hello my english is so bad :))
can you give me a tutorial for set up camera and for ipisoft and ...
can i use 6 ps eye in small room of studio ?? (4*4)
thank

thanks

Hi

You can find links to some tutorials at our website:
http://ipisoft.com/support/
Search for more tuts on YouTube.

4x4 room is definitely small for tracking with PS Eyes. Single or dual Kinect setup should be a better suit in these conditions.

4x4 what? meters? is that small? im using a room 4.5x3.4 meters and it´s not small, i mean not big but not small either

In a limited space PS Eyes lose their main advantage over depth sensors - a large capture distance. And the involved difficulties like proper lighting, clothing and calibration make usage of PS Eyes less worthy. Unless the price of cameras is a decisive factor :)

Please share your experience.
How many cameras do you use, which geometry?
What's the size of your capture area?

hi Vmaslov, well i used to record animations in even an smaller area, 2.6mx 1.9meters using 6 ps3 cams and everything was perfect. Now i changed to a bigger room and i will use 8 ps3 cams , the size of the room is exactly 4.53m x 3.42m, i havent calibrated and used yet , but i think it will be even better because i have 4 cams in one wall, camera 1 and camera 2 at the highest point each in one corner , and camera 3 and 4 sticked to the floor each in one corner of the wall. camera 5,6,7 and 8 are in the same placement but in the opposite wall(see pic attached) , so i think i will be able to use the entire room and not just a little area because when im standing near one wall , i will have 4 cams opposite to me and looking at me which are more than enoguh to capture the animation , and when i reach to the opposite wall , the other 4 cams will see me and capture my motions and i dont htink calibration will eb a problem , i hope not

IMO, 4x4 meters is pretty small for a PS3 Eye setup if you also want to move around much. It's technically possible to set up in this space but, as noted above, a larger capture space is the main reason you would want to use PS3 Eye cameras in the first place. If you have very little space to perform in, there's not much advantage to going with the PS3 Eye configuration.

I think it really comes down what it is you want to capture and how practical your space/lighting situation is.

We used to record with four-to-six PS3 Eye cameras in our garage, which had about that much available space, but we used the semi-circle configuration to allow for more 'roaming' space. If we used the 360 config, the performance space would be too small for our needs.

The space we usually shoot in nowadays is our living room, which is probably about the same size as the garage but we found greater flexibility with dual Kinect. This is because the equipment itself requires a lot less space than PS3 Eye and it's easier to set up and take down. Sometimes, we use triple Kinect in this space, but that can be pushing it--placing a third Kinect in the room really decreases the size of the performing space. We like reserve this option for complex motions where we don't have to walk around too much. For us, dual Kinect continues to be the system we use most of the time. We still keep our PS3 Eye setup available but we'll probably only use it outdoors in the backyard when we have a really big motion to capture. So far, we've been fine with what we can capture in the living room though--the performance space is probably a little bigger than 2 x 3 m, just deep enough to record a loopable walk cycle. We have a carpet that's about this size in the middle of the room, which helps keep us 'in bounds' when recording. (You can see the carpet in this old video: Mocap Test with Small Child.)

IMO, PS3 Eye is more practical and desirable if you have plenty of space and complete control over the room lighting. I'm just speaking from my own experience though. Others here may have different experiences with their gear.

G.

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

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A question for you, GREENLAW, regarding a 6 camera setup. My situation requires a larger volume (running throws, jumps, and 360 pivots. I'm getting pretty decent data with 4 ps eyes, but hoping that 6 will be a worthwhile upgrade (already have 6 on hand). As a preliminary step, have been trying out a 5 cam setup. The calibration is proving painful, and when it works, the captures have been no better than 4 cameras. Want to choose which version to buy, in the next few days. As someone who has successfully used a 6 cam setup, can you offer any words of hope? Is the 6 cam setup doable, and worthwhile? I can tailor my 30x20 space as needed (open garage), once I commit ... Drop cloths and lights, but am hesitant to go whole hog till then. Are 6 cameras even tougher to calibrate than 5? Easier? As I've posted, the 4 cam calibrations are easy, but when I add the 5th, it's almost impossible, even with no occlusions, and the marker seen solidly in all cams. If I can get some assurance that 6 are not inherently nightmarish to calibrate, and worth the extra trouble, it would certainly ease my mind. I'll continue to test tomorrow, and as VMASLOV suggested, send along as simple an example as possible, if I can't resolve things. This is my full time job for the next 4 months. Ipisoft seems my best shot at putting together the motion set I need, but I need to make a decision and move forward soon.
Thanks for any input you can offer, and for your plentiful informative posts.

Still interested in your opinion, Greenlaw, but ... I do seem to be able to get past the 4+ cam calibration now ... went straight to 6 cams. New bulb for the Maglite, throw rugs over every single piece of glare on the floor. Night for calibration, Day for capture, at least for the room I'm testing in. Laptop for 2 cams, Desktop for the other 4. First couple captures fairly promising, given my somewhat compromised camera placements ... a 3 camera spread on 2 opposite walls. The initial move and rotate to match the actor up was the easiest it's ever been, which was nice. Time for another try in the bigger space tomorrow, and see if what I've learned gets me over the hurdle there, and see what the better camera placement does for me.

Mike.