewer appreciate where the medium has been, where it is now, and the possible directions it could go.

Makes me want to give anime another chance..........2003-02-07

I've never liked Japanese animation. I missed out on "Astro Boy" and "Speed Racer" when I was a kid. To me, "Kimba the White Lion" represented Japanese animation. Something about the oddness in the characters voices (they always threw in extra syllables at the end of their sentences, "We have to go save him, huh?") and the gender ambiguity of the lead character (these things are important to uptight pre-pubescent kids) really bothered me.

By the time Japanese animation took hold in the US cartoon market with shows such as "Voltron," or "Robotech," I was done with cartoons. By the time Japanese animation started showing up on the shelves at Blockbuster Video, I learned that one should refer to Japanese animation as "Anime." In the years between, I found that the same kind of geeky know-it-all kids who dominated the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons scene and who lingered too long at comic book stores discussing the outcome of a battle between the "Teen Titans" and "Alpha Flight," were the same folks who loved Anime.

Have you ever disliked a band because of its fans? This was the same kind of thing. I have yet to listen to anything by The Misfits merely because of all the losers in leather jackets who would come to concerts and stand in my way or push people around in the pit. Nine times out of ten they'd have on some sort of Misfits paraphernalia. No one's written a book explaining the music of the Misfits from an outsider's point of view.

Thankfully, Antonia Levy's book Samurai from Outer Space is the perfect guide for jerks like me who've dismissed an entire animation style out of dislike for its diehard fans. Subtitled "Understanding Japanese Animation," Levy takes the reader through the history of Anime and Manga (Japanese comic books). She explains common themes explored in these media, helping to put them into cultural and historical perspective.

Levy's book isn't a lofty dissertation on the integration of Shinto myths into modern Anime. While she covers those subjects and more, Levy quickly gets to brass tacks. In her first chapter, she addresses one of my burning questions about Anime and Manga, "Why do these Japanese characters have exaggerated Anglo features?" According to Levy, the characters are not thought of as belonging to any one particular race. Instead, those big round eyes are more of a stylistic flourish of Manga - just as big eyes are trademark in the U.S. to those annoying Precious Moments statuettes.

In Samurai from Outer Space, Levy addresses the appeal of Anime and Manga to Easterners and Westerners. More than cheaply made adventure stories, Anime and Manga are often steeped in the rich culture of their homeland, just as U.S. storytellers sweeten their narratives with references or by playing off of common cultural themes. Just as a viewer not entirely familiar with Greek mythology might not get as many laughs watching "Xena: Warrior Princess" as someone who really knows their Homer, without a substantial understanding of Shinto myth one might scratch their head at "Ranma ½." A thorough and well-written tome, Samurai from Outer Space convinced me to give Anime another chance. (ISBN: 0812693329)

A book on the symbols and stories that are a source..........2002-10-19

for anime and manga. Over 160 pages full of information on Shinto, Buddhism, Samurai legends, Japanese art and history and how Japanese animation uses it. Chapters also on the women of anime, death and the afterlife in animation and a glossary of anime terms. Add 20 full color pictures and lots of humor, and you have a not-so-serious study about the subject. Only problem is that the book was first published in 1996 and, while the newest printing was 2001, has not been updated and therefore still outdated.

Understanding Flash MX 2004 ActionScript 2: Basic techniques for creatives

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More on the Intermediate Level Instead of a Beginner's Book
Be forewarned, this one is bad.
I liked this book and the examples worked
this book is plain awful.
Bought it yeasterday and it's in the garbage can today.

Understanding Flash MX 2004 ActionScript 2: Basic techniques for creatives
Alex Michael
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Foundation ActionScript for Macromedia Flash MX 2004

ASIN: 0240519310

Book Description

Step-by-step techniques, illustrated with highly visual examples throughout the book, show you how to build up your ActionScripting skills quickly and effectively. A support website (www.sprite.net/understanding) provides all the content you need to try out the techniques shown in the book for yourself.

Ideal for those studying multimedia and information technology and anyone who wants to produce highly effective online interactive content. This guide gives you all you need to ensure you have a firm foundation of knowledge on how to use ActionScript creatively so you can produce professional results.

