Hello,

I am using the trial version of iPi DMC. I am finding an unacceptable amount of random movement in the tracking, even when the person in the video is standing completely still. As a simple test, I made a video of me standing as still as possible. I definitely don't move my feet at all, yet the resulting track shows pretty much every joint jiggling around, including feet. I don't understand how it is tracking completely different movement positions in each frame when the video is clearly not changing.

I think I have a decent calibration and my feet are wearing dark brown shoes against my gray tight pants. None of my pants hangs over my shoes. The shoes contrast very much from the rest of the video, so the feet should be very easy to track.

Also, I thought that the head was being tracked, but it doesn't appear to be. I don't mean face, I mean the whole head (turning left, right, up, down, tilting).

I've had very good stability with the latest build of iPi DMC, especially with the introduction of the new Configurable Jitter Removal system. I haven't seen your footage of course but, in my own experience, I found that excessive jitter can be caused by low lighting or confusion with the background or floor.

As for head tracking, iPi DMC has never been able to track the head. It's an often requested feature and it's something they said they would try to add in the future. I don't know how difficult this would be to implement but they recently added shoulder tracking which I imagine is more complicated, so maybe head tracking is not far behind? Hope so anyway. :)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

I've also had great results. I've not had too many issues with foot sliding at all. The biggest leg issue i've had was knee popping which was being introduced in Animeeple but I found Greenlaws post on that on another forum and know how to fix that now :)

Any chance you can post a short section of video on a site somewhere?

Yeah, I've found that knee popping is usually the result of an over-extended or compressed rig. Animeeple tries to lock the feet by using a few tricks like shifting the position of the hips, but if shifted too far it can cause the IK to do funny things. I haven't seen this in iPi DMC but I can see how it might happen if your rig is scaled too tall or too short.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Here is a section of video with the tracked skeleton overlayed. You can see how the whole skeleton looks nervous in the service from head to toe even though I am barely moving. Obviously, the stage isn't ideal, but I would still expect smooth tracking on a smooth video, even if the tracking was inaccurate. I would think that my feet are clear enough in the video for the tracker to be stable.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6927019/shakey.mp4

Have you run Configurable Jitter Removal at all? Usually the default settings do a good job, but I tend to put more on the legs and less on other body parts. The results is almost always rock solid. You can even vary the amount in a sequence, so you can have more CJR when a character is standing still and then blend it to less when the character is moving.

Tip: There is a bug in the current DMC that requires you to 'trigger' the smoothing between CJR settings by setting Trajectory Filtering to 0 and then setting it back to the desired setting.

Here's the thread on the subject:

Configurable Jitter Removal

BTW, unlike the previous version of Jitter Removal, the current implementation of CJR is non-destructive to your original mocap data. From what I understand, it places the effect in a layer on top of the mocap, so there is no need to retrack the original mocap if you don't like the results of your CJR settings and want to change it. A HUGE timesaver!

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Also, you may want to experiment with the scale of the actor rig. A little taller than actual size is a general rule of thumb, but this may depend on body proportions.

Finally, make sure your using build 112 or later. This version has improved precision and introduced CJR.

G

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!