VIve tracker-based motion capture using the Brekel openvr recorder

[toyxyz (sj)]

My vive tracker mocap workflow

Vive tracker Mocap (Brekel OpenVR Recorder) to Blender(Auto rig pro) tutorial

Mocap example(Before cleanup)

Vive tracker mocap test _ no clean up

Mocap example

Vive tracker mocap test 006

Mocap example with character mesh

Vive tracker mocap test 007

Vive tracker mocap test 009

Brekel openvr recorder ($): Brekel OpenVR Recorder - Brekel » Brekel

Blender / Auto-rig pro ($): Auto-Rig Pro - Blender Market

Blender / Vive tracker (Brekel OpenVR Recorder) to Auto rig pro toolkit (Free) : Blender Addon - Vive tracker(Brekel OpenVR Recorder) to Auto rig pro toolkit (gumroad.com)

Vive Tracker Mocap example Blender files : Mocap_Test_001.blend - Google Drive

I’ve been working on motion capture using the Vive tracker for a while now.

As a result of testing various tools, I personally found Brekel openvr recorder relatively convenient.

The Brekel recorder simply records the motion of the tracker, HMD, and controller; it does not create character bone animations. It does not support creating and exporting character animations like steam vr-based mocap such as mocap fusion or orion.

HTC Vive / Oculus Rift motion capture with Brekel OpenVR Recorder

So my approach is to import the tracker motion recorded from the Brekel recorder into Blender and constrain it to an Auto-rig pro character rig.

The advantages of this method are:

1. When certain trackers (especially the pelvis, feet) fail to track or disconnect. For the general Steam vr-based Mocap tool, the whole body motion is messed up and cumbersome to fix, but this way the animation of one tracker is problematic. you only need to edit Even if jittering occurs, there is no need to modify the tracker of the whole body, only the part of the animation of one tracker that is having the problem is fixed.

Tracker tracking fail example

2. The vive tracker mocap tool mostly uses IK for limb animation. So, if you don’t set it up correctly, it’s easy to see your limbs “popping”. This is because the tracker has moved outside the maximum length range of the limb bones. In my method, just because the character bones are constrained to the tracker, if the animation looks unnatural, just select the bones of that part and adjust the position a bit.

Disadvantages :

1. It takes extra time to constrain the tracker to Auto-rig pro rig, bake it, and then export the motion. So I made a simple tool to speed up the constraint process. : https://toyxyz.gumroad.com/l/pmoua

2. It is impossible to record the mocap while checking the character’s appearance in real time. However, since the Brekel recorder supports OSC, it is thought that the character can be animated in real time. More research is needed.