Is there a how to tutorial video anywhere to set this up or what I need exactly because I wasn't able to find one anywhere I was unaware I needed these playstation remotes in addition to the eye cameras and Im not entirely sure how I use them or how to even set up my ps eye cameras to my computer because I have two available on my old 2009 acer laptop and 4 available for my dell pc.

Also I hear the PS eyes need a distance of 2-7 meters from the user but the cord isn't nearly that long so are there any particular usb extension cords I would need to use?

The PS Move controllers are optional...you'll want them to record wrist rotation and/or head rotation, but they're not required for body capture. To use them, you'll also need a BT controller, but one BT controller should work for multiple Move controllers. Normally the BT controller is a dongle attached to a USB cable, so it may require another USB port. But if you're laptop has built-in BT, you don't need the extra cable or dongle.

My typical setup is two Kinect v2 sensors (aka 'Kinect One'--sigh, don't ask,) and three Move Controllers. Because I'm using the newer Kinect v2 sensors, I need to use two computers. My workstation is the master computer and has 1 Kinect attached to it; my tablet computer has the other Kinect attached. The tablet has built-in BT, so I use that for the three Move controllers.

I hold a Move in each hand to record the wrist rotations, and have a third velcro strapped to a helmet. To operate Recorder, I use the buttons on one of the Moves as a remote.

There are some pics of the helmet on my website: http://littlegreendog.com/?s=mocap+helmet

Mocap Studio can generate head motion without the Move controller--in fact, you may want to keyframe the head rotations even if you have captured head motion because your character will need to look at specific things in your final scenes anyways. (The same might be said for the wrist orientations.)

If you don't use the Moves, you'll need to keyframe the wrist motions. IMO, it is nice to have the recorded head and wrist motions--it makes the motion look a lot more natural--but it's not difficult to keyframe wrist animation either.

I'm planning to create a bunch of 'how to' articles this summer, which will include iPi Mocap workflows. The iPi article is likely to be Kinect v2-based since that's what I mainly use nowadays but the workflow and gear is mostly the same with other cameras. I have experience with PS Eye, Logitech web cameras, Kinect for Xbox, Kinect for Windows, and Kinect One, so I'll explain the differences with these in the articles. Will make an announcement when that happens.

But in the meantime, all this info is described in the Wiki and manuals. I would highly recommend going through the documents. There's also a lot of useful info in this forum by other iPi Mocap Studio users and the iPi staff.

Feel free to keep asking questions here though.

Hope this helps.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

You need USB repeater cables, also known as active USB cables. These typically have a 'box' or larger connector on the end, which contains the electronics that extends the signal. You can daisy-chain up to 5 repeater cables to extend the range further.

You cannot do this with a regular USB cable.

I recommend getting a USB 3.0 version of the cables. PS3 Eye is a USB 2 device but it can still get some throughput benefit from USB 3.0. Also, if you decide to switch to Kinect One at some point, you'll need USB 3.0 anyway.

As mentioned above, you'll probably need one for each device, depending on how far your computer is from the capture space. If you use Move controllers, you'll probably want one for BT adapter too--the adapter is more accurate when it's closer the capture space. I used to run an extra cable out for mine but now I just use my tablet's built-in adapter and keep the tablet nearby.

Note: the above is all explained in the wiki/documentation too.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

"This application can only run on GPU with support for DirectX 11"

I read through the wiki and basically I just have to pick one of the better video cards from the charts on the 3 pages right? I heard That computers need to be compatible with certain graphic cards for it to work.

Would any and all of the GeForce GTX be compatible with a dell windows 7 desktop or a Toshiba laptop both from 2009? What would be a good place to get them to swap out a video/graphic card when I get one?

Powerful GPU is needed for tracking in Mocap Studio only, not for recording. So you should not care about your laptop unless you're going to record with Kinect v2 which has certain hardware requirements including USB 3.0 and modern video card. FYI, laptops are not designed for GPU replacement, thus you're about to get a new (gaming) laptop if you need more powerful GPU in it.

Modern gaming cards can be installed in older desktops having PCIe x16 slot (and one empty slot nearby, because gaming cards usually occupy place of two slots) and power supply unit with sufficient watts (look for required minimum in videocard specs).

I see. Well I'm not able to use the Ip mocap software without it so I'm not sure if I would still need it or if it would be better to just keep the recording of the rigs and just use somethig like autodesk MotionBlender though given that its a mocap software it would probably have the same video card problems.

To capture things like hand and finger movements would it be a good idea to use mocap gloves and whatever headgear I would need for mocap facial rigging or would it just be better to go about it manually on the software when I get to it?

The iPi Recorder recordings by themselves won't do you any good in Motion Builder. The data needs to be tracked in Mocap Studio first.

Motion Builder by itself doesn't track motion data; it's typically used for editing tracked mocap data. That's normally handled by another application, although there are plugins available for Motion Builder that allow you to use live Kinect capture. The quality of live Kinect capture would be inferior to what Mocap Studio would track. I don't believe there's any way to use PS Eye cameras with Motion Builder.

Hands and fingers would need a different mocap system. In practice, I think they're more trouble than they're worth for small production pipelines.

Mocap Studio has a pretty good system for applying finger poses from a pose library and interpolating between poses. It's relatively easy to create your own poses too. I find it's generally acceptable for many situations.

If you need very specific hand motions, like in close-ups shots or when the the hand/fingers need to interact precisely with an object, it's better to keyframe this in an animation program after the mocap has been applied.

It sounds like you're pretty new to mocap in general. There's a lot to learn beyond the capture process, so I'd try working with something simpler first until you get a hang of the workflow. Maybe work with existing mocap data and apply that to a rig in your animation package? That will help with understanding the concepts behind retargeting and editing.

For capture and tracking, iPi Express is a good way to get your feet wet without incurring a lot of expense. You'll need a Kinect for that though. If you really want to use PS Eye, you'll need the Basic package. That will cost more but the quality will be significantly higher. (Basic also supports multiple Kinect sensors but, as mentioned earlier, you'll need multiple computers for that.)

Hope this helps.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Oh, and just to be sure you understand, you need to be sure you have enough USB controllers to support several devices--this is not the same as the number of USB Ports. Regardless of the number of available ports, one USB 2 controller can support two PS3 Eye cameras; I think USB 3 probably supports more but I'm not sure how many. If you're using a desktop, you might need to add an additional controller card depending on the number of cameras you wish to use. (I had to add two in mine but mine is an older computer.)

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Oh so like a USB port I have one that supports 4

So I would still need to get a higher video card to record the movements for what I'm doing right?

What's the difference between tracking and recording the movements?