Motion Workshop Shadow Motion Capture System

Shadow Motion Capture System is a professional, portable full-body inertial motion capture system (MOCAP). It consists of 17 inertial measurement units (IMUs) distributed across the user's body, a wireless controller, mounting components, and foot pressure pads.

The system allows you to record the movement of an actor or a subject without building a studio equipped with optical cameras. Data can be recorded locally, exported to popular animation and measurement formats, or transmitted live to game engines, 3D applications, and custom software.

Shadow is available in three functional versions:

Animator – for recording animations for games, film, and television;

Streaming – for transmitting live motion to game engines and 3D applications;

Biomech – for motion research, biomechanics, ergonomics, sports, and machine learning.

The manufacturer claims that you can get started and obtain your first recordings in approximately 15 minutes after unpacking the system.

Technical Specifications
Tracking Technology: Inertial full-body motion capture.
Number of Sensors: 17 precision IMUs.
Measurement Elements of Each Sensor:
- Triaxial Accelerometer,
- Triaxial Gyroscope,
- Triaxial Magnetometer.
Additional Sensors: Two Pairs of Foot Pressure Insoles.
Output Data Rate:
- 100 Hz,
- 200 Hz,
- 400 Hz.
Internal Update Rate: 1000 Hz.
Static Orientation Accuracy: 0.5°.
Dynamic Orientation Accuracy: 2°.
Single Sensor Size: 33 × 18 × 6 mm.
Accelerometer Range: ±8 g.
Gyroscope Range: ±4000°/s.
Magnetometer Range: ±8 Gauss.
Body-worn components weight: approximately 1.2 kg.
System weight in shipping packaging: approximately 1.6 kg.
Battery life: up to 8 hours.
Battery capacity: 10 Ah.
Controller memory: 8 GB.
Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 5, i.e., IEEE 802.11ac.
Manufacturer-declared range:
up to 32 m indoors,
up to 95 m outdoors.
Transmission latency:
- approximately 20 ms via Wi-Fi,
- approximately 5 ms via USB.
Wired connection: USB Standard-A.
Recorded data is synchronized and collected by the controller every 10 ms.

These values ​​represent the parameters declared by the manufacturer. Actual range and transmission stability may depend on radio interference, building structure, Wi-Fi network configuration, and the number of devices operating nearby.

System Versions

Shadow Animator

The basic version is designed for character motion capture for games, animation, film, and television.
Includes:
full-body motion capture;
wireless operation via Wi-Fi;
animation export to FBX format;
an application for Windows, macOS, and Linux;
software updates.
The Animator version is primarily suitable for recording clips that will then be imported and edited in a 3D program.

Shadow Streaming

An extended version is designed for real-time work, virtual production, and interactive applications.
Includes the features of the Animator version plus:
live motion streaming;
integration with Unreal Engine;
integration with Unity;
integration with Autodesk Maya;
integration with Autodesk MotionBuilder;
SDK.
The Streaming version is required when an actor's motion is to be immediately reproduced on a digital character.

Shadow Biomech

The most advanced version designed for research, biomechanics, and industrial applications.
Includes Animator and Streaming functions, as well as:
access to raw data from inertial sensors;
measurement rates of 100, 200, and 400 frames or samples per second;
export to CSV, C3D, and BVH formats;
wired USB transmission;
access to data for scientific analysis and machine learning;
integration with your own analytical applications.

Software Required for Operation

Basic Shadow Software

Communication with the sensors requires the Shadow App software, also referred to as Motion Service in the documentation.
The application is responsible for:
device detection and configuration;
receiving data from sensors;
processing measurement data;
movement monitoring;
session recording;
saving data to disk;
exporting recordings;
sharing data streams with other applications.
The Shadow application must be running while using the sensors.

Supported Operating Systems

The manufacturer's current download page lists:
Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit;
macOS Catalina 10.15 or later;
Ubuntu 20.04;
Debian 10 for AMD64 architecture.
The manufacturer also states support for iOS and Android devices, but does not provide a similarly detailed list of supported versions of these mobile operating systems.

Optional Software

Depending on the application, you may need:
Unreal Engine – live motion broadcasting, game development, and virtual production;
Unity – motion broadcasting for applications, games, simulators, and XR projects;
Autodesk Maya – animation, retargeting, and data processing;
Autodesk MotionBuilder – processing and editing motion capture animations;
Blender – importing FBX files and further processing animations;
Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheets – analyzing CSV files;
Mokka – visualizing biomechanical data saved in C3D format;
MATLAB, R, Python, or Jupyter Notebook – analyzing measurement data;
custom applications using the SDK or C API.
Live broadcasting support and access to the SDK depend on the purchased license version.

Supported Data Formats

Depending on the selected version, the system may support:
FBX – an animated skeleton for 3D programs and game engines; BVH – skeleton hierarchy, joint rotations, and position of the main skeletal element; C3D – motion data and biomechanical measurements; CSV – tabular data for analysis in Excel, Python, MATLAB, or R;
Shadow internal formats: MTake, MConf, MStream.
The manufacturer states that CSV and C3D files can contain full session data, including raw sensor measurements, but access to this data is primarily tied to the Biomech version.