Hi there, we’re two grad students working on a project involving budget motion capture solutions. Mocap has been a costly undertaking for the past few decades, and we’re researching the possibility to make mocap more accessible to a wider audience. Or perhaps it is the ideal tool for doing previz.

We’ve been looking at solutions like Brekel Kinect, iPi Studio and iClone(with mocap plugin), each of them utilizing either an Xbox 360 Kinect or a small array of consumer grade webcams like the Sony PlayStation Eye. Results vary. Any realtime solution with the Kinect is not going to cut it. However, software like iPi Studio which takes time to analyze the shot footage afterwards seems to come up with some promising results.

Now, for comparison to a professional optical solution like a Vicon or Optitrack system:
Pros:
- relatively cheap, hardware ~$200 software $595.
- no markersuit needed
- ability to do mocap in-house
- easily operable
Cons:
- Not as accurate as a Vicon system
- Therefore more cleanup needed
- No realtime feedback
- Full-body mocap only (no object tracking yet, nor face capture)

Now we’re asking if you’d like to help us out a bit by answering the following questions:

1. Job title & field of expertise: [e.g.rigging/animation/allround] & [Student/Professional]
2. Would you consider using a simple budget motion capture system for creating animation?
3. What price range would do for hardware + software, and what price level is a dealbreaker for you?
4. In what type of working area would you be seeing yourself using such a solution?

Also, we’re blogging our progress at: http://bipedbargain.tumblr.com/