Michael - I noticed you suggested in a thread the user wear a black T-shirt rather than a white one.

What would the ideal attire be?

What if the actor was in black, but had yellow patches on his elbows, yellow gloves, yellow patches on knees, etc.

Maybe use fluorescent masking tape on certain areas to make it easier for your software?

Put the tape on the shoes, wear something (a yellow ski mask) on is head, etc?

What would be the ideal way to set up an actor?

I've been wearing a short sleeved black T with a skin-tight long-sleeved bicycle shirt underneath, blue or gray sweat pants (not the baggy kind,) and white socks. As a fashion statement this is pretty horrible, but for iPi it seems to work well.

I believe the thing to think about is contrast--the software needs to distinguish where your arms are in relation to the body and shoulder (thus the different body/sleeve colors.) Early on, before the white long-sleeved shirt, I tried white cotton gloves to help separate my hands from my arms, but I stopped when I started wearing the white shirt to help distinguish the hands (basically, reversing the colors.) This is probably better since the software has the option to see the hands color the same as the face color.

It's probably a good idea to not have a black background. I'm guessing that the software performs a difference key to separate the moving figure from the background, but a black background probably confuses the outline a little by blending with the shirt and dark pants.

Actually, I wonder if it might even be better to have a normal room background (i.e, with furniture, bookcases, etc.,) rather than a solid color 'studio' background to assist iPi with virtual camera placement. (Maybe Michael can confirm this?)

Bear in mind that these are just assumptions based on my own testing and experience, and not official information. Hopefully, the next release of the manual will provide more details about what the software looks for when tracking a figure.

Greenlaw

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Getting back to your idea about color patches, I've been wondering if it would be helpful to use colored tape circled around the elbow and knee joints, or if this would just confuse iPi.

Micheal? :)

Greenlaw

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Greenlaw - good thinking on the clothes. I'll look forward to Michael's comments.

Finally got in my DELL, so should be able to start playing with this.

As to the background, you might look at some of the video tutorials here:

http://www.ssontech.com/learning.htm

I'd guess that what makes for a good background with SythEyes - would make for a good background with iPi - as they both must accomplish similar goals to be able to process the 3d space.

Would be interesting if iPi could use green screen tracking markers like the the 'how to place tracking markers' video here?

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/vfx_sampleclips.html

Hi,

Thanks for questions. Greenlaw's comments actually contain good comments about clothing.

Our software is designed to work with clothing models that can be seen at the "Actor" tab. Clothing should be solid-color, and best choice is black short-sleeve T-shirt over bright (red or green) long-sleeve shirt, with blue jeans and black shoes.

Dark (ideally, black) color for torso is important because it helps to minimize the effect of shadows. Current generation of our technology is not very good at handling shadows.

It certainly helps having good contrast between hands and torso. So gloves can be a useful option for dark-skinned person. For light-skinned person, there is not much sense in wearing gloves.

Having high-contrast solid-color background like a greenscreen helps, but our software can work with cluttered background, as you can see from tutorial video.

Things like special yellow patches on knees would not really improve tracking.

An example of ideal clothing/background setup is presented in the video kindly published by our user Txesmi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5b-NQEErfA

(captured animation for the above video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXR5tpk1SXc)

Current version of our software cannot do matchmoving so SythEyes and similar recommendations are not applicable here. Background tracking markers are not useful because the point of motion capture is capturing actor motion in 3D, while discarding original background. You can add any kind of background later when rendering motion in 3D. Binding your 3D coordinate system to real-world objects (ground plain, etc.) can be done during multi-camera calibration step, as explained in our calibration video tutorial.

As a practical advice, GAP (http://www.gap.com/browse/category.do?cid=5225) sells inexpensive clothes ideally suited for iPi Mocap, like simple solid-color shirts and straight fit jeans.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for all this useful information! I think I'll be doing some clothes shopping tonight. :)

Greenlaw

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Michael - I notice the actor in the video is wearing light shoes, yellow gloves and a black cap on his head.

Does the cap help?

Are we after primary colors for best contrast?

I just got back from shopping/lunch at a local mall. At the mall, I was having a difficult time finding solid color, long sleeve shirts, when Old Navy came to the rescue. I bought a solid green and a solid red shirt for $10 each. Good deal! The fabric was a nice weight too, not thin and cheap. I bought the two shirts so I could choose one color if there was a conflict in background color with the other. I wish the green shirt was just a little brighter but I see no reason it wouldn't work well anyway. The red one was perfect, very bright and primary.

Curiously, Old Navy's website only has earthy and muted colors for long sleeved T's, so you'll have to go to an actual store to find this.

Greenlaw

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Cap is not important. It may help if you want to hide long hair etc.

In that particular video, actor is not wearing gloves. In general, for light-skinned actor gloves are not very useful.

On green screen, light shoes seem to work just fine. In a more cluttered environment, we've been getting better results with black shoes.

And yes, primary colors are best for arms/legs/background.

Wow, this is a VERY old post to be responding to (12 years). Anyway, just to add to the previous post, it's best to see what the current standards are by reading the iPi Soft wiki.

The thing to remember is how the motion is captured. With video, it's color and motion, so iPi needs to be able to read and understand the body's shape visually. With a depth sensor, iPi color and lighting is not as important but it needs to be able to read the physical form. (More accurately, color and lighting is important in a different way.)

The general standard for video capture is a bright long sleeved shirt with a dark (black) short sleeved shirt. This separates the arms from the body, and it also hides the shadows cast by the arms. Dark pants like blue jeans are fine, shoes can be dark. More importantly, the clothing you wear needs to contrast against the floor and background. If the floor and background have the same dark values and colors as the environment, the body won't show up clearly in the video.

Which brings us to lighting, which is probably just as important as clothing. Ambient lighting is best, that is, there should be little cast shadows, and the shadows should be soft. Having multiple over head lights or soft box lighting really helps. If you're shooting outdoors, it's best to be in the shade or under and overcast sky. Shooting before sunrise or after sunset can work too. Shiny floors can be a problem if they reflect everything in the room. If the floor is very shiny, consider throwing a rug or other non-reflective covering on it.

For depth sensors color is not as important because your tracking with 3D data, not video. Since most depth sensors emit IR rays that need to bounce back to the sensor, solid black clothing is not recommended because it absorb IR rays, and makes it difficult for iPi Mocap Studio to re-construct the body shape. Any color other than solid black should be fine. You should also avoid shiny, reflective clothing because this can also confuse the IR data. For shoes, I like shoes that give my feet a little more volume, like boots. This gives iPi Mocap Studio a larger shape to track.

Lighting considerations are different for depth sensors. Shadows are not a problem, in fact, you can record fine in near dark conditions (I don't recommend turning the lights out since that could be dangerous.) Avoid large windows and bright sunlight as this can over power the IR rays. For the environment, minimize solid black and shiny reflective surfaces. Look at at the data and determine if you need to cover anything up.

Back to clothing in general, do not wear baggy, loose fitting garment, or anything that changes the silhouette of the human form. iPi Mocap Studio can reasonably read many body types but it does expect to see a human shape when tracking.

With either type of system, video or depth, study your footage and think about how the software will sees the figure. Obviously, it can't capture what it can't see.

Hope this helps any new users reading this thread.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!