Mocap UTD - Setting Projects in Motion

Thank you for visiting the Impact UTD project page for the UT Dallas Motion Capture Studio (Mocap). The goal of our student-led project is to help enhance the Mocap Studio with funding to acquire new supplies to keep our lab on the cutting edge in a growing industry.

Our Mocap Studio is an amazing resource for UTD students working on animations, short films and video game content. Motion capture technology allows for smooth and natural movement in computer animation projects, and it's a resource that is growing in many major production companies. It changes the approach to digital art, giving greater freedom of expression in body language. The precision and fluidity of motion capture allows for deeper emotions conveyed through characters' facial features and gestures. And with improvement in the technology, it greatly speeds up the production time of a project.

What is Motion Capture?

If you've watched behind-the-scenes footage of special effects in some blockbuster movies, you've probably seen motion capture technology in action. But if you're unfamiliar with it, here's how it works, both in major movie studios and our Mocap Studio.

To bring realism to the craft of animation in films and video games, actors come into the studio and dress in a motion capture suit. This suit has highly reflective special markers attached to key points that take in light from the motion capture cameras and reflect it directly back. Because each person has unique proportions, the markers can be removed and repositioned accordingly, making it possible to accurately imitate the motion of a human or even an animal. With this data, the most imaginative characters come to life on the screen!

Our Goals

We Need Your Help!

UT Dallas provides students an awesome motion capture studio that was launched in 2005 to create incredible projects. But as technology continues to change at a rapid pace, it's important for equipment to stay up-to-date in both education and student productions.

UT Dallas is built on the principles of innovation and groundbreaking advancement, and, as students in the arts and technology program, we want to take the Mocap Studio to the next level and make it a greater resource for students. To achieve that, we're reaching out in the hopes of growing our studio resources, enabling us to fully utilize the capabilities of the technology and develop greater skills for a quicker workflow on projects.

Game production, animation, creative arts, previsualization, research and prototyping — the benefits of a well-established motion capture studio — allow for projects of all kinds. Funds to support the UTD Mocap Studio will give us more markers to record more subjects at once for seamless interaction of characters as well as higher quality data gained through high quality equipment like calibration wands, and other resources that will impact the studio, the students' experiences, and the projects that proudly bear the UT Dallas name.

Make a Contribution

To contribute to the Mocap Studio project, click Give Now near the top of this page. Gifts are considered charitable contributions to The University of Texas at Dallas and tax-deductible. Your support is appreciated and will help students and animation teams at UTD be the best they can be!

Please share our link www.MocapUTD.com with your friends and family.Thank you for your support! 

#mocapUTD  #impactUTD

If you're interested in learning more about motion capture and the resources available to students at UT Dallas, please feel free to visit our studio and find more information about ATEC degree plans. You are always welcome to visit our studio in person, and talk with faculty and current students to see if ATEC and motion capture are fields of study you would like to pursue.