DeepMotion

DeepMotion is an artificial intelligence company that develops technology for creating 3D character animations from recorded human movement and written descriptions. Founded in 2014, the company focuses on making motion capture and digital character animation more accessible to creators, developers, animation studios and entertainment professionals. Its platform combines computer vision, deep learning, biomechanical simulation and 3D body tracking to convert human movement into digital animation without requiring traditional motion-capture suits or extensive physical tracking equipment.

DeepMotion’s technology is designed to support different animation workflows, including video-to-3D animation and text-to-3D motion generation. Its main products include Animate 3D and SayMotion. Animate 3D converts video recordings into digital character movement, while SayMotion focuses on generating 3D animations from natural-language descriptions and video prompts. These tools are intended to reduce the time and technical effort involved in producing character animation.

Animate 3D is DeepMotion’s markerless AI motion-capture platform. It allows users to upload videos of people performing actions and convert the recorded movements into 3D animations. Instead of requiring performers to wear motion-capture suits or attach tracking markers, the system analyses the visual information in the recording to estimate body movement. This makes it possible to create animation data from compatible footage recorded with ordinary cameras, including video captured using smartphones.

The platform is designed for people who want to animate digital characters using real human performances. Users can upload supported video files, select their animation settings and allow the system to process the recording. Once processing is complete, the resulting animation can be previewed, downloaded and used in compatible 3D production applications. This workflow can help animators build movement libraries, create character performances and develop animation references for games, films and digital content.

One of Animate 3D’s important capabilities is full-body motion tracking. The system analyses the performer’s movement and estimates the positions and rotations of the body’s joints to produce a digital motion sequence. Its tracking technology is intended to capture actions such as walking, running, jumping, dancing and other human movements. The resulting animation can be applied to digital characters, helping creators produce movement without manually animating every frame.

DeepMotion also supports hand and facial tracking. These features provide additional movement information beyond the main body animation, making the platform useful for projects that require more expressive character performances. Hand tracking can help capture gestures and finger movements, while facial tracking adds information about facial movement. These capabilities are particularly relevant to character animation, virtual production and digital-human applications. The availability of individual tracking features and their credit requirements depend on the selected plan and processing settings.

Multi-person tracking is another feature of Animate 3D. It allows the system to analyse recordings containing multiple performers and generate movement data for more than one person. The number of people supported in a single recording depends on the subscription tier. This can be useful for scenes involving group movement, choreography, interactions and other performances where several characters need to be animated from the same recording.

The platform includes physics simulation and motion-processing features intended to improve the quality of generated animations. Foot locking helps maintain more consistent contact between a character’s feet and the virtual ground, reducing unwanted sliding during movement. Motion smoothing helps reduce jitter and irregular movement in the generated animation. Physics filters and other processing controls provide additional ways to refine the resulting motion. These features can help make animation outputs more suitable for use in a wider production workflow, although creators may still need to review and adjust the results.

Animate 3D also provides a Rotoscope Pose Editor for reviewing and correcting generated movement. Users can make frame-by-frame adjustments to body joints when the original tracking result does not accurately represent the recorded performance. This editing capability is useful when a movement needs additional refinement before being applied to a character. DeepMotion also operates a Free Animation Credit Program through which users can earn credits by providing detailed descriptions of recorded movements and correcting generated animations. The programme connects user feedback and animation refinement with the company’s ongoing development of its motion-generation technology.

Custom characters are supported through the platform’s character workflow. Users can work with characters supplied by the service or upload compatible 3D models. DeepMotion has also partnered with Wolf3D to support custom character creation. Users can bring compatible FBX and GLB character files into their workflow and use the generated motion to animate those models. This is useful for creators who already have characters designed for games, films or other 3D projects.

Animate 3D supports several export formats, including FBX, BVH, GLB, MP4, JPG, PNG and GIF, with some formats and capabilities depending on the selected plan and character configuration. FBX and BVH are useful for transferring animation data into other 3D applications, while GLB supports compatible 3D character workflows. Video and image exports provide additional options for presenting or reviewing generated results. These formats make the platform suitable for different stages of an animation pipeline.

DeepMotion also offers the Animate 3D REST API for developers and businesses that want to integrate motion capture into their own applications. The API allows compatible video footage to be submitted for animation processing, with generated results available for download in formats such as FBX and BVH. Its capabilities include full-body tracking, hand and face tracking, multi-person tracking, physics simulation and automatic retargeting to custom characters. API access requires registration and a separate access request, while high-volume usage is handled through the company’s API arrangements.

