I have a portable 8/16 ps3 eye camera system. My first tests were with people wearing normal clothing in typical places. This required a good deal of clean up.

I have since read about the color of clothing, floor and background. My solution is a bit expensive so I am running this by you guys for your comments.

I am looking at post and drape and portable tiles of flooring. Here are two links:

post and drape:
http://www.onlineeei.com/drapes.cfm#pip ... ckdrop-kit

flooring:
http://www.amazon.com/IncStores-Interlo ... e+flooring

currently I am thinking white drape and white tiles of flooring. What do you think?

Clothing:

black shoes
blue jeans
white long sleeve pullover
black short sleeve t shirt

I'm open to advice on all this.



Steve

Hello,
first, "light" colors, especially white, are not recommended.
You will have shadows / self-shadows on them, and this will cause tracking errors.

I do not think you need special drapes. Just use deep saturated clothes colors.
Real-life backgrounds are usually multy-color, and colors are not "pure" and bright.

Possible choice of clothes colors:
- Black shoes
- Dark-blue pants (slim)
- Black T-Shirt over green long-sleeve shit (helps distinguish arms from torso)

You can vary colors. Dark-red, dark-brown are also possible.

_________________
iPi Soft

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So, I take it you are trying to use real-world as a scene for your background now? Cameras set in what type config? How big of a capture volume are you trying to use?

You would need to be a bit more specific on what you are attempting with your project, but if using cams outside, there is more to consider than in a closed set environment.

What could be done, if having tracking issues using a background you described, is you could use a drape for recording, then just record the scene undraped and export the

scene video only, then bring it in as a video sequence to a plane in Motion Builder or other 3D program that supports it and have the actual scene in your project.

iPi seems to distinguish pretty well the colors in the background from the actual actor tracking, but a cluttered color background may give adverse results also.

I would say a backdrop (drape) in that situation would be a good choice, light color or green or blue, but can't be same as clothing, why a light color would be preferred.

You could backlight the drape to reduce surface shadowing on it also, you would probably still want to set things up as a stage if possible, especially if using a circle cam

set up and limit the number of cameras used to 8 max if possible, really more cameras won't give you better results in smaller areas, unless trying some very complex actions,

but that's your choice on how many to use and depending on the capture volume you are trying to use, or if doing 3 actor captures would probably require more cameras. Trial

and error tests is the only way to know for sure.

Are you using performers, or just attempting to capture anyone that walks into the capture volume? If just anyone, I doubt that will ever work in tracking well, as you stated.

That flooring is very nice, especially if you are doing floor actions or falling type acting for floor impact reduction, not needed though if floor now is a lighter or medium

solid color and not shiney and contrasts well to any clothing colors used.

Clothing colors suggested above should be fine, (deffinitely not white though), each performer wearing different colors, especially when multi-actor tracking if acting in

close proximity to one another.

Hope this helps.

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Thank you for your ideas. I am using an 8 camera circular setup with a camera every 45 degrees. I'm shooting with actors in an interior area. I have a lot of clean up with what I am doing now. Here is an example, watch the feet of the skeleton, they wobble all over. I'm open to any ideas how to improve the take to reduce the amount of cleanup.
https://vimeo.com/134163083

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Thanks for the further details and the video surely helped...

The action doesn't look all that bad for your first attempts, but I see what you mean and it would bother me too and has, that's why when I finally figured out how to correct it best, I am much happier with my exports now with a lot less post processing work.

One reason that occurs with iPi is not checking the AMT box on export, but before that, it is best to have 2 opposing cameras, better side cams than front and rear cams), positioned very high around 8 ft.and possibly a bit closer in to center point in a more downward angle on the performer, this will help in the wierd inward/outward bending feet and more solid contact to the floor throughout, but you may always have a small amount of that bend, it's just the nature of the program and most camera capture programs.

(You can use a simple yard stick to pertrude your cameras off the tripods and taped to hold securely, that way you can keep the same movement area on the floor and you can also mount the cameras upside-down and turn on upside-down option in cam settings with no adverse effects if need to for a better proper angle).

Another reason for odd foot contact is the character mesh itself, the bigger the feet, the more noticable this appears, and if the mesh doesn't have good toe weighting the toes wont bend properly, although it takes quite a bit of bend to notice the bending, like kneeling or a longer bending stance, because the program uses prediction, so if the leg is moving upward and forward, it will just kind of straighten the toe bone automatically, its usually no big deal on most occasions, but if you need the toe bending in a certain area to look better, you can do it in an adjustment layer later if the editor you use works with layers or timeline action key manual adjustment. Even inside iPi if you want to first before export.

Another thing, is your shoe tops are almost the same color as the flooring, this isn't good nor recommended, as mentioned darker colors on feet, using dark color gloves on hands works well if you have issues there also, but the other colors should work, you may want to try a blue shirt if you decide to wear dark gloves, better contrast equals better tracking quality.

If you have other issues like head tracking without using a Move on your head, a dark headcap or headwrap works well, but best to keep the back of the neck color visible I found.

The use of the flexible or very flexible spine I found to give more natural movement also and head tracking MUST be turned on, even if using a Move on the head later.

The area you're using in the video looks fine to me, wish I had it :) Draping the area wouldn't be necessary in your situation, I thought you mentioned you were in several
real-world locations recording random passers-by. If you loose or change that area, other adjustments will be needed and tweeked, just the name of the game.

The longer you work with the program the better your results will start to be, but trial and error and adjustments until you find the sweet spot will be needed.

Remember nothing in life is perfect, especially not in Mocap :) But, you should and will get very reasonable accuracy soon.

Hope this helps.

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