"Props tracking with the help of motion sensors (Sony Move, Nintendo Wii Remote)"

Other than hands and the head? I'd love to know if there's a way to track actual props. I tried a setup a couple of weeks ago with Move controllers in each hand and and one on my head. I was shuffling with a plastic rifle in my hands. The problem is that the tracking is having an impossible time keeping my hands in position. Totally understandable but I'm wondering if there's a better way to literally glue hands to a primitive 3d shape that can later be substituted for an actual 3d model. Would love it if my hands just stayed in place, and they don't:(

Any thoughts?

See attached screenshot

It's difficult because, while iPi Mocap Studio's mocap quality is very nice, it may not be quite accurate enough for props held by two hands, especially after applying motions to a character with different body proportions.

There are ways to work around the issue though. If the motion is going through a dedicated animation package, you can use IK and pinning to adjust the mocap data. This is how we made Toullie play a ukulele and Sergeant Marshmallow handle a harmonic with two paws in this video:
Excerpt from 'Brudders 2' (A Work In Progress)

In our case, we're using Motion Builder but I think most 3D animation programs have some way to do this. Generally, we have nulls on the props that serve as constraints for the paws. When a paw come near it's target null, we gradually activate the constraint and the paw sticks to where it needs to be, and it stays there until we dial the effect down again.

Hope this helps.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Thanks for responding. That excerpt was AhMazing!!! That kind of control is exactly what I want with the guitar neck and you handled it beautifully. I hear nothing but good things about Motion Builder. Unfortunately, aside from a 30 day trial, I don't see the company I work for getting that and I don't know that I have a friend out there who can get it for me otherwise. The notion of constraints is interesting. I'm primarily a Cinema 4D user and only recently have started learning Maya. Both of which I own and can use. in C4D there are constraint tags that can be applied to either joints, nulls, or whatever. I need to experiment with this idea of yours, and when I get it working, I'll share with you.

I've seen more than a couple of your videos in progress. It's inspiring to see that kind of stuff. If it weren't for you, I might not know how to calibrate my PS3 eye camera setup, and now I'm a champ at it:)
I'm keeping away from the Kinect setup simply because the floor is handled much better in my trials through the PS3 camera setups. I further take fixing jitters outside of ipisoft and into ikinema. I hope you know about that program. It's got a lot of tools that I still need to get used to, and it works through an average web browser, but the results take the ipisoft data a few steps further. If you have motion builder, you might not need this, but given my budget, I do.

Thanks for responding once again. I'll be posting a lot once I get things all together. I now own 12 PS3 eye cams and 9 PS3 move controllers in anticipation of the 3 person simultaneous recordings in 2015....when they're ready.
Loving ipisoft!

An alternative to Motion Builder you might consider is Ikinema Webanimate. This is a web-based application that has many functions of Motion Builder. The idea is that you create an account, upload your assets, do your retargeting and editing online, and when you're satisfied you can pay for and download the edited file. The software runs in your web-browser, so no 'host' program is required. (Other than the browser I mean.)

I have not used the service myself but other artists have told me it works well for them. AFAIK, it should be fully compatible with data from iPi Mocap Studio. I've been meaning to try it out--maybe this coming year.

Anyway, if you need something like MB but are on a tight budget, Ikinema Webanimate might be worth a look.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Oops--I guess I hadn't read your entire post before responding. I see you already knew about Ikinema Webanimate. :p

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Hello

I'm new here. Sorry for reviving old post. I have several question for tracking props, for example: guns/knife. I already have 6 PS3 Eye but didn't have PS move yet. My questions are:
1. For tracking props (Guns, Knife or maybe flower vase), that lying on the floor or maybe situated in some tables or cabinet. How to track them? If i want to make a pick up mocap session?
2. Or maybe toss them around?
3. Is it possible in Ipisoft to make this scene. Example: A soldier shooting an assault rifle then throwing a grenade to enemy position, or maybe just simple scene like taking an ammo magazine from soldier pouch and attach it to his AR.

Thanks for asnwering

Our software only tracks body, not props. Motion controllers are used to improve orientation for joints which can be poorly determined from a video. So you can use our tracking only for an attached prop when its orientation/position is linked to one of body's joints.