The idea of a font based on motion capture is not new; for example, a year ago, Toyota hired two graphic designers to create a typeface based on the movements of the Toyota iQ car. But Oregon Ballet Theatre, FashionBuddha, and W+K12 have joined together to put their own spin on the idea. The result is Ligne, an alphabet with glyphs formed by the bodies of two ballet dancers.
According to the Ballet Font Project website, the “dancers were fitted with infrared lights, which captured their steps in real time as they danced all 26 letters of the alphabet. The dancers’ performance was filmed using an HD video camera and a camera with an infrared filter. Using custom software, the infrared light traced the dancer’s movements over the top of the HD video in real time. A second application evaluated the movements and converted the points and lines into a usable TrueType font”.
The website, shown in a screen capture below, is well worth a visit to download the Ligne font and find out more about the project.
This article was last modified on December 14, 2022
This article was first published on July 14, 2010
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