MOCAP translator- What do you think? - Any coders around?

Ivy

mindsong said:

 

Ivy, if you are interested in playing a bit, the xbox 360 and xbox one Kinect devices have *really* dropped in price. xbox 360 kinect from gamestop for $20/$30 bucks? (xbox one kintects are probably still busting $100-ish - check ebay for better numbers). I think mjcasual has a basic script that can pull in very basic skeletons (check his pages for details) from a Kinect, and others have a variety of medium priced capture tools that might be transportable to DS. Poser 2014-dev might even have a kinect based mocap available for capture and pz2 import to DS. (?)

 

--ms

Thanks for the advice  MS .  I do use a lot of Jacque's scripts & I own a xbox360.   But not the kinects device. I properly won't be getting one to soon either, considering the only time the xbox ever get dusted off is when the grand kids take it out to play it.  we've been streaming games like Myst on PC for the last year or so .  for me animation is just a hobby, so I'm  properly not going to investing in equipment to make mocaps with . But hopefully some of the people here who are willing make the investment , will share the mocaps they make  :)

 edited for spelling I am very dyslexic sorry

mindsong

Ivy said:

mindsong said:

 

Ivy, if you are interested in playing a bit, the xbox 360 and xbox one Kinect devices have *really* dropped in price. xbox 360 kinect from gamestop for $20/$30 bucks? (xbox one kintects are probably still busting $100-ish - check ebay for better numbers). I think mjcasual has a basic script that can pull in very basic skeletons (check his pages for details) from a Kinect, and others have a variety of medium priced capture tools that might be transportable to DS. Poser 2014-dev might even have a kinect based mocap available for capture and pz2 import to DS. (?)

 

--ms

Thanks for the advice  MS .  I do use a lot of Jacque's scripts & I own a xbox360.   But not the kinects device. I properly won't be getting one to soon either, considering the only time the xbox ever get dusted off is when the grand kids take it out to play it.  we've been streaming games like Myst on PC for the last year or so .  for me animation is just a hobby, so I'm  properly not going to investing in equipment to make mocaps with . But hopefully some of the people here who are willing make the investment , will share the mocaps they make  :)

 edited for spelling I am very dyslexic sorry

FWIW, the Kinects don't need the xbox units to operate! Standard USB. I think the version from the xbox one needs an adapter to inject extra power into its USB, but it stands alone fine otherwise, and PC drivers are available from MS.

The xbox 360 version doesn't do the facial stuff well, as I don't think the lensing on it was intended for close-up scanning. The xbox one version is definitely better in terms of bandwidth, numbers of users it can track and facial capture. It's also got better resolution in general. The xbox one version is a USB3 device, which may work with earlier USB versions, but the Brekel software warns that not all USB3 controllers are certain to work with his capture software. I assume this is a possible issue with any/all capture systems, so check that before spending $$. I believe the hardware you've settled on is more than up to the overall task, but the controllers may throw sand in your gears, so at least try the trials or poke around for info before taking that ri$k :)

I long-since dumped any xboxes in my household when MS forced user accounts and internet connectivity to operate their consoles. That's not happening on my watch.

All of that aside, the whole thing is actually kind of fun - watching the ghosty figures and bones as they're mapped in real-time - it's amazing that we have access to that sort of capability, heh. I'd like to have/try the apple facial interface, but not enough to pay their premium and submit to their invasion monitoring of my personal data spaces.

YMMV,

--ms

SasquatchIsCool

WendyLuvsCatz said:

Rather than mocap what I would want is one of those poseable art figures that map to a 3D rig, something that really never eventuated.

Googling I see "Stickybones" but that is still apparently fund project and lots of money being poured in, not the one I saw years ago on Youtube either.

That is why I want to use Radical MOCAP at this point.    I want to see how it works and it is subscription base.  Like 8 dollars a month with any video input.    Looks promising.  

 

wolf359 said:

SasquatchIsCool said:

wolf359 said:

SasquatchIsCool said:

wolf359 said:

SasquatchIsCool said:

DAZ is a very great program to make awesome looking models but the ability to take in MOCAP...like ROKOKO, XSENs, etc leaves much to be desired.  You need to do workarounds and jump through hoops.  

I'm trying to see if anyone out there would like a program, plugin, extension or what have you that will remap DAZ 3 and 8 characters to MOCAP brought in by various systems.  Would there be a big demand? 

