Ecstasy gets live streaming WEAPONS...
by Chris Calef · 07/02/2009 (7:26 pm) · 7 comments
Just a quick note to anyone following the Ecstasy Project... (btw don't forget to pick it up before the price goes up! www.ecstasymotion.com) ... you might be interested in this week's new development: ECSTASY HAS WEAPONS!! Live, streaming in from the Arena motion capture data.
These are just some early, not very processed shots, and some fine tuning will certainly be necessary to get the hands and weapons lining up better... but the overall positions and rotations work. It's also important to note that this stuff is only for streaming from Arena at the moment, but the next step will be to save the weapon animations as dsqs and be able to play them back on demand.
I had four different weapons with me in this capture session, and we set them all up with little reflective balls and went to town! The capture above was made using my wooden wakisashis (short swords) and below was the wooden katana (boken).
Although it's possible to record weapon anims as just the human sequence, and then add a weapon by mounting it at the correct mount node, this invariably looks pathetic compared to the real thing. When you measure the sword motion itself, you find that it can move quite a lot while the hand barely moves at all.
We tried making the katana seem heavier, to use it for something like an axe, or a big hammer.
Sometimes the hands get really messed up, and change depending on which grip the weapon is in.
I plan on fixing some of this stuff by tweaking the inputs, and fix the rest with post processing.
So, that's it for this week's status report! People seem to be liking the program so far. For the next month or so I'll be mostly overwhelmed with preparing for our SIGGRAPH demo in August, but after that, if you're an Ecstasy owner, keep your eyes peeled for updates!
These are just some early, not very processed shots, and some fine tuning will certainly be necessary to get the hands and weapons lining up better... but the overall positions and rotations work. It's also important to note that this stuff is only for streaming from Arena at the moment, but the next step will be to save the weapon animations as dsqs and be able to play them back on demand.
I had four different weapons with me in this capture session, and we set them all up with little reflective balls and went to town! The capture above was made using my wooden wakisashis (short swords) and below was the wooden katana (boken).
Although it's possible to record weapon anims as just the human sequence, and then add a weapon by mounting it at the correct mount node, this invariably looks pathetic compared to the real thing. When you measure the sword motion itself, you find that it can move quite a lot while the hand barely moves at all.
We tried making the katana seem heavier, to use it for something like an axe, or a big hammer.
Sometimes the hands get really messed up, and change depending on which grip the weapon is in.
I plan on fixing some of this stuff by tweaking the inputs, and fix the rest with post processing.
So, that's it for this week's status report! People seem to be liking the program so far. For the next month or so I'll be mostly overwhelmed with preparing for our SIGGRAPH demo in August, but after that, if you're an Ecstasy owner, keep your eyes peeled for updates!
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#2
07/02/2009 (8:42 pm)
Yeah, for slicing people apart we'll need dissectable models that split neatly on the common chopping lines, and of course some convincing blood particles... but I fear I may exceed the "excessively violent" clause of my family-friendly GG blog, so I'll leave the rest to the imagination. 
#3
Are this animations going to be paired with the appropiate walk/run animations?
07/02/2009 (9:27 pm)
Will you include spear, lance, bo-staff, bow and other weapon animations?Are this animations going to be paired with the appropiate walk/run animations?
#4
07/02/2009 (9:43 pm)
No promises on animations being included with Ecstasy - this is a demo about what Ecstasy can do, not about what comes with it. That being said, there may be some new animation packs and add-ons in the future as a result of this new tech. 
#5
07/03/2009 (1:05 am)
The Buy Button doesn't work for me BTW (IE). 
#6
07/03/2009 (2:30 pm)
J.C, if your on IE7/8 have you tried it in compatibility mode ? 
#7
J.C., I got the same result in IE with the BUY button on the frontpage...we'll try to sort that out. Meanwhile, this one worked in IE:
Purchase Ecstasy
Jondo
edit: linkee
07/03/2009 (3:50 pm)
Hey guys,J.C., I got the same result in IE with the BUY button on the frontpage...we'll try to sort that out. Meanwhile, this one worked in IE:
Purchase Ecstasy
Jondo
edit: linkee
Associate Michael Hall
Would be cool to practice some cutting exercises if we could slice people up/apart :D
I keep hoping I'll be able to pick this up soon, but even if I miss the early adopter phase I still look forward to getting my hands on this.