What is data post-processing and what does it involve?

Data post-processing (sometimes referred as data-cleaning and mapping) usually refers to several data manipulation being applied to the motion capture data. In optical motion capture systems, for example, after you capture the movements of your actors, the data is stored as raw 2D data. ‘Reconstruction’ process will convert it into continuous 3D trajectories. ‘Label’ process will label all the trajectories and so on. Additional processing may be needed when there are data gaps (usually when one or more marker(s) is occluded or hidden), jitters and other data-noises.

The amount of data processing required, usually depends on the complexity of the motions, the number of motion capture cameras, number of simultaneous performers recordings, props etc.

MOTEK always delivers cleaned motion capture data, after reconstruction, labeling, filtering and smoothing

The next step in data processing will be character mapping. In this stage, the motion capture data is mapped on the actual 3D character. The trick is to map the motion data so that the 3D character will look and behave as natural as possible (according to the specific characteristic of the 3D character). Differences in body proportions (between the live actor and the 3D character) and interactions with other actors and/or the environment may influence profoundly on the behaviour and look of the 3D character. A great amount of experience and expertise is needed to map it correctly.

MOTEK has lots of experience in data mapping and it is one of our services. We use MotionBuilder/FilmBox to map the motion data on the skeleton of the 3D model, delivering back to you 3D scene files. If you are a 3D Studio Max user, we can deliver mapped characters in BVH files, or alternatively motion applied directly to Max-bones. Note that BVH format might have some perfection problems caused by the biped-plug in.