JJ Abrams is well known for his “shakycam” footage that appears in every film. It lends alot of suspense and “realism” to the footage, but in a film like Star Trek it’s difficult to recreate. With completely CG-rendered scenes, the guys at ILM spent alot of time researching motion capture technology that could duplicate the effect but eventually pronounced it too expensive and time-consuming.
Still, the mo-cap folks had another technology that was both simple and cheap: an orientation sensor that could be plugged into a computer with a simple USB connection and used to record motion. So Kavanagh and his animation team figured out that if they tapped on a desk while filming scenes with CG cameras–on-screen camera viewers that incorporate realistic lenses–and layered the motion from the orientation sensors underneath, they could get the same effect as Abrams got with live-action.
via Animation tricks create modern ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise | Geek Gestalt – CNET News.
