Over the last couple decades, many dancers, graphics artists, and computer scientists have explored some of the potential applications of computer graphics and animation to the creation, education and performance of dance. Body Paint is a real-time interactive motion-capture program where a dancer will get immediate “feedback” on her movements in the form of a 2-dimensional virtual “painting.” The dancer has a variety of options: the quality of the stroke (oil paints, charcoals, or ink, etc.), the view of the “painting,” and the way the mapping is generated. Other factors, such as color and weight of the stroke, will be interpreted by the algorithm and based solely on her movement. When performing with Body Paint, not only will the dancer’s movement influence the developing image, but the image will in turn influence how the dancer continues moving and uses the performance space.

Senior Design Project blog