Hi, all! I've just read about the new update, which integrates props tracking.
My scene consists of a sword fight. Before the upgrade, I considered doing the mocap holding some piece of wood and then constrain the sword mesh to follow the movement.
I was just wondering if, in my case, is worth it to buy the hardware required (which would be 2 ps move controllers).

Considering nobody has had a chance to use this feature yet...oh, look they just released the update. :)

My guess is that if you have wrist rotation for the hand that's holding the sword, then simply constraining the sword to the hand bone may be enough--but this depends on whether the sword actually stays in the hand during the motion. If it doesn't (i.e., it's flipped, rolled or switches hands,) then you will probably want a separate device just for the sword.

Obviously I have no experience with this feature yet but I will let you know what I think if I can get around to using it this weekend.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Thanks for the answer, Greenlaw.
I know it has just been released, and my question was rather premature, but I just wanted to decide whether I should save some money during this holyday season for the hardware update.

Hi Kyle,

I still haven't had a chance to props tracking but, if you haven't already done so, check out vkolo's post here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6638

It's not specifically a props tracking demo but it does show what the controllers add to the mocap--it's really pretty cool.

FYI, because the devices transmit only rotational data, my guess is that they still need to be 'attached' to a person to get positional data. This may limit some types of motions involving props. For props that remain in either hand, this will probably work out just fine. One other point of interest: according to the manual, you can use certain accessories, like a pistol grip or sword--the software offers a proxy for these items. There's more info in the wiki.

I think I'm finally going get a chance to use it tomorrow morning. Let you know how it goes. :)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

In current implementation, we do not track position of the prop itself. Just the rotation, which can be applied to the hand. The output from iPi Mocap Studio is always only skeletal animation.
So for sword fighting you have two options, both of them require only one PS Move controller. Either hold the controller in the hand directly, and you will get exact orientation of the hand. Or firmly attach the controller to a wooden stick of appropriate size simulating real sword, and you will get exact orientation of the sword, which you apply back to the hand in iPi Mocap Studio.
After exporting skeletal animation, you constrain the sword model to follow the hand movements in your animation software, as Greenlaw proposed.

Look at this demo by Truebones, which illustrates the first approach:
http://forum.ipisoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6632

Using accessories just lets you think less about how exactly you are holding the controller, because you are dealing with a model of a real object like a pistol or a sword. And choosing the right prop model in Studio makes the controller visualization look more natural. Thus helping in doing manual adjustments of the hand pose.

Thanks for the answers. I'm still deciding whether I will invest in the upgrade or not...