cool motion capture vid from Two Worlds...

[Komag]

http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/files/2WMocap.wmv

 

I just think it's pretty smooth and cool, and nice to see it from the opposite perspective like that.

 

I want to put on a suit with ping-pong balls and do crazy mo-cap stuff for Dark Mod!

[Komag]

I've been thinking about this more lately...

 

Does anyone know how cheaply one might pull off a motion capture "studio"?

 

I'm thinking, hang up some blue curtains, buy some ping pong balls and duct tape, use home video camera, download to laptop, voila! Obviously it's a bit harder than that, but could I get something to work for a couple/few hundred bucks? Or is it more like a couple grand at least? Is the main expense the software or computer? Surely they pulled off mo-cap 10 years ago when the best computers were no better than our average laptops of today, right?

 

(and yes, this was also a clever way to bump my thread!)

[sparhawk]

Actually I was thinking of that myself as well. I guess if you have a decent room that you can light well, it could work.

[demagogue]

I saw that video on YouTube.

 

Motion Builder is the main software to do mocap, and they have a non-profit version.

I'd think the hardware is more the limiting factor.

 

I read some tech article somewhere about mocap approaches in the near future. Aside from the hardware getting cheaper and easier to handle, one idea was a small doll on a pedestal that you can "pose" through the motion you want, and it saves it as a smooth, continuous motion. Another idea was more like using a motion-sensitive joystick to do mocap on individual body parts selectively. Both those ideas sound like great ones; I think they realized what a pain it can be to pull all the gear out sometimes for small side projects, or the expense for little guys, and wanted to make it more desktop friendly, but still do actual mocap.

 

The other technique that I was interested in another post is Endorphin (you can get a learner's edition for free from that site). The idea is, you give a model a script to follow (possibly in combination with keyframes or canned stuff), add an setting and forces, and it procedurally "animates" itself as a natural human would do given the same physical set-up (e.g., their strength and flexibility, gravity, friction, keeping their balance ...), then saves it. It very easily generates very natural looking human motion, and is particularly handy for things you're never going to get with mocap (people falling off buildings and landing on their head, etc).

Here's a demo video:

 

 

I think it has a lot of potential. I'm learning it right now and will try out some Darkmod-esque animations. I think melee combat is something it'd be pretty good for, injured and death animations ... anything where an AI has to react dynamically as a human might.

Edited January 22, 2008 by demagogue

[Komag]

I've searched around for some sort of super cheap option, and I found this program:

 

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.p...ewProduct=23967

http://www.3dutils.com/products/vm.htm

 

I don't know what sort of output it makes, or how flexible it might be, or if it would be at all usable for Doom 3 character animations.