motion capture: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

Motion capture records and digitally replicates existing movement from a real-world source. Traditional animation involves creating movement frame-by-frame, either by hand or by manually posing a digital model (keyframing). Mo-cap is often used for realistic human movement, while animation allows for more stylised or physically impossible actions.

It is primarily a noun phrase. However, in informal and professional technical contexts, it is commonly verbed as 'to motion-capture' (often hyphenated). For example, 'We need to motion-capture that sequence again.'

Actors typically wear a tight-fitting suit (a 'mocap suit') covered in small, reflective markers or sensors. Special cameras track these markers' positions in space, recording the movement data. For facial capture, they may wear a head rig with cameras or have markers applied directly to their face.

Yes. It has significant applications in sports science for analysing athlete technique, in medicine for gait analysis and rehabilitation, in robotics for programming movement, and in virtual reality for user interaction.

A technology for recording and analyzing the movement of objects or people, primarily used to animate digital characters in films, video games, and other media.

Motion capture is usually technical/formal in register.

Motion capture: in British English it is pronounced /ˈməʊʃn ˌkæptʃə/, and in American English it is pronounced /ˈmoʊʃn ˌkæptʃɚ/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.