* Benefit from explanations and examples of why and how ActionScript can simplify Flash production and expand your design possibility

* Learn all the basics of strong scripting skills to enable professional results

* Written from a creative viewpoint, finally a book that talks your language!

Customer Reviews:

More on the Intermediate Level Instead of a Beginner's Book.......2006-03-01

One of the best ways to learn a programming language is to examine finished code, break it down and experiment with it. Alex Michael uses this approach to teach Flash(R) ActionScript(R) and the Flash basics. As part of his teaching method, he uses demo files which you can download from the accompanying website. For each chapter, there are several demos that not only include the finished swf file but several intermediate fla files that show how the demo was built. As you would expect, Michael starts with simple applications and as you progress though the book, each demo increases in complexity. One of the nice features of Flash is the built-in components. Along with the demo files for the tutorials, there are also 18 component-driven applications that you can use to add interactivity and visual effects to your own Flash movies.

Although the author has meant this book to be for the nonprogrammer and I liked his approach to teaching, I believe he assumes prior knowledge that a novice does not have. The demos in the book are very entertaining and do answer some of the most frequently asked questions I get from my readers, but this book is more on the intermediate level instead of a beginner's book. Unless you have had previous experience with Flash and at least one programming language, you may find parts of this book a little difficult. However, Michael covers the aspects of any programming language such as variables, functions, arrays, events and event handlers. He also covers Flash specific aspects such as Flash objects, the Flash timeline and components.

Alex Michael is the author of Animating with Flash MX and is currently the Lead Animator and MD of Sprite Interactive, Ltd. UK He was previously the Creative Director for Disney and Buena Vista International.

Be forewarned, this one is bad........2006-02-26

The other reviewers are correct. This book has a horrendous amount of mistakes and not just typos either. They are the kinds of mistakes that leave you stuck. As the other reviewers have said, the instructions are from an earlier version of Flash. They do not work on Flash MX 2004. Not only that, but they continually leave out things that you need to know. I spent as much time looking through the help files as I did reading the text.
The presentation is chaotic and doesn't make sense. The style of the book is to have you make some kind of object and then the author gives example code to use with it. If you do one tiny thing that the author did not intend, the example doesn't work and you're left wondering why.
It's as if they expect you to have some expertise in ActionScript prior to using this book. If that's the case, then why would they have a chapter that covers a beginner's subject like how to use for-loops? Anyone who has ever done coding can speed-read through the chapter on "Variables, If, For and While Loops".
This book hasn't taught me anything about coding or ActionScript. I might go back to this book after I've learned more about ActionScript, but with the amount of mistakes the book has, it probably won't be worthwhile even at that point.
The back cover claims they use "Step by step techniques...". In my opinion, they don't do that effectively. Many of the examples start well after step number one.
The back cover also claims that it is "... illustrated with highly visual examples throughout the book..." I can't agree with that either. In one illustration, Figure 1.3, they show the entire Actions panel with a caption, "The toolbox area of the Actions panel". The problem is they don't tell or show you where the toolbox area is in the Actions panel. They don't use arrows, text, or any other way to identify it. In a much better book like "Flash MX 2004 ActionScript: Training from the Source" they have the same picture with arrows and labels. Why wouldn't someone include the arrows and labels? This is just one example of the many omissions and sloppiness that characterizes this book.
Don't waste your money and more importantly, don't waste your time with this book. Keep looking, there's plenty of better books out there that teach ActionScript.

I liked this book and the examples worked.......2005-08-08

It's rare that I write a review but on this occasion I thought I should write to say that the authors style is one you hate or love. i loved it. Although I did have a problem with some of the downloads - but it was sorted out within 24 hours of sending out an email to the support line.

this book is plain awful........2005-02-27

I bought this book, because I am very excited and eager to learn about ActionSctipting in Flash MX 2004. As others have noted, all of the references and examples in this book are based upon the interface of Flash MX. Aside from that very bad, misleading point -- this book has ZERO personality. The pages drudge on and on with points that have no supporting explanation or examples. I have busted out into out-loud laughter at how poorly this book is written. If this book had a voice, it would be the voice of Ben Stein as the teacher in Faris Beuler's Day Off. Avoid this book like the plague. There are several other books out there that are much more helpful.
(incidentally, this is the FIRST time I've ever panned a book on Amazon... I feel such incredible obligation, that I'm taking the time to do it now.)

