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Body and Facial Tracking Marks
Markers will make tracking faster, easier, and more accurate. On the face, markers might be little Avery dots from an office supply store, “magic marker” spots, pom-poms with rubber cement(?), mascara, or grease paint. Note that small colored dots tend to lose their coloration in video images, especially with motion blur. Make sure there is a luminance difference. Single-pixel-sized spots are less accurate than those that are several pixels across.
Markers should be placed on the face in locations that reflect the underlying musculature and the facial rigging they must drive. Be sure to include markers on comparatively stationary parts of the head.
For body tracking, a typical approach is to put the performer in a black outfit (such as UnderArmour), and attach table-tennis balls as tracking features onto the joints. To achieve enough visibility, placing balls on both the top and bottom of the elbow may be necessary. Because the markers must be placed on the outside of the body, away from the true joint locations, character rigging will have to take this into account.
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