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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.
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