• Cartoon and Animation Studies
• /
• s.37
• /
• pp.221-245
• /
• 2014

With the success of the world's first 3D computer animated film, "Toy Story" in 1995, industrial development of 3D computer animation gained considerable momentum. Consequently, various 3D animations for TV were produced; in addition, high quality 3D computer animation games became common. To save a large amount of 3D animation production time and cost, technological development has been conducted actively, in accordance with the expansion of industrial demand in this field. Further, compared with the traditional approach of producing animations through hand-drawings, the efficiency of producing 3D computer animations is infinitely greater. In this study, an experiment and a comparative analysis of markerless motion capture systems for facial expression animation has been conducted that aims to improve the efficiency of 3D computer animation production. Faceware system, which is a product of Image Metrics, provides sophisticated production tools despite the complexity of motion capture recognition and application process. Faceshift system, which is a product of same-named Faceshift, though relatively less sophisticated, provides applications for rapid real-time motion recognition. It is hoped that the results of the comparative analysis presented in this paper become baseline data for selecting the appropriate motion capture and key frame animation method for the most efficient production of facial expression animation in accordance with production time and cost, and the degree of sophistication and media in use, when creating animation.