Does anyone on this forum have extensive experience of using iPisoft's motion capture system with iClone? I am asking for extensive experience, even though it states in the wiki pages that there are issues within iClone in processing the information contained in the BVH files, but I also understand that the post is pretty old and I am hoping there have been some (positive) developments. I would like to understand all the pros and cons associated with using iPisoft + iClone.

I havent used mocap before, so some of my queries are pretty basis.

My requirement is not very complex - I just wish to record characters while they perform normal actions - talking, walking, dancing, playing sports ;) but with head movement captured too (preferably with facial animation). In the future, I might want to develop some action-oriented animation, but that is not my immediate need. I have a Kinect system (infact two) and I have read about occlussion problem and to be honest I dislike 'cleaning' - so before I purchase any mocap system I would like to set my expectations about the clean-up effort required for smooth motion.

I am looking at things from both time and quality perspective. If it takes me x hours of effort to produce 1 minute of animation, then using mocap and targetting similar (or better) quality - would be I be able to do it 0.5x hours?

I do not have space issues, and if the 6 PSEye setup is not difficult to "use', I could try that too - but then I understand I would need specific clothes (manageable requirement)? Also, I am not clear what sort of graphics card is needed ? And how would an SDD help - faster processing? Also, I still dont understand the calibrating process, but then I havent read the wiki in detail - so hopefully I will find some useful information there.

Regards
Sharad

For more info please visit
http://www.ipisoft.com/en/wiki/index.php?title=Animation_export_and_motion_transfer#iClone

Thanks Andrew and TrueBones.

This is what the page referred by Andrew says: "BVH Converted in iClone 4 has a bug that causes distortion of legs animation. iPi Studio exports an iClone-optimized BVH correctly as can be verified by reviewing exported BVH motion in BVHacker or MotionBuilder or other third-party application. No workaround is known. We recommend that you contact iClone developers about this bug as it is out of control of iPi Soft. " and hence my concern, because I use iClone for my animation.

Regards
S

HI ,

Today I have tested the Iclone 5.

It works perfect, Just make sure that you re-time your animations to 15fps.

That is Iclones actual Timeline Keyframe rate.

Let me know if you need some test files.

I have posted Halloween iPi imotion Files. at the Realusion site forum.

Thanks and Cheers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U_rQKOJf0I

Is my demonstration of using iPiSoft made BVH files in Iclone 5

Heres how to Import iPiSoft Motions into ICLONE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ZGUMSvcGU

Cheers

Hi mrbones,

I have recently tried to import ipisoft bvh files into iclone using the BVH convertor. The animations are playing at a very fast pace. By squeezing the motion the animation pace is reducing. However I am looking for a better solution to obtain the same speed as recorded. You mentioned in you post about "re-timing the animation" - Does this refer to file export? OR Is there some way to change the timeline keyframe rate to 15fps while creating the animations in iclone?

Cheers,
Tapas

Thank you mrbones for the quick reply. That removes all confusion about the process.

- tapas