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Kinect Motion Capture Animated Series - Under the HUD
Here's some very interesting news. Thanks to all of the recent break throughs in the world of kinect-hacks that have emerged, a new series is currently in development that incorporates many open source middleware and wrappers that are available to us all. The entire animated web series Under the HUD was developed using motion capture with the Kinect, OpenNI, Brekel, MotionBuilder and Maya.
Being developed by Triangle Productions, the series will follow the comedic lives of two very different video game characters. Aside from using Maya and MotionBuilder, it was a smart move was to use open source motion capture software and other tools. This way, they are able to effectively avoid potential licensing fees by not using other more popular game engines such as UDK or CryEngine. They are also using pre-rendered characters which allows them to have more control over the development process as well.
A few episodes have already been written, recorded and edited. Now all that's left is to act out all of the motion capture work and we'll be able to enjoy the first motion capture web series using Kinect and all of the great resources and tools made available due to the amazing Kinect hacking community.
In terms of a relatively high end productions value at a fraction of the cost, the Kinect is looking like a viable option for a legitimate, motion capture solution for those looking to add a little flex to their video editing repertoire. I for one can't wait to see what this type of work inspires in others.
Follow @thwackers on twitter and check out their website - thwackers.tv
- source thwackers
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No links to the software? I'm disappointed. Google turns up some open source motion capture software, but everything I've found so far predates the Kinect. Anyone know what they're using?
According to their YouTube description, you'll need to install OpenNI along with Brekel (link provided in post) and MotionBuilder. I've never heard of Maya personally. I'm surprised Google didn't provide what you were looking for. Here's the link for MotioBuilder:http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/s...Two of these downloads are available in our download section.http://www.kinect-hacks.com/ki...http://www.kinect-hacks.com/ki...
Very cool!Maya:http://usa.autodesk.com/maya/Possibly the most used animation and CG software in the film industry.I can't wait to have some free time to try this out.
Hi Jared, Heres a system Im having great luck with.. http://goo.gl/fJXSYIts called ipisoft and you can see my examples at http://www.truebones.com
Cool. Posted a little ditty on the front page for your site. Thanks for popping by.
Is Maya opensource software now? I thought it was still expensive, proprietary professional modeling software.. I wonder if this would work OK with Blender..
There have already been a couple posts made right here relating to kinect hacks using blender. You can view them here - http://www.kinect-hacks.com/bl... - along with a tutorial here - http://www.kinect-hacks.com/ki...
So what kind of output do you get with kinect? Is it direct to Motion Builder .fbx files or do you have to use an interm software first?
ok so I actually read through your guides so nm my last question :SHow much clean-up time is involved once you get it to the Motionbuilder stage?
Thanks for the comments and interest in the post. I think your particular inquires will best be answered by contacting the team involved in creating the web series. Here's a link to their "Contact Us" page - http://goo.gl/hyWFaCheers
Hey, Im the producer for the show. We have done 1 mocap session. We recorded 2 episodes. As with any first time we had had alot of glitch's happen. For example joints will snap 360 . So if Im looking at the rotation curve for it and its animating along and @ frame 30 its value is 35, then at frame 31 it jumps up to 395 and continues. This can happen frequently. Fortunately Autodesk posted a video on how to set a ground plane in Motionbuilder. This helped alot with the feet. Before this the model was doing some serious tap dancing. We have scheduled another mocap session in 1.5 weeks. We will be recording another 3 episodes along with PSA videos. I expect clean up to be minimal due to the filter tools within Motionbuilder. Its like any other tool, you need to learn the limitations in order to work with it. No fast movments. Fortunatly or show is mostly dialoge. If there is action I use motion capture libraries I have bought.
Thanks for the reply, I think it's really cool that you guys are spearheading this new form of mocap. I've used MotionBuilder for years at EA's mocap studio and have become very familiar with it. Have you guys checked out the joint limitations properties for your character skeletons at all? You can set how far each joint is allowed to rotate on each axis; it's located in the properties section when you have a joint selected - it may help with your joint flipping. Another thing that *might* help is switching your rotation filter to GimbleKiller; located in settings>Filters. Forgive me if this is something you already know, I'm just living vicariously through your project :)
Hello Lost Dots, Thanks for the info. I didnt know about the options. My main skills are VFX compositor. I have a medium knowledge of Maya and MB @ best. Please email me your email. If you up for it I might have other tech questions I could use your help with. U can find mine on www.triangleproductions.tv Geoff
Hi Geoff, I tried emailing you at triangleproduction but it bounced back for some reason. Anyway, I'm happy to help with your Motionbuilder questions. you can email me directly at scameron@lostdotsstudio.com. Good luck with your cool project!
The fingers need to move or you have to set them in a more natural rest position – I basically stop watching anything 3D animated the second I see that the animator ignored one of the most expressive parts of body language, people hold and wave their hands like your characters to simulate being dumb, slow-witted or inarticulate.
Tim, Thanks for the comment and Suggetions. All the video or renders werent final. But on a side note, We are using the excuse that these guys are in a video game. One of the running jokes are the Karate chop hands video game character always have. I will definatly take your note to heart.
Call of Duty would kick so much ass if it was ran using the Kinect.Waving at your friends, shoot at enemies, run in place but actually you're running crazy all around the map, throwing a grenade, planting claymore's and C4's. Oh god all these possibilities.When I look at this video and imagine Call of Duty my pants start to move, no homo.
congrats! looks really great, have you experimented with more than 1 kinect so far?
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