Bought it yeasterday and it's in the garbage can today........2005-02-10

I wish I could give a ratring of 0 or negative stars.
I spent the whole morning trying to follow the examples in the early chapters and nothing worked. I went over the code it told me to enter line by line and had someone else proof it in case I missed something. Still, nothing worked. After awhile I started noticing things being mentioned that were no longer in 2004. They ask you at one point to go to Insert>Convert to Symbol. That's no longer there in 2004. Same for Windows>Actions. Also gone in 2004. That was my first clue that this was not written for ActionScript 2.0 or MX 2004, but an earlier version and has been mistitled. How this book got published is a mystery to me.
I've worked my way through lots of tutorial books and this book is a total ripoff and is in no way meant to teach beginners ActionScript 2.0. It should be taken off the shelf until they retitle it as written for MX and not 2004.
To reiterate: If you're trying to learn Flash MX 2004's ActionScript 2.0, this book has been mistitled and you will never learn it from this book.

Advances in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision: International Conferences VISAPP and GRAPP 2006, Setúbal, Portugal, February 25-28, 2006, Revised Selected ... in Computer and Information Science)

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Advances in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision: International Conferences VISAPP and GRAPP 2006, Setúbal, Portugal, February 25-28, 2006, Revised Selected ... in Computer and Information Science)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 3540752722

Book Description

This book includes selected papers of the VISAPP and GRAPP International Conferences 2006, held in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, February 25-28, 2006.

The 27 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 314 submissions. The topics include Geometry and Modeling, Rendering, Animation and Simulation, Interactive Environments, Image Formation and Processing, Image Analysis, Image Understading, Motion, Tracking and Stereo Vision.

Human Motion - Understanding, Modeling, Capture and Animation: Second Workshop, HumanMotion 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 20, 2007, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

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Human Motion - Understanding, Modeling, Capture and Animation: Second Workshop, HumanMotion 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 20, 2007, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3540757023

Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second Workshop on Human Motion, HumanMotion 2007, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 20, 2007 in conjunction with ICCV 2007.

The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Motion Capture and Pose Estimation, Body and Limb Tracking and Segmentation and Activity Recognition.

Human Motion: Understanding, Modelling, Capture and Animation (Computational Imaging and Vision)

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Human Motion: Understanding, Modelling, Capture and Animation (Computational Imaging and Vision)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1402066929

Book Description

The study of human motion dates back more than 2000 years. With the event of information technology, new areas have been added to this field. Research using computer vision and computer graphics contributes to a transformation of biomechanics into a discipline that now applies computing technology throughout; on the other hand, computer vision and computer graphics also benefit from defining goals aimed at solving problems in biomechanics. Besides interactions, all three areas also developed their own inherent research dynamics towards studying human motion.

Researchers from all three of these areas have contributed to this book to promote the establishment of human motion research as a multi-facetted discipline and to improve the exchange of ideas and concepts between these three areas. Some chapters review the state of the art whilst others report on leading edge research results, with applications in medicine, sport science, cinematography and robotics.

Understanding dynamic and static displays: using images to reason dynamically [An article from: Cognitive Systems Research]

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Understanding dynamic and static displays: using images to reason dynamically [An article from: Cognitive Systems Research]
S. Bogacz , and J.G. Trafton
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Cognitive Systems Research, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
We examined expert meteorologists as they created a weather forecast while working in a naturalistic environment. We examined the type of external representation they chose to examine (a static image, a sequence of static images, or a dynamic display) and the kind of information they extracted from those representations (static or dynamic). We found that even though weather is an extremely dynamic domain, expert meteorologists examined very few animations, examining primarily static images. However, meteorologists did extract large amounts of dynamic information from these static images, suggesting that they reasoned about the weather by mentally animating the static images rather than letting the software do it for them.

Empirical studies of the value of algorithm animation in algorithm understanding

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Empirical studies of the value of algorithm animation in algorithm understanding
Albert Nasib Badre
Manufacturer: College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006P5X0G

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