Hello ipisoft community,
Has anyone had any success placing the cameras in 4 corners with the capture area being in the middle?
Best Regards,
Andre O'Brien

360 coverage sounds good in theory but in practice it's not nearly as effective as the 180 setup. In my opinion, you shouldn't waste your time trying to make 360 work; I think there's not enough visual 'overlap' between four cameras for a 360 setup to work accurately. The other issue is that if you set them up in a 360 formation, you need to increase your shoot-space to at least double the size, and even if you have that space, it's a lot harder to light properly than a semi-circle.

The semi-circle setup has been proven to work by several users already so in my opinion it's best to stick with it. Plus, having the 'fourth wall' to hide your workstation station from the cameras is very convenient.

FYI, Andrew mentioned in another post that they are currently experimenting with a 6 camera setup. He didn't promise that 6 cameras will actually be supported in iPi Studio but if it works it may open up a wider visual range.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Greenlaw,
Thank yo for such a well thought out response. The reason why I am trying to go for cameras in 4 corners is because I have about a 20 by 14 foot garage space to work with. With the 180 degree setup I'm fine with the cameras in on either side of me...but the camera in front may be tends to be too close to get my whole body. I tried to have all of the cameras on the same side (in a triangle shape) but that didn't yield good results. Its not a matter of wanting to go away from established practices. its a matter of limited work area. All the demos and great examples I've seen come from people with a lot of room to work with. I'm not so fortunate unfortunately. Thank you very much for the response.
Best Regards,
Andre O'Brien

I see and understand. My space is just a little bigger than yours (maybe 20 x 16 or 18...I'll have to measure to be sure,) so I have limited space too. Basically, I have my 10' x10' 'stage' in the rear right corner, and have the semi-circle start from the rear right to front left. This maximizes the coverage of my performance space very well. (My actual useable performance space is about 6" x 6"; much better than what I got in my living room, which was probably only 3" x 3", which meant no walking around.) Also, all of the cameras are positioned fairly high up...I think three are about 6 to 8 feet high, and only one is slightly below 6 feet. They're back far enough that the height isn't a problem. In fact, I think having them high up and far back is helping the accuracy.

Eventually I will mount the cameras permanently to the walls using home made camera mounts. (Security camera mounts will work too, but I was able to make my own much cheaper.)

Now that I'm thinking about it, my camera arrangement is not really even a semi-circle. It's only a semi-circle when I am closest to the middle two cameras, but when I'm in the far corner, it's almost a quarter circle. FWIW, I'm still getting good results with this setup, probably because there a plenty of overlap between what iPi DMC can see from all the cameras. It probably also helps that I try to keep my performance very clear to the cameras, even if it means performing while facing away from the cameras. It all depends on the action I'm trying to capture.

IMO, having the cameras completely surround you will actually require an even larger shoot space because you will not be able to get all the cameras back far enough from the performer.

Hope this helps. I've been documenting everything we're doing on our project, and I'll post all my info after we're done with it.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

you've been a great help mano. I appreciate it. I really miss my motionstar magnetic system. I didn't have any of these convergence issues. I even have them with the optitrack (though when you get it right the data is so very clean). I'll try to attached the cameras to the ceiling beams and see if that helps with the situation. I used to get 10x10 with the motionstar. 6x6 feels a bit stifling to me...but like you said, its better than 3x3. Take it easy.
Best Regards,
Andre O'Brien

Hi

I have been using a 360 arrangement like you describe as my capture area like yours is a little long and narrow I posted about it in another thread
[quote="skin12002"]

CAMERA SET UP
I am using four logitech cameras in a full circle (I set this up before the wisdom was to have them in a semi circle and to use ps3 cams) also, they are all just over 2 metres off the ground. I have persevered with this set up as it seems to work for my space, which is actually my living room. This gives me a capture area of approx 3 metres x 2metres. Not huge, but pretty good.
The hardest thing with the cameras in a circle-square arrangement is calibration, not so much the waving the light in the air bit but the ground points definition. It is very difficult to avoid occlusion of the light when placing the maglite on the ground and you have to work around it. As a result I leave the cameras set up all the time and just redo the calibration when it starts to drift over time as I cover and uncover the cameras
CLOTHING
I have found that I get good results with a black short sleeve over a florescent long sleeved teeshirt, which I bought from a shop on e-bay I’ll post the link if people are interested. In addition, I use bright gloves, (they are exfoliating gloves bought from boots in the UK) which I think help the tracking

I would say this software has given me, a no budget freelancer the ability to produce animations I would have thought unimaginable a year or so ago

And there is an example here done with the cameras in a circle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiSYCD6fUD0


cheers
Steve

Yes!!!
I was so hoping it was you (space suit guy) who was responding. Thank you very much for the useful information. Curious, which logitech camera are you using? As for the calibration I will just tie the flashlight to the end of a long plank of wood I have. That should help a lot. Or I'll just buy the calibration wand from NaturalPoint.com for their Optitrack system. That keeps you out of the way and avoids occlusion. You've just given me hope of staying in the mocap game my good man. Thanks a million!
Best Regards,
Andre O'Brien

I think we are all feeling our way on this

I have been using Logitech pro 9000 which were the originally preferred camera but I bought 4 sony playstation cameras when they were recommended but was reluctant to break down my Logitech setup as I had been successful with it. However I bit the bullet after doing the spacesuit animation, set up the sonys and have been very happy with them since
They handle light much better, I get more even lighting, higher rez (640x480) and faster frame rate (50 fps) and they are much cheaper (about half the price of the logitechs)

I would also say that calibration is easier with the sonys as the higher resolution seems to enable the cams to still see the calibration light in some marginal situations

I find to calibrate a 360 degree setup. I wave the torch slowly above my head while sinking down to the floor (not a pretty sight!!) Then I lie on my side, at the very edge of the viewable area and reach in and place the flashlight bulb itself down on the floor and trace a semicircle on the ground move and repeat although I lose the light for a few frames, with the sonys I have yet to have it fail to calibrate

Hope that helps

Steve

Do you think you can post your calibration video? Or at least send it to me via e-mail or a link. my e-mail is Forgedbyflash@aol.com.
Best regards,
Andre O'Brien

Current version cannot deal with marker occlusion so 360 degrees setup is not easy and not practical.

We will release a new version soon with new calibration algorithm, it will support 360 degrees configurations.