I've been trying to do some research in the area of motion capture and how it's used with AM and whatnot. I did some digging around this forum, but I still have some basic concept questions. I know there's this BVH thing, but from what I can determine, they're essentially pre-made actions, and not mocap in its truest sense (please correct me if I'm wrong). I know AM has AM Track for facial mocap and that basically uses a single camera positioned in front of the actor with markers on the actor's face. With full body mocap, is there a similar technique/software compatible with AM? If so, would you simply position the camera in front of the actor, place markers over their body and get them to act, or is this some complex thing only someone with a lot of money and resources can do?

There are several folks they have really done some neat work. Mark (mtpeak2), I think Matt Campbell, David Simmons, Steve, have done stuff with mocap or better yet setting up the rigs to work with bvh files. Search for their stuff. Mark has done some really nice animations with his rig.

Steve

hmmm, I see some of his stuff, but it's still by getting the BVH files from someone else. I want to know if I can shoot my own actors and bring that into AM. I guess if worse comes to worse, I could always shoot my actors and manually do the animation by creating my own key poses and whatnot, though I think actual mocap would be faster

Full body motion capture information is stored in the BVH file format, and that is how A:M makes use of it.

There are different ways to capture human motion, the most common of which is the 'ping-pong ball' method that uses multiple cameras or sensors...others employ armature-rigs that strap and adjust to a performer and capture data as they rotate... still others simply use 1 camera and the performer shot against a flat wall/cyc.

Mr. Bones was working on a low cost rig... I'll look for the link to that. I remember Martin saying that at one time Hash.Inc was in possession of a mocap rig, although that technology is developing SO quickly I doubt his is still pertinent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdUVO9K2Avs I used BVH actions on this character...all except the last two which are hand-animated.

hmmm, so it looks like I'm back to the hand method. Ok, I think that answers my questions, thanks

Googling 'low cost motion capture' gives you some interesting finds, like this one: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14007

it would be a beautiful world if we didn't have money. ok, well, tis back to the drawing board.

You may want to check around but there are many companies that rent that stuff out and some even have studios with green screens and recording equipment.
I recently found out that one of my customers has a full studio with an endless green screen. I'll find out what he charges here in the states.

again I feel the limitations of having to go to school in the fall. I hate not being able to spend my money on productive things

(This is the part in which I get lectured on the importance of post-secondary education, though apparently the school I'm enrolled in is a waste of money according to sources of mine, so the battle never ends. On to school number 4 I suppose)

The best value I've seen is this:
http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/prod...motion-capture/
but you are looking at at least $6,000 for just a basic system....

well, for the 24 camera one I could pay for my education Film can be some nasty expensive can't it!

That's why producers call the shots...'cause they foot the bill.

why couldn't I have been interested in something cheap, like knitting. Oh well, make do with what we got, the more resourceful one can be, the better at film they'll probably become

very true...mocap is a great tool...but as with all tools, you need to have the basic skills first...don't use a circular saw until you know how to use a hand saw!

Hm, true. well, we'll work something out. If I can have my way, I won't be the one doing the animating and we'll have people who actually do animation (fingers crossed)

Wonder if it is possible to use something like Zingtrack but instead of marking on a face, you mark the body. Maybe use 2 camera views such as front and side?

Oops, meant AM track.

yeah, i was wondering something like that too. it's not mocap in the truest sense of the word, but a sort of cheat. An option that I was thinking was record the actors and then hand animate the CG characters following the characters. It would be sort of like manual mocap, except some of the actor's nuances would probably disappear. Well, if I was doing it they would, but there's others here that I'm sure could capture them quite well

why not just rotoscope your actors? Bring a clip into your action as a background rotoscope, then step through the timeline posing your character to match the clip.

yeah, that's basically what I meant in my post above yours.

Zign Track / A:M Track is meant for facial capture. Body capture will not work. Maybe in version 3

Aww, so when's version 3 coming out?

Well er, let me first get version 2 out, then I'll see about that

hm, well I know it's intended for facial mocap, but what determines exactly that it has to be facial? Like couldn't you assign the markers to you know, hands and feet and whatnot, set your IK and then everything would move that needs to move? I dunno, I'm just speculating, I've never used AM Track so I don't know how it works

A:M Track does not give the exact position of the markers in 3D space. It is able to estimate where each marker is because it knows which marker is in which part of the face. The data it captures is applied to a face rig (even though you can't see this rig in A:M Track version 1 itself). If you would apply the outputted data to a body it would not give you the results you're hoping for.
The technique I have developed for Zign Track Pro does give me the possibility to develop it further for full body, so I am considering continuing with this.

interesting, thanks.