#Ipi mocap studio software#
#Ipi mocap studio professional#

This leaves more time for capturing the actual moves. The best part about this method is that it only requires a short calibration video. In the software, this is either a 'Good' or 'Perfect' rating. If the cameras' actual depth sensors (the little red cameras on the Kinects) are the proper distance from you, the proper distance from each other, inline with each other, and pointed at the correct angle then you get a successful calibration each time. Luckily I found the secret to success: sensor positioning.

No calibration means no motion capture, and no motion capture means no kung-fu moves for the game! In fact, I failed miserably because I couldn't get my Kinects to calibrate in the software, iPi Soft Mocap Studio. While this particular take was a success, the initial setup of the dual motion sensors was not. That's me in the middle standing behind and holding a big'ol white calibration board. MSRP: Express $295, Basic $595, Standard $1195įor anyone that is familiar with animating in 3D, or in 2D for that matter, it takes a long time to precisely nail a believable performance.Do you like the digital version of me in the picture above? It is a screen shot from my new dual Kinect setup in DBG Studios for the sci-fi fighting game, Future Fighter (TM). It’s even more challenging when you consider viewing a computer generated world in which any sort of error is glaring based on the exactness of a 3D environment. To help in that endeavor, motion capture technology was created to take natural analog mobility and convert it into the digital space. This doesn’t mean that motion capture is a replacement to the artistry of an animator. Rather, a starting point or foundation for artists to accentuate aspects of a performance without recreating the wheel. For the enthusiast that would love to access this kind of technology, the major barrier has been the cost, time, and space to be able to use these kinds of tools. To that end, the developers at iPi Soft have created a way to address those very issues.

#Ipi mocap studio software#

IPi Soft’s combo software package of iPi Recorder and iPiStudio allows users to harness today’s latest camera technology to inexpensively generate motion capture data. The advent of devices like the PS Eye and Xbox Kinect, and making them available to the general consumer, have made it feasible for artists to leverage their ability to recognize human movement and convert it into data that can be plugged into a biped character. The other really big bonus is that this data can be retrieved without having to put on one of those silly mocap bodysuits. It’s achievable just wearing regular clothes that allow the camera to identify where your limbs are located.

#Ipi mocap studio professional#

Putting it all together, this is a very attractive package for anyone needing a tool to add professional polish to their work without breaking the bank. The iPi Soft Desktop Motion Markerless System is broken into two components, iPi Recorder and iPi Studio, that create a pipeline to getting mocap data into your character animation package of choice. The iPi Recorder is the interface for working with either Playstation Eye, Xbox Kinect, or any other compatible motion capture camera. The user interface for the iPi Recorder is a lot lighter than iPi Studio, focusing purely on controlling the positioning of the camera direction and giving feedback for readability of the actor in the environment. Setting up the cameras are pretty much plug and play, followed by positioning them for maximum data capture.

Instructions for calibrating the setup and recording data is pretty straightforward and readily available on the iPi Soft site and Wiki. Once everything is setup and you’re getting a good feedback of depth and position of your actor, recording the performance is just record, stop, and export to be processed in iPi Studio.