Motion Capture graphics

Motion capture, or mocap for short, is a process that filmmakers and animators have been using to create lifelike animations for movies, tv shows, or video games. It records human movement in real life and converts it to a digital character. It was used extensively in the movie Avatar (2009) to create the Na'vi people.  

As seen in the picture, it involves the human actors wearing suits covered in markers, usually bright lights that are easy for a camera to track and a computer vision algorithm to identify. Cameras will track the movement of the markers, and special computer animation software will identify the location of the markers. Animators will then take this data acquired from the cameras and use it to animate characters that move just like a person would, but that look very different from a human. Computer science is relevant here because mathematical and computational computer programs and algorithms are necessary in order to take just a video of some people in weird suits and convert it to an amazing animation.

This video shows some great examples of what motion capture can be used to animate, it's worth the watch!!  https://vimeo.com/169599296

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References:

http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhbpwwr8PC1qgtvbuo5_1280.jpg (avatar picture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture#Methods_and_systems (general info about mocap)

http://www.organicmotion.com/motion-capture/ (more info about mocap)

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~halzahaw/MotionCapture_main.html (briefly describes the process of animation using mocap)