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Virtual camera
https://forum.ipisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8939		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  StephaneA [ Wed Jan 15, 2014 2:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Virtual camera
Hi,
I'd like to know if possible to use ipi + ps move to capture the movements of a camera operator and most important of his camera during a shot ?
Is it possible to record the position + orientation of a ps move ? Because in the ipi's videos about ps move it is always question of the orientation not the position. In this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLp8qw2OBvE for example the ps move is attach to the hand to move in space but is possible to capture every movement of a ps move not only orientation ? Cause this way I could just fix the ps move on the shooting camera to get what I want.
Thanks.
Author:  vmaslov [ Thu Jan 16, 2014 4:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Virtual camera
Hi

PS Move itself does only provide orientation info. PlayStation console tracks the position of PS Move by detecting its glowing sphere with a PS Eye camera. Our software currently does not implement any positional tracking of motion controllers.
What you see in the video mentioned is the ability to attach motion controller data to some bone of the skeleton in iPi Mocap Studio. The bones positions are tracked by our full-body motion tracking algorithms. Then PS Move's orientation data is attached to a selected bone to get it's orientation.

Technically, you can track camera position by attaching a motion controller to it given that:
  • the camera is fixed to an operator's hand - there is no relative movement during the shoot
  • the camera does not obscure an operator significantly (especially his arm), so that it can be reliably tracked with our full-body tracker
However, our software is not currently optimized for the purpose of capturing props. Thus, some tricks are needed to get camera motion data. The procedure could be as follows:
  1. capture the operator's body motion
  2. apply motion controller data to a bone of the hand holding the camera
  3. in external 3D package, make operator's skeleton (or rigged model) with an additional bone for camera that is fixed to the hand bone
  4. retarget animation from iPi Mocap Studio to this skeleton
  5. now the animation of the additional bone represents the camera's motion

We plan to add explicit support for such scenarios right in iPi Mocap Studio eventually, but there is no specific schedule for this feature.
Author:  StephaneA [ Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Virtual camera
Thank you for your detailed reply.

"the camera does not obscure an operator significantly (especially his arm), so that it can be reliably tracked with our full-body tracker"
This should be the biggest problem I think because most of the time the hands and fore arms of the operator are more or less hidden by the camera itself.

That's why a specific ps move capture feature (position + orientation) in IPI would be great. Not only for virtual camera but a lot of things. Anyway I can tell you that a virtual camera capture feature would be a greatly appreciate by CG community.

You can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLbl7hl2PRc
It showes a virtual studio tools implemented in Lightwave. This is a preatty great tool but the downside is it works with a ps3 as a server. It would be better if one can plug the ps move directly in a pc (like IPI) and bypass the ps3.
The Lightwave tool is pretty advanced (it is a full virtual studio toolset) but I think if IPI could provide at least a way to record the camera position + orientation with accuracy during a shoot it would be great.
This guy made a interesting tool too (but just like Virtual studio in Lightwave it use ps3 + move.me as server witch is not great).
http://vimeo.com/62635338

Following your suggestions I'm going to make some tests, tracking an operator with ps eye cameras + ps move to see what I can get.

Thanks again.
S.
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