A Study on the Application of Character Animation for Motion Analysis Using Motion Capture Data

This study compared the Character Studio of 3ds Max and OpenGL to find an adequate modeling method of character animation to be used in motion analysis in the area of motor mechanics. The subject was one male golfer. We obtained the positional coordinates of marks needed by photographing the subject's golf swing motions. Because the method based on the Character Studio used meticulously designed character meshes, it enabled high.level animation but it took a long time in applying physique and demanded the repeated adjustment of each motion data. With the method based on OpenGL, a character completed once could be usable to almost every testee and desired program control was available, but because each character had to be created by making a computer program, it was hard to make characters delicately. Because the method using the Character Studio is actively studied not only in motor mechanics but also in many research areas, it is expected to be more usable in the near future. On the contrary, the method based on OpenGL is easily applicable and allows the convenient use of other mechanical data.