Need Software Reviews from mocap creators who use IpiSoft

[Fantasy Difference]

 I am in the process of getting a mocap studio put together and am in need of reviews from people who use the IpiSoft

software with two kinect cameras. 

How well are rotations recorded?

Do you have any occlusion problems? 

How long does it take for the software to process and filter a 30-60 second take?

Other than looping, are there any other types of changes that need to be made by hand?

Also, please give me an idea of what you charge for making a full-perm custom mocap?

 

Thank you for your advice.

Fantasy Difference

 

[Sassy Romano]

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Fantasy Difference wrote:

 I am in the process of getting a mocap studio put together and am in need of reviews from people who use the IpiSoft

software with two kinect cameras. 

How well are rotations recorded?

Do you have any occlusion problems? 

How long does it take for the software to process and filter a 30-60 second take?

Other than looping, are there any other types of changes that need to be made by hand?

Also, please give me an idea of what you charge for making a full-perm custom mocap?

  

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In order:-

Pretty well, no, depends, varies, I don't.

Since you can download a 30 day trial, that's the best solution really.  If you don't have any Kinect cameras, you could ask in the ipi forums for someone to send you some depth data video and then you could play around with it.

It doesn't currently support head or hand tracking, that was supposed to be in the recently released v2 but has slipped but in v1 I never found that to be a big problem, simple enough to hand do those afterwards.

Limb rotations along the bone axis are reasonably well captured and with two kinects, occlusion is generally not an issue.  Where it might be, it's easy enough to reposition the actor or change the action slightly to deal with this.

Processing and filtering is ultra dependent on your graphics card since all the processing is offloaded to the GPU.  If you have a poor GPU then expect up to 10 seconds video frame, I have an Nvidia GTX 560Ti and that takes between 0.3 to 0.6 seconds per frame.

You can import an SL rig to export against but I always take into bvhacker to polish for the end anyway but as long as you use the software correctly, it can produce very clean data within the capabilities of what it sets out to do.

I bought my copy to support other things that I do, not to be in the business of making animations so I don't produce animations for others.  I know some quote L$15,000 for a full perm mocap animation.  Some will be more, some less.

[Medhue Simoni]

As motion capture software goes, it's as good as any. It all really is about you tho and how you do things. It's just a program and does what it does fairly well. The good thing is that it has the tools to make a good mocaps once the processing it done. It does take time to learn how to make a good motion capture tho. Not just learning the tools, but also how to film a movement, and how to act it out.

As Sassy said, it does not track hands or the head, although you can set the hands and head in the program while it is processing and then smooth the movements out later. Generally, I will do most of the head movement in IPI, and do all the hand movements in my editor.

I've never had a problem with occlusion, but this is also based on how your set up is. With 2 kinects, it will hardly be an issue tho.

For a 30-60 second take, IPI can process it very fast, like 10 minutes or less, but as Sassy also said, it is totally dependent on your graphics card. Of course, that is just the processing. Do not expect the program to do all the work, or you will not be producing anything of quality. It generally is going to take more time smoothing things and editing than it will to process the movement.

I don't see making full perm motion capture, on request, to be a very profitable business. Animation takes time to make something good and the software only helps out in the process. Plus, for every movement in the animation, there is more time to clean it up and make it really smooth.

If I have any complaints, it would be that shoulder tracking is not as good as it could be, and IPI gets a bit too restrictive with some joint limits.

[Tommy Rampal]

I've had some experience with IpiSoft, it's enabled me to create professional looking animations. I use the Kinect (single) to do all my animations, and find that I rarely get a perfect 'take'. There is a lot of post-processing involved, especially animations that involve body rotation. Unless you record with two Kinects (I haven't tried this yet), you will find that rotation causes the skeleton to lose calibration, so the arms/legs not in view of the Kinect tend to fly off from capture; normally recalibrating and capturing backwards fixes the issue.

[Fantasy Difference]

I appreciate all of your input!  It is very helpful to know whether it is a good investment or not    I hope more animators will share their experiences.  Thanks so much.

[Fantasy Difference]

"It does take time to learn how to make a good motion capture tho. Not just learning the tools, but also how to film a movement, and how to act it out."

Do you have any suggestions on filming and acting for motion capture?

[Medhue Simoni]

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Fantasy Difference wrote:

"It does take time to learn how to make a good motion capture tho. Not just learning the tools, but also how to film a movement, and how to act it out."

Do you have any suggestions on filming and acting for motion capture?

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Well, it kind of depends on what kind of animations you are making. As a general rule tho for many different kinds of actions, you want to start and end an animation in the same position. For instance. If you are making stands, and you want the stands to all blend together without noticing the transition, then you have to come back to the same point. If you watch some AOs, you will see them snap into place when the next animation plays. I, personally, hate to see this with my own animations, and I try to make sure that each 1 starts and ends within a general range with a generous blend time inbetween.

Like I said tho, it depends on what you are making. Say you are making a dance. Does it really matter where the stands start and end? You'd generally just want the dance to loop perfectly, which is almost definitely going to need to be done in an editor.

As another example, imagine you are making a little short movie. In this case, getting animations to match up is less of an issue as, in many cases, the animation will be 1 long animation.

[Sassy Romano]

Same as Medhue with regards to starting and ending plus its also just knowing what the system is capable of. There's no point acting out a long and intricate sequence if its not going to resolve in the software or something which is too fast or where body parts are impossibly occluded.

All can be solved by acting in different ways, adjusting the cameras, the type of movement so that it stays within the capabilitys of the equipment for example.