EMOCAP: driving 3D characters with real mood dynamics

Motion capture, or "mocap," is now a standard method by which animators impress the trademark fluidity of an actor's movement on their digital characters. This animation sketch presents EMOCAP, a new method that extends the idea of mocap to the capture of psychological data defining complex human emotional states as they change over time. Although emotion capture is, like mocap, of general relevance to character animation, here we report the method and its first applications to visualizing long term patterns of psychiatric mood behavior.