Relatively cheap motion capture system?
by BLACKHOUND · in Artist Corner · 02/04/2003 (11:23 am) · 6 replies
I have been checking on the internet for a relatively cheap motion capture system. So far I have had no luck. Most of the system I have found cost 60K and over.
My question is, did any of you ever come across a system that works great and is cheap or not outragously expensive like most I have seen.
I am not looking for puppets or suits. I am looking for a visual motion capture system with the smallest amount of camera possible. Good results and small price tag.
Any of you saw that?
My question is, did any of you ever come across a system that works great and is cheap or not outragously expensive like most I have seen.
I am not looking for puppets or suits. I am looking for a visual motion capture system with the smallest amount of camera possible. Good results and small price tag.
Any of you saw that?
About the author
#2
Bryan
02/04/2003 (11:42 am)
I'm curious as to how you would make one. I mean I have a video camera and a few friends and I were joking around about getting one, but if we could make one that would be cool. How would you go about this?Bryan
#3
Record various motions, preferably from two angles.
Then you write a program that goes frame by frame, grayscaling the image and picking out the bright spots. Assuming you get realtively little motion from frame to frame, you can exploit frame coherence to keep knowledge about which ball is which. If you're using skeletal animation and you set the balls up the right way, you can directly map the ball's movements to bones.
The hardest part is correlating balls between the two angles. If you want to be fancy, you can try sorting them along various axes and trying for a correlation that way. Otherwise, you can code up an editor and match 'em up by hand.
Intel has an open source machine vision library available at http://www.intel.com/research/mrl/research/opencv/ that will probably give you a huge boost in getting this started.
02/04/2003 (12:07 pm)
It's simple enough. You dress someone up all in black in front of a black background. Attach white ping pong balls to all interesting joints and such.Record various motions, preferably from two angles.
Then you write a program that goes frame by frame, grayscaling the image and picking out the bright spots. Assuming you get realtively little motion from frame to frame, you can exploit frame coherence to keep knowledge about which ball is which. If you're using skeletal animation and you set the balls up the right way, you can directly map the ball's movements to bones.
The hardest part is correlating balls between the two angles. If you want to be fancy, you can try sorting them along various axes and trying for a correlation that way. Otherwise, you can code up an editor and match 'em up by hand.
Intel has an open source machine vision library available at http://www.intel.com/research/mrl/research/opencv/ that will probably give you a huge boost in getting this started.
#4
I wonder if there are any bvh resources out there?
-Eric Forhan, MRT
02/04/2003 (12:10 pm)
I haven't tried this out, and the website is rather vague, but VisualMarker seems to have mocap software on the cheap (less than $40US). Two week, full version, trial software. It requires two video cams.I wonder if there are any bvh resources out there?
-Eric Forhan, MRT
#5
Eric: Thanks for that link. I downloaded the two week trial and it look promising after you first figure out how to use it. It relatively simple since you get the video from two angles and setup the program to use the video you have(or use the example ones to start) then you conform the markers to your 3d model you use or use a default one. After this you go frame by frame and sync the markers with the video file which isnt too hard. Then play the video from the beginning and watch your model move. You can then export it to a format you can use (check site for formats used). In conclusion this is a great program for the independent developer wanting to do motion capture for his or her game and the price tag is great at about $40.
Edit: Updated information on Virtual Marker
Bryan
02/04/2003 (12:15 pm)
Mark: I'll have to see if I can get a black background to try that out, and maybe buy the program Eric was talking about if the trial version looks promising.Eric: Thanks for that link. I downloaded the two week trial and it look promising after you first figure out how to use it. It relatively simple since you get the video from two angles and setup the program to use the video you have(or use the example ones to start) then you conform the markers to your 3d model you use or use a default one. After this you go frame by frame and sync the markers with the video file which isnt too hard. Then play the video from the beginning and watch your model move. You can then export it to a format you can use (check site for formats used). In conclusion this is a great program for the independent developer wanting to do motion capture for his or her game and the price tag is great at about $40.
Edit: Updated information on Virtual Marker
Bryan
#6
TIA!
09/14/2003 (10:14 am)
Has anyone used this software? I noticed that it's changed hands and the only page up is the page to buy it, but no features or anything. It would be really great if it worked as Eric describes, and a fast and cheap way to get animations into TGE...TIA!
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