Looking back on Motion Analysis’ highlights of 2022

As one year draws to a close and another one begins, it’s only natural to reflect and think about all the progress that was made in 2022. It’s equally natural to look ahead and make plans for the future.

For Motion Analysis, 2022 was a rather momentous year. We celebrated 40 years of helping our many different clients leverage mocap software to bring their research to life and to enrich their creative projects. Over the course of the four decades we’ve been in business, we’ve had the opportunity, and the incredible privilege, to use motion capture in ways that we could never have imagined when we started out. 

Below, we unpack a few of the other highlights in mocap that made 2022 a great year. 

We moved on from the pandemic

When we look back on 2022, a big Motion Analysis highlight is the fact that things are really starting to return to normal. During the pandemic, most industries experienced supply chain issues, which affected their ability to work without disruption. As Motion Analysis designs, engineers and builds our products in California – everything we do is proudly Made in America – we were able to limit the impact of these supply chain restraints and the adverse impact this might have on our customers. This might be the reason why we’ve seen a strong increase in US sales this year. While we weren’t hugely affected by supply chain issues, we have been very strategic about keeping an eye on our supply chains so that we can address any issues before they affect our ability to build and ship the products our customers want and need.  

Looking more broadly, after an understandable slowdown during the peak of the pandemic, it’s great to see that the industry has rebounded to pre-COVID levels. This is a sign that research and development have resumed and appears to be thriving once again.

We refreshed our brand

In May, our website got a much-needed facelift because we wanted it to better align with our commitment to innovation and quality. By streamlining our logo, modernizing the Motion Analysis color palette and adding fresh imagery, we believe that we’ve injected new vitality and relevance into our brand and we hope that our new branding conveys the energy and passion that we value so much as a team. If you haven’t seen it already, take a look: https://motionanalysis.com/ 

We expanded our product line

Keen to make the work we do more affordable, we launched the BaSix range of cameras.

This family of cameras consists of the three “light” cameras (in ascending order of capability): BaseCam, the Icefall, and the Lhotse. These cameras are used with active marker rigs (BaSix markers) and either BaSix Go software or our premium solution, Cortex. This range of cameras is designed to help smaller 3D animation and gaming studios start their own mocap journeys, with the entry-level system (using BaseCams) starting at $20,000. We also debuted the Firefly Active Marker Kit. A complete active marker tracking set, Firefly is ideal for data scientists, private researchers or anybody carrying out investigative work with drones because these markers are so small and lightweight. We also launched the latest iteration of our Cortex software – Cortex 9.2. This software update includes new features and has been improved and updated based on insights from our customers and changes in the industry. 

We attended a range of industry events

After two years without in-person events and conferences, it was great to get back into the swing of things in 2022. We had the opportunity to attend several events this year and got the chance to interact with our clients and colleagues once again. In March, we hosted a booth at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. We sponsored the Career Award at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting and World Congresses on Exercise is Medicine and Basic Science of Exercise and Vascular Health, which was held in San Diego. Of course the National Conference on Biomechanics (NACOB) in Ottowa was a highlight, as was the International Symposium on 3D Analysis of Human Movement, which took place in Tokyo, Japan. 

We worked with new clients

Other Motion Analysis highlights include welcoming several new clients to the Motion Analysis family. In 2022, we worked with some of the world’s top universities, video game businesses, medical facilities, sporting brands and even leading aerospace companies. Each new client brings something different to the table and we love getting the chance to use our hardware and software to bring their ideas to life and answer their research questions. 

We’re ready for what lies ahead in 2023!

For us, mocap in 2023 is all about staying innovative and looking for ways to enhance the work we do so that we can better support the research and the creativity of our clients. As our technology makes its way into other industries, we hope to attend a more varied range of conferences and events this year. We are also excited about what we can achieve under the guidance of our new president, Brian Leedy, who stepped into the role in December. If you want to keep up with all things mocap in 2023, please follow along on our journey in the new year by subscribing to our newsletter. Or you can follow Motion Analysis on LinkedIn and Twitter.