The rigging is as simple as me weight painting a mesh to the imported bvh rig (I had to make changes to the right leg to invert it), deformations could be MUCH smoother than that. Don’t know if they will have feet and hand support, but they are planning further expansions with facial mocap so I would figure they are coming if not in the launch version.
The general idea is that you buy this program (when released of course), record with a webcam or two (other cameras can be used from what I gather) and it backtracks a workable .bvh file (motion capture data) that you can import into Blender and use to animate your characters. No markers or specific types of cameras needed.
:ba:
If I had more details, trust me - I’d share them excitedly. Their web page and the videos on there explain most basic details you may want to know.
(Mods - figured this was the place to put this thread as it is about another program yet it directly affects Blender, much like Gimp and other such programs. If you disagree, please put it in it’s place. Kudos for all your work!)
WOW Ben,
THAT is the best news that has ever hit small production teams!
I never imagined that this type of technology would ever be affordable enough to actually implement. I am considering buying “Zign Track” to speed up and improve facial animation and yes, if this is reasonable, who could pass that up?
Apparently they exhibited/spoke at Siggraph, did anyone catch a glimpse? I doubt it would have been a big stand/stall/whatever.
@Hobo Joe - could have sworn I set it to public, should be fixed now. Thats why I put the youtube one up in case I forgot something with vimeo.
@onemanblend - Zign Track, never heard of it before. Looked at the site, liked the price, will look into it more later. I’m about to get paid for another project or two, but will probably have to wait a little anyway. Obviously good to save something, but access to this sort of stuff makes more contracts possible… 'tis a balance.
A bit of a ‘bump’ I know, but with reason. I have the opportunity to be an alpha tester for this software and a quick test the other night was successful right through to getting my captured .bvh data into Blender! I’m not sure where I will most regularly post updates, but probably in my WIP male character thread in this forum and the occasional post in the montagestudio.org blog.
I’ve also been able to get the webcam capture software to capture from two webcams at once on my new netbook, so it will be a very portable system! 1 netbook, 2 webcams and 2 usb extension cables as a minimum! Will probably take a mouse, a mic stand or two for the cameras and power adaptor for the netbook as well, but really, compared to most mocap setups…
Release price is no secret - $250USD for single camera version and $950USD for the multiple camera version that I am testing. Not ‘cheap’ per say, but compared to other marker-less motion capture setups…
kay_Eva (and others who may ask the same question) - not sure if they are looking for further testers, but it would be worth the try if you have the right equipment and patience. Try the contact details on their website. Might help your case if you send some work through as well.
I’ve been told that it is fine for me to share my progress and results here on the forums (helps their advertising anyway) but obviously I can’t share the alpha program itself. Just makes sense.
I’ll warn you, don’t expect production ready results just yet. There are known limitations and bugs that are being worked on. If you have helped test programs before though I’m sure you know the drill, although I’ll admit that other than unstable features in Blender builds, this is my testing debut.
bvh data can be imported as either empties or an armature. The amount of bones is varied depending on the source of the data, but about 20 bones is probably the norm. A keyframe is captured basically for every bone on every frame from the human motion, so that might be a bit much for th BGE but I really don’t know.
Ordered the Blender Game Kit 2nd ed. as Yo Frankie has peaked my curiosity a little.
If you want to test a .bvh file in the BGE, there are free ones around including one on the Shoot3D website - captured with their software. I’m mainly going to use this for high res pre-rendered animations from what I can tell.
The final release version is getting closer it would seem as the website has gone through a massive overhaul and there is a 30 day trial version out. I’ve had access to an alpha testing version for a while, but unfortunately have only found time for minimal testing. I can tell you that their small recording software runs fine off a netbook with two webcams on usb extension cables. So very portable! My main issue with testing so far has been finding a large brightly and evenly lit room. I have had some progress, but lighting makes a huge difference with any webcam use.
Anyway - affordable, portable and markerless motion capture with a trial version. Go play!
Thanks - I will give the trial version a go! If what they are offering at that price comes to fruitation, then we’ll be getting for a song the awesome mocap technology.
I am mostly working on facial animation on the sideline as a hobby, but this should help!
kbot - Facial animation isn’t currently a focus but they do have the intentions of adding support in future versions. Keep in mind this is a markerless system, so faces would require a fair bit of work…
one question about the multiple camera version.
How would you connect more than one firewire camera to one pc?
I have more than one Firewire camera, but only one firewire input. Would you need more than one pc in this case, synchronized over a network (or something similar)?
Or can this be done later, after capturing the videos from different cams one by one?
Conz3D - 2x firewire I don’t know. Might have to get a separate capture card or something. I’ve only tried the 2x webcam option at the moment.
Feel free to email them using the ‘contact’ page with such questions, the person I’ve been in contact with has been quite helpful / approachable. He has also used Blender a bit here and there, so they are interested in this community if we want to get on board with their software… :RocknRoll:
If someone does try it and gets pretty good results, please post a link to vimeo or a .blend so we can get a look! I’m a bit low on time at the moment for testing this particular software but I am keen to see the results of others.
Sounds really interesting, but how will the single camera version work?
I can’t understand how it could get 3d information from a single viewpoint.
Or do you only get 2d data from the cheap version?
