Homemade mocap?

sbiswas

Hi guys, I was wondering if I could capture mocap data from my video camera itself? I know this sounds funny but I still wanted to ask! If it is possible It would be great if you could help me out with some information! Thanks!

unit187

Yes, but don't bother. You will spend crapload of time trying to clean and fix shitty mocap. And because of limited amount of cameras you will have very limited range of motions it can capture.

Imo without professional equipment it is faster and easier to just learn to animate by hand.

sbiswas

unit187 wrote: »

Yes, but don't bother. You will spend crapload of time trying to clean and fix shitty mocap. And because of limited amount of cameras you will have very limited range of motions it can capture.

Imo without professional equipment it faster and easier to just learn to animate by hand.

You are probably right! I am doing my reel and I'm planning to include some animations in it to make the world feel alive. I know how to animate but I'm not an expert, lol. Can you suggest any alternatives? Thanks

unit187

You can try to use kinect or something similar, but again, it would take ages to set up the system, capture the performance, clean the data... I would still suggest to animate your characters by hand. If you don't plan to use some fancy combat moves, it should be relatively easy.

sbiswas

unit187 wrote: »

You can try to use kinect or something similar, but again, it would take ages to set up the system, capture the performance, clean the data... I would still suggest to animate your characters by hand. If you don't plan to use some fancy combat moves, it should be relatively easy.

Well, I need like 8-10 types of character animations (walking, standing, still pose with some sort of random motion + animations of other random stuff). You have any idea how feasible this might be? If it is possible to wrap up in a month or so? Thanks!

unit187

It depends on your rigging and animation skills. Experienced person could do it in a couple of days, but you - I don't know. I guess your portfolio work is an environment art or something like that, so I would suggest to simplify the task a little bit: cut all hard animations like walking and leave only 2-3 idle poses with some simple motion.

sbiswas

Yes my portfolio is going to be on 3D Art (Environment/character). Actually, you said it quite correct though! Idle poses. Yeah. Seems like it will get the job done, but before animation, comes "rigging". lol

claydough

been excited with the affordabilty of the optitrack camera systems.

as cheap as $7000 for a body capture bundle:

http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/systems/#motive-body/flex-3/6
I think their system was used fer one of the latest underworld movies?

It would be nice for broader adoption if the price fell a bit more ( perhaps revolutionary then. like the 3dprinting movement )

Eric Chadwick

Not for full-character mocap, but I've used this utility in Max to capture mouse movements, to simulate a hand-held camera. Worked really well.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-B33631D4-AB68-46A1-AE19-6E04F913002C

sbiswas

@claydough $7000? lol

claydough

sbiswas wrote: »

@claydough $7000? lol

easily affordable...
just dump yer girlfriend ( priorities )

xChris

I might be wrong, but I heard you can set up multiple kinects to do at home mocap?

Zack Maxwell

xChris wrote: »

I might be wrong, but I heard you can set up multiple kinects to do at home mocap?

Yeah, that was something I was considering trying eventually. Setting up 2-3 Kinects in my room.

claydough

It looks like Autodesk is sitting on Movimento after they bought it. Not sure if the tech is being folded into some of their other software or if they have given up on it?

I remember seeing it sold at a ridiculously low discount awhile back. ( like $49 )
Not sure how that affects lic tho? But fer the price it might be worth checking out.

( it could "supposedly" provide some useable motion with only 2 or 3 video cameras. )

Anyone ever actually try Movimento or similar?

Add3r

I feel like the cleanup necessary on top of just getting the rig to capture anything of quality with Kinects would far outweigh the pros of mocap at that point. Would think it would be soooo much quicker to create a general animation sets and work out a procedural rig repoint/anim repoint system to apply to an array of character meshes. Saying that is what you are trying to cut time down on, a long list of anim sets.