The API can support applications that need to create 3D motion from existing video footage. Developers can use it to build motion libraries, automate parts of animation production and incorporate character movement into their own software. This may be useful for game-development platforms, digital-content applications and other services that need access to human movement data. The API is separate from the standard Animate 3D subscription plans, so organisations should confirm its access requirements and commercial terms before planning a large-scale integration.

SayMotion expands DeepMotion’s platform beyond conventional video-based motion capture. It is a generative AI tool designed to create 3D motion from text descriptions and video prompts. Users can describe an action or movement and use the platform to generate corresponding character animation. This approach can be useful when a creator has an animation idea but does not have a suitable recorded performance to use as reference footage. It also provides another way to explore character movement during early creative development.

The combination of video-based capture and text-based motion generation gives DeepMotion different options for creating digital performances. Animate 3D is suited to users who want to reproduce movement from recorded footage, while SayMotion supports users who want to generate motion from written descriptions. Both approaches are relevant to character animation, although the available features, access arrangements and pricing may differ between the products.

DeepMotion is designed for a range of creative industries. Game developers can use its motion-capture technology to create character movement and build reusable animation libraries. Film and animation professionals can use captured performances as part of digital character production. Virtual reality and immersive-content developers can use 3D movement data to support interactive experiences. Educators and researchers may also explore the platform for studying or demonstrating human movement and digital animation techniques.

The platform’s main advantage is that it reduces dependence on traditional motion-capture equipment for many video-based animation tasks. It gives creators a way to produce digital movement from compatible recordings and provides additional tools for refining the results. However, DeepMotion is not a complete 3D modelling or animation-production suite. Users may still need separate software for character creation, rigging, scene design, lighting and final rendering. The quality of the generated animation can also depend on the clarity of the original footage, camera positioning, lighting, visibility of the performer and complexity of the recorded movement.

DeepMotion was established in 2014 and has developed its technology around AI-powered motion capture, physics simulation and real-time 3D body tracking. Its products are intended to support entertainment, social media, gaming and digital-human applications. By combining video-to-animation processing, text-based motion generation, editing tools and API access, the company provides a specialised platform for people who want to create or incorporate human movement into digital characters.

Pricing

DeepMotion offers a free Animate 3D plan and several paid subscription tiers. The following prices are advertised for annual billing:

• Freemium: Free, with 25 monthly credits, up to 20 seconds per video clip and one free rerun.
• Starter: $9 per month, billed annually, with 180 monthly credits.
• Innovator: $17 per month, billed annually, with 480 monthly credits.
• Professional: $39 per month, billed annually, with 1,500 monthly credits.
• Animation Studio: $83 per month, billed annually, with unlimited animation credits. The first 7,200 monthly credits receive the highest processing priority.

The plans also differ in supported video duration, multi-person tracking, custom-character limits, upload sizes, resolution, frame rates and processing priority. API and real-time SDK pricing are provided separately through the company’s contact process. SayMotion has its own access and pricing arrangements.

Review

DeepMotion is a useful platform for creators who want to produce 3D character animations from video recordings or text descriptions. Its main strength is the combination of markerless motion capture, full-body tracking, hand and facial tracking, multi-person support and animation refinement tools. These capabilities can reduce the amount of manual work involved in creating character movement and make motion capture more accessible to independent creators and smaller studios.

Animate 3D provides a straightforward workflow for converting recorded performances into digital animation. Its support for common 3D export formats makes it easier to transfer generated movement into other production applications. The Rotoscope Pose Editor is another useful addition because it gives users a way to correct tracking results instead of relying entirely on the initial automated output. SayMotion adds another creative option by generating motion from written descriptions.

The main limitations involve processing credits, recording conditions and the need for additional production software. Free and lower-priced plans have restrictions on clip duration, upload size, resolution and processing priority. Users working on longer or more demanding projects may need a higher subscription. Generated movement can also require manual correction, particularly when the original footage has poor visibility, complicated movement or challenging camera positioning.

DeepMotion is best suited to game developers, animators, digital-content creators and studios that need an accessible way to generate human movement for 3D characters. Its API also makes it relevant to developers building applications that incorporate motion capture. It is worth considering for video-based animation and text-driven motion generation, provided users evaluate the plan limits and test the output quality with their intended recording conditions.