Immersive VR-MoCap for Creative Motion Design in Character Animation Training: A Classroom-Based Comparative Study

Although motion capture has become integral to contemporary animation pipelines, university teaching still asks students to learn motion largely through screen-based keyframing. To address this gap, this classroom-based comparative study evaluated one structured motion-design lesson within an immersive MoCap-supported training module. Sixty-eight undergraduates in a computer animation course completed the same task in either a Keyframe condition (n = 33) or a VR-MoCap condition (n = 35), with instructional delivery mode as the only difference. Creative performance was assessed in originality, fluency, aesthetic quality, clarity, and a composite score. MANOVA revealed a significant multivariate effect of condition (Pillai’s trace = 0.454, F(4, 63) = 13.12, p < 0.001). Relative to keyframe instruction, VR-MoCap produced significantly higher originality, fluency, clarity, and composite performance, whereas aesthetic quality did not differ significantly. Supplementary group-interview responses further indicated that students experienced the immersive condition as more engaging, more intuitive, and better suited to immediate feedback and embodied movement exploration. Immersive VR-MoCap appears most useful in the early phases of motion design and is better understood as complementing, rather than replacing, conventional keyframe training.