PS3 Eye works best when using the suggested colors. Typically, it's a long-sleeved red or green shirt with a short sleeved black t-shirt pulled over, normal fit blue jeans (not baggy) and regular shoes or socks. You see what I wear in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2KLtGsl-L0&feature=plcpThe reason for this specific color scheme is because iPi Studio uses color to distinguish the body parts when using PS3 Eye. The colored sleeves separate the arms from the torso and legs, and the black t-shirt distinguishes the torso but it also reduces any confusion from cast shadows. So the next question may be red or green? In my case, I choose red to contrast with the green background.
You don't need to spend a lot of money on the clothing. I purchased my 'mocap' attire from the Old Navy store at the mall and it was fairly cheap.
In addition to clothing you need to consider what's in the background. As in the example above, you do not want your clothing to 'disappear' into the background by choosing the same colors. For example, if you're wearing a black t-shirt and dark pants, obviously you don't want black curtains in the background. You want to avoid highly reflective surfaces in the background, like mirrors and windows--any reflected motions my confuse the tracker. Cover these surfaces up if you can.
Just to be clear, the background does
not have to be an opposing solid color--a normal room background is fine and iPi Studio should be able to do a good job removing it--but you still want to minimize as much color confusion if you can. You do not need a green screen background as we have in our studio--we just happen to have the green screen because we also do green screen shoots in our studio. It's convenient for PS3 Eye capture but not necessary.
When you track PS3 Eye data, you want to make the data very clear to iPi Studio, so lighting is also very important. We use three softboxes and set them up to create flat lighting with very soft (almost non-existent) shadows. Avoid harsh lighting that causes hard dark shadows on the body as this may confuse the tracker. Regular room lighting should be fine as long as it isn't too directional (i.e., a single bright source.)
You can get ideal results outdoors by shooting on overcast days or very early in the morning before the sun comes up. If you can approximate this lighting indoors, that would be ideal.
Kinect, on the other hand, does not use color data at all, so clothing color and lighting is not as important. iPi Studio does, however, expect to see a clear human form with either PS3 Eye or Kinect, so wearing extremely baggy pants or or other clothing that change the human shape can cause tracking errors. You also want to avoid a shiny reflective surfaces or flat black surfaces as this can misdirect the Kinect's IR rays. This can include uncovered windows, framed pictures, tv screens, kitchen appliances, open doorways, etc.
