Spirited Mannequin
Background:
My inspiration for my animation stemmed from my participation as a member of the USC Spirit Leaders Squad. I’ve been a cheerleader for about 14 years now, so it’s a very big part of my life. I wanted to incorporate it into this project, so I utilized the choreography that my team does to the USC Fight Song (the dance is officially called Fight Song 3).
Process:
- I began by recording myself doing Fight Song 3. This part took a lot of trial and error because my background wasn’t fully one color. because of this, I had to alter a lot of variables (the color I was wearing, the angle I set my laptop, the lighting, etc.) to obtain the best reading of my motions.
*Screen Capture of my recording*
- From there, I edited the video to crop and shorten the recording to only my actions. This was a little harder to do on my laptop, so I airdropped the video to my phone to edit adequately.
- I then uploaded my video to Rokoku and made any additional edits needed. Then video was then generated and I had to adjust from there, specifically dealing with my windows. The bright light originally hindered how well the recording translated to the mannequin, so I closed the windows to make the light a little less prominent.
Final Animation (with original video in corner)
Reflections:
- I honestly really enjoyed this project because it taught me a skill that is greatly useful and efficient. Motion capture is something I have always wanted to get into, so I was really excited that I had the opportunity to. I was able to not only learn softwares such as Rokoku, but understand the dynamics that need to be considered when recording for motion capture (such as clothing, lighting, background, and so much more).
- I hope to continue to develop this motion caption. For example, I want to continue to grow my Blender skills so that I could possibly add a USC Cheerleader uniform onto my mannequin.
- In the future, I will be sure to take more consideration into my space that I record in, especially if it’s a very vibrant space with a lot of changes in color and background.