It depends on the method you use. If you use the original head tracking system then, yes, it only tracks on two axis. If you use the newer PS Move method, all rotations are captured accurately. One user was even able to get good results using a Wii Motion Plus with iPi Mocap Studio, and this was before the feature 'officially' existed. (In general, you'll get far more accurate results with the PS Move though.)

We used the PS Move method to animate the head and hands for the B2 excerpt we released last year. (Since we finished 'Scareplane' last week, we're finally going back to finish 'B2' now. Yay!) :)

Speaking of unusual bodies, the characters in our cgi shorts, 'B2' and 'Happy Box', have very grotesque proportions. In my experience, retargeting for characters like this will work but you will want to tailor your performance for these proportions. For example, I had to imagine I had an incredibly big head to avoid having the characters 'punch' themselves in the face whenever an arm was raised. This sort of thing is easy to correct in an external 3D program that supports control rigs or if you design your final character rig for mocap offsets and overrides.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Not only what you would call the "old" technique doesn't track head movements accurately, but it introduces little head movements that were not there in the first place. It is totally unreliable. And if I have to put a considerable amount of money into the purchase of cumbersome instruments like PS Move (with their own complex calibration requirements), this defeats the purpose of markerless motion capture technology entirely. Might as well buy a mocap suit; it would be simpler...

With all due respect, I will wait for Kinect 2, thank you very much.

When we made 'Happy Box', we only had the 'old' method available. No, it didn't work perfectly but many of the shots used this method of head animation. In the shots where it did not work very well, I simply deleted the keyframes for the head motion and re-animated the head to do what I needed for a given shot. So at least you're not committed to the results it produces.

I know that's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the feature but back then I was glad to have it, even if it only worked well half the time. :)

Regarding the PS Move, they're actually pretty cheap right now and they're very easy to calibrate and use. I routinely use three of them simultaneously these days. I agree that it's a little cumbersome for head motions--you will need to build a rig to attach the device to your head. I modified a $8 hard hat to do this, so it wasn't terribly expensive and it works quite well.

I guess the question one needs to ask is, do you need it now or later? The PS Move system exists immediately and it's a proven method for getting head and wrist motions. The Kinect 2 sounds pretty cool but it hasn't been proven for animation production yet and it won't be available to users until this summer...maybe. Finally, consider that the release date for iPi Mocap Studio hasn't been announced yet. Just a few thoughts.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!