If so would you like to work with a coder or developer?  Are you a developer?  Would anyone like to work together to pay a developer to bring a tool like this to DAZ so that we could take advantage of the mocap solutions that are now coming out?

Sound off if you are a developer, if you want a product like this or you want to work together with a developer to make an almost 1 button solution to get DAZ to work with actual mocap without all the weird workarounds.  

I'm sure many of you would love to make movies and DAZ can make it possible if we can streamline it for spee.  Let me know in the comments below and together we can make it happen IF it is something ya'll would want to see.  ;)

 

 

Hi

You asked if there would be any demand for such a plugin so I would suggest you consider the variables

Bringing in and retargeting Mocap directly from capture rigs will create keyframes for every frame and as Daz studio only supports BVH the retargeted Data would be very difficult to edit after import just as it is with the custom mocap I bring in from Iclone pro pipeline via its 3Dxchange program.

There are known documented "issues" with the latest Daz studio build not retaining animation Data in saved and re-opened scenes which would have to be considered for bug testing any animation plugin .

Consider that such a plugin would have to perform the same function as $$Autodesk Motionbuilder$$ or $$Iclone pro pipeline$$ thus it would be a very expensive/complex undertaking for a programmer and it is doubtful that it would be a cheap commercial solution considering that the $$Iphone$$ based facial MOCAP plugin"Face mojo" reportedly costs $200 USD.

which brings us to the matter of the cost of buying one of the Major mocap suits plus the cost of this theoretical plugin that needs to be functional equivalent to Autodesk MOBU or Iclone pro.

Now consider that BVH Does NOT Create Foot floor contact solving so any imported Data will likely have some foot slide requiring you to manually animate the strength of the Daz studio IK reach effector for any weight shifting, foot planting motion from the capture so your theoretical plugin would not be a"one button" solution ( hint MOCAP never is)

FYI-Blender, Iclone,MAYA,MAX All have professional realtime IK foot/ floor contact solving

Also consider that once you pay for the Capture suit, the plugin and Import your MOCAP into Daz studio you have to render in 3Delight or the brute force Path tracer from NIVDIA .

Some people render animations in IRay but many cite its long render time as the main reason they dont try animations at all.

I'm down for payinng $200 for a retargeting program.  Heck I may just start paying someone to retarget it for me :)   I'm trying to make a movie and not be stuck on software all day or retargeting and such.  :)

In other news - Do you port DAZ characters to Iclone then animate them there and then take to Max, Maya or C4d?  Does Iclone block you from exporting it out to those programs for render until you buy the interactive?  Or it still does it but not supposed to type situation?

 

My current pipeline is to export my Daz figures to Iclone and animate them there (both body & facial) and export to Blender for render in the realtime EEVEE engine

And yes you need the $600 USD Pipeline version of Iclone to export FBX ,Alembic or BVH out of Iclone,

I understand your desire to use the Iphone based Facemojo plugin for Daz studio and I certainly understand your desire to render in UE4 over IRay or the decrepid 3Delight in Daz studio.

What I do not understand is why you do not export your Daz figures to UE4 and use your mocap suit to retarget capture performances directly to them IN UE4 instead of waiting for a mocap parsing plugin for daz studio to be possibly developed someday.

Mainly because the way FaceMojo works and mainly DAZ limitations...you cannot get that great looking ahimation over to UE4.    Something about 1 level of subdivision.  

How do you like the EVEE render in comparison to the UE4 realtime render?

 

Hi,

Unreal engine has higher realtime quality overall from the Demos I have seen, however I prefer Blender for rendering my animated films because it is an actual Full 3DCC application that I use for my custom Daz clothing creation and has better Fluid & Smoke,particle,Rigid body dynamics than UE4.

Since you plan to render films in the slow brute force path tracer in Daz studio ,you may wish to invest in a pair of NVIDIA 2080's to get better render times although you will never approach the veiwport look dev or final render speed of EEVEE or UE4.

That looks really nice.  Have you been able to integrate facial mocap to your work?  That new Face Mojo looks promising.  What do you think?

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Oh man, this is HUGE. The part on retargeting starts at 11:18.

Houdini takes on Character Animation

This could actually be a Motionbuilder replacement. And Houdini Apprentice is FREE.