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You only need to calibrate a scene once per mocap session, not per motion. If you move any cameras in your setup (Kinect or PS3 Eye,) you will need to record a new calibration video for any motions you intend to capture after that.
After calibrating your calibration scene, you need to save the calibration as a scene file. You do this by choosing Save Scene File, which saves the camera positions relative to the scene origin. (This command is different from Save Project File, which saves the video and tracking data.) You will load this same scene file for each motion recorded after that calibration video was shot.
You do NOT need to recalibrate the cameras for each and every motion. You do however need to load the calibrated scene file for each new motion video so iPi can properly place the cameras relative to the point clouds, the origin, and rigged actor.
In rare instances, I find that I may need to load the calibrated scene file twice. If it did not load properly the first time, the cameras will appear in their default positions and not where they are supposed to be. You can check if the scene has loaded properly by rotating your view and looking at the position of the cameras. (I ran into this problem during beta, so it's possible that it's not an issue now. I'll know for sure when we go back into production for our next movie.)
After loading a motion video you can choose the option to display both sets of point clouds. If calibration is good, the clouds will line up and the merged data should appear to be in proper scale with the Actor. If they don't merge properly, check that the calibrated scene data has loaded properly. (See above.)
As to your final question, if you launch iPi Studio, it does not recall the previously opened Project; instead it opens a clean Project file with default camera positions. This is because the software does not know if you will be using it to calibrate a scene or to start tracking motion.
If you want to start tracking, then yes, you need to load both your motion video (not the calibration video) and your calibrated scene data. If you recorded several sessions with different calibrated scene files, be sure to load the proper scene data for your current motion video. This is where careful note taking and organization pays off.
If you've saved a Project file previously, however, you do not need to reload the calibrated scene data--this data, if scene data was imported before you saved your Project file, it should have been saved with your Project file.
Most of the details are covered in the iPi Wiki and it should be fairly straightforward. Be sure to read all of the information there before starting a mocap session, otherwise you possibly waste a lot of time because you missed a simple but important step. There is also a thread from a few months ago when the software was still in beta with walkthrus and explanations, though some of that info may have changed a little since then.
This might sound like a lot of things to keep track of but the process is actually very consistent and predictable once you've gone through it successfully once or twice. It will seem pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
G.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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