Hi,

I have iPisoft Standard V1. I've had it for a while but really haven't had time to use it as I've had so many other projects going. I'm just about to press ahead with the animation side of my business and was wondering whether to upgrade to V2.

As I don't have that much experience with V1 is it worth it? Are there any features in V2 which are must haves? Experiences from anyone who has made the transition would be appreciated.

Cheers.

If you use mocap that infrequently, you might want to work with 1.0 for a while to be sure you need it. 2.0 adds a lot of new features but the core functionality of the programs are basically the same. So if you're not really using 1.0, well...

For me, the upgrade to 2.0 is well worth it because I had been using 1.0 since it's early beta days, and I've seen iPi Soft make a lot of progress in that time. 2.0 builds greatly on the 1.0 technology and it makes an already good system into a great one. IMO, the two biggest improvement are the new pose editing commands and the ability to use Wii Motion Plus and PS Move devices to track wrist and props motion.

The new edit commands allow you to reuse edits and poses for the body or a selection of the body, which can reduce a lot of potential repetitive tasks. Additionally, this can also be used to save and load hand poses so you can more easily add 'keyframed' hand animations.

As for the new game devices support, look around the forums for some recent user created videos that demonstrate this feature. It's remarkable how this 'little extra' motion can add so much life to the mocap. I know it's already making a big difference for our current project.

Another consideration for upgrading: 2.0 currently has limited head tracking. It works fairly well and unlike wrist tracking, this feature doesn't require a device, it's calculated directly from the mesh data. It's not perfect yet but iPi Soft is improving it all the time. There has been talk about possibly tracking the RGB stream to enhance the tracking quality, and an alternative option to use a device attached to the head. These features aren't in 2.0 yet but now I'm more excited than ever about the future of this product.

Finally, check if there are any sales currently going on, if that makes a difference to you. Sometimes iPi Soft will offer a good limited time discount offer, so if you expect to start using the software in the near future it might be a good time to upgrade. (I just checked--they have a 25% sale going on right now.)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Hi Greenlaw,

Thanks for the reply. I've just been rummaging around the internet checking out the new features. I got a price from iPisoft yesterday which seems pretty reasonable and I just bought a pair of Asus axtion live pros although I have 6 ps eye cameras which I have yet to set up.

The studio is a bit small (10x20ft) so I thought the xtions may be better but as it is a dedicated space I may give the cameras a go as they can be mounted permanently to the walls, will only have to be calibrated once, be more accurate and may give me a slightly larger tracking area.

All in all the new features look like they may be worth the upgrade for me. Besides I'm one of those people who like to have the latest tech even if I don't know how to use it:) Its also nice to support such a great product.

Thanks for your info

Hi ivy_mike,


10ft is a little narrow but it should still be big enough to use the PS Eye cameras. You may still wind up using Kinect because, if you're pressed for time like I am, the workflow is much faster. Also, the shape of your room may be better suited for two Kinects. But, yeah, six Eye cameras should produce higher quality.


I hear ya. I sometimes buy gear that I don't plan to actually use till the following year--and by then it may become 'old tech'. :p

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Good point! I've gotten so used to the reduced file size that I forgot about this important feature. :)

The more efficient data steam also means it's faster and the hardware requirements for recording mocap without dropping frames is much more relaxed now.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Well I've sent off for a code so hopefully I'll get a reply soon. Just got to convince the wife I NEED a 20x20ft studio in the garden and I should be set:)

Should get to play with it this weekend so I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Cheers for replies.

Greenlaw - I've been waiting to see how the head tracking worked before upgrading.

1. What do we currently have working for head tracking, and what is expected to be available shortly?

I guess the possibilities are:

a. tilting the head forward/backward, left/right.

b. turning the head left/right.

Do we have one or both of these?

2. For the PSMove, is any other hardware required other than a spare USB connection?

--
At some point, I'll have to try a 30 day trial, but ... want to wait until the features are pretty mature as there will be a learning curve to start using ipi again.

Thanks!

Hi McWannabe, long time no see. :)


In Lightwave terms, you can track Pitch(X) and Heading (Y) but not Bank (Z). iPi Soft says Bank (Z) is still being worked on. Currently, head tracking requires no additional devices, it's just a switch in Studio. I'm finding that head tracking something that either works or it doesn't in a give situation--sometimes I leave it on with good results and other times it can completely flip the head backwards or forwards. Luckily, you can switch this on and off as desired, like foot and shoulder tracking.

It was recently mentioned that they are looking into using PSMove as a second option for head tracking.


You also need a Bluetooth receiver. Bluetooth might already be built into your computer but if not, a simple USB stick will do. (I use a stick.) In theory, there's no limit to the number of devices (PS Move or Wii Motion Plus) you can use with Bluetooth. Obviously, there is a practical limit but for now this means you can use a device for each hand/handheld-prop.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Greenlaw - yeah, been focusing on other areas, but really want to get back to motion capture.

As head tracking seems to be difficult to accomplish, I do wish ipi would consider using a PS Move or an LED Reindeer nose.

It would certainly not be a defeat to optionally allow the use of a prop to assist in this, as I can understand how difficult it must be to program - and how much easier it might be if he were tracking an LED instead.

Will the PS Move work with the PS3 cameras?

BTW - I follow your progress on the Lightwave forum theads and enjoyed your latest 'Brudders' film.

As mentioned, they are looking into using PS Move as an alternative system for head tracking.

Also, the standard non-hardware-assisted head tracking may see a lot of improvement soon--they recently got the RGB stream from dual Kinect to align with the point cloud and, from what I understand, they are trying to use this data to augment head tracking (I believe this is how they intend to get Z rotation.) I think 'face tracking' from RGB is essentially your 'reindeer nose' idea but possibly with better accuracy since it may potentially tracks all facial features (probably both eyes and nose and/or mouth, giving your roughly three or four points.) This last part is totally speculation though--I really don't know what they're working on. :)


Sure, it's independent of the other tracking systems. Technically, the data is already 'tracked' when you record it--all you do in Studio is apply the PS Move or Wii Motion Plus data to the wrists after the body tracking is done. I imagine this is how they intend the PS Move option will work for head tracking.


Thanks! We're very excited about this project--it's looking much prettier than what we originally set out to do--the style is much more sophisticated than 'Happy Box'. We finished all the modeling a while back and nearly all of the environment layers for the film have been lit and rendered. Right now we're working on hair and a new lip-sync system for the characters.

We started recording mocap several weeks ago but had to break for the holidays. Soon we'll be recording again and if the wrist tracking system works really well (and we have no reason to think it won't, having seen what other users are already doing with it,) we may go back and re-shoot much of what we previously recorded. This feature should make a huge difference for the quality of our motions because the characters are mostly playing musical instruments.

Hopefully, we'll have this film done soon--I'm already eager to get started on our next one. :)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!