Feasibility of motion capture
by Jay Eakins · in Artist Corner · 03/16/2002 (2:08 pm) · 4 replies
Not being an animator by any means, I am looking into some possible shortcuts. I have found a few sites on the net that offer motion capture sequences in various formats (.3ds, .max, .lws, .bvh to name a few) for a price. Of course. I was wondering if anyone else has already looked into the feasibility of using motion captures that are available on the net.
Not so much a question of will this work (obviously it would), but rather a question of whether the quality of motion captures generally offered is any good. I'm not looking at freebie motion caps. 'You get what you pay for' being the phrase of the day. I'm also curious if anyone has found a good resource for motion captures at a decent price.
For example, one of the more interesting sites I have found, the developers of Life Forms XT, has what they call a 'game pack' of motion captured animation sequences for $99 for a single format, . But some of the animations look... I don't know, almost as if the person in the suit was overacting a bit :)
Not so much a question of will this work (obviously it would), but rather a question of whether the quality of motion captures generally offered is any good. I'm not looking at freebie motion caps. 'You get what you pay for' being the phrase of the day. I'm also curious if anyone has found a good resource for motion captures at a decent price.
For example, one of the more interesting sites I have found, the developers of Life Forms XT, has what they call a 'game pack' of motion captured animation sequences for $99 for a single format, . But some of the animations look... I don't know, almost as if the person in the suit was overacting a bit :)
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#2
Using other people's mo-cap will just be a problem since you'll probably need custom animations. Mixing motion capture and normal animation can work if you have a good animator, but on an indie budget you're better off finding a skilled modeler and animator who will be much more friendly to your wallet :)
03/17/2002 (10:31 pm)
Of course, just look at the vast majority of models used in mods and many of the retail games. Very high quality animation, but not motion captured.Using other people's mo-cap will just be a problem since you'll probably need custom animations. Mixing motion capture and normal animation can work if you have a good animator, but on an indie budget you're better off finding a skilled modeler and animator who will be much more friendly to your wallet :)
#3
03/24/2002 (9:09 pm)
you can also try the mocap plugin for max from motion analysis corp., i forget the name. its like 1200 bucks. i read a review that said it got the job done, but required more manual labor than filmbox and whatever. they sell it to students for about half price. so for under a grand (if a student) you could have the plugin and a couple cameras - a low-budget mocap studio. course you need max as well...
#4
http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?q2pmp/tools/quake3/bips-q3-steed.zip
04/03/2002 (5:06 pm)
If you're just looking for a quick and cheap shortcut, Paul Steed has released his bip files from Q3. It'll only take 5 minutes to break them down into individual animations, and they are very professionally done.http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?q2pmp/tools/quake3/bips-q3-steed.zip
Chad Hunt