Hi~~This is my character-Mr.greenrabbit.
As a wired animal,so I make he with the weapon on his back.
he is strong powerful and a little be cute.
OK,now I am going in to the organic motion capture system to record my video.
Let's have a look.




Unsuccessful:
At the begin of the recording everything goes well.But there was a thing that I did not expect. My hair is too long -_-# and as you can see the cloth I wear is black so makes the system could not catch nice that my character's neck is easy to break.
Therefore if next time to record the safe way is to choose the color on you cloth except white and black.

There was anther problem that I found out during the recording time, which was the system could not catch the close action. Otherwise, Character will get kill.

About the prop.I fount that the system could not distinguish it well. My prop is a pair of shields.Before I play around in the system it could catch my hands and arms movements,However after I put on my shields,the system did not do the same thing as my hands and arms's movements.

Successful:
In the organic motion capture system, it can catch the jump stuff that over my imagination.It cough the whole details from the body.

The other thing that our system can do well which is the kick stuff. That mean we can do lots of cool actions as KongFu.

Through this experience I think I can do a better animation next time.
Thank you.^_^

Hi guys this is Sherlock.

My character is a huge fat dinosaur called Dino. I doubt if he could dance at the beginning. But now it proved that he can~ I choose the classic dancing scene from the movie .

The first time I skin this model, I made it in the wrong way and Dino can't stand up well. So I redo the skin part and put the bepid in the right way and finally he can stand up pretty cool.

And when I mocap, I try to figer out how much distance I need to keep between my arm and the body to make Dino looks right. Soon I find out if I dance in human way, Dino's arm will never come out from his body, so I have to hold my arms far from my body to avoid that.

The foot part is tricky. Dino has one more bone in his leg than human, and when I move my feet, the mocap system can catch it, but it put the motion on to the bone that I actually don't have in my leg. So his feet movement looks really bad.

I record the motion three times and I choose the last one to show you. Dino dance really funny and is very much match the music.

The worst part is the skin is not good enough, I need to prove it a lot!

At the end, I wanna say thanks to Cheeriooo for her help on mocaping the cute charming girl on the left. The fact is that her dancing is way batter than mine~

Enjoy!

2885_Cheerio_Assignment2

Hi, everyone, this is Cheerio, with my character – Bluey~

As the theme is about weird animal, so I made this piggy like character with duck feet.

After recording all the motion captures, few problems that I found during the process:

n If you want it works better, or perfectly, you need to have the following characteristic for your character: enough length for arms and legs, thin enough, foot shouldn’t be too wide. Because, with short arm like my character, Bluey, she’s not able to touch her own face; and sometimes when she sits down, she will not be able to reach the ground. With wide foot like Bluey, when she walks, left foot always fights with right foot. With short leg like Bluey, she can’t really perform a very open action. Apart from that, of course the character itself should have a good rig. Obviously, my Bluey got some problem at her navel; I should say that is probably a rig problem.

SOLUTIONS: After some testing, I found that in order to avoid the hands goes into the stomach that the actor need to remember where are their limits for both the head and the fat body of the character. Of course we can also just make the hands slightly higher than the normal T position as Veronica has mentioned in the class. The problem of having Bluey’s foots too wide, Carl helped me with that by telling me that I need to stand with my feet leave a bit further away from each other, the result shows that it works~

n When Bluey tried to sit, I meant when he fell down, it always break the skeletons.

SOLUTION: Make the character fell down slower, and then import it into 3ds max and select the fell part key frames and scale them, make them quicker. That’s why that I gets up so slowly and carefully, and it works perfect~

n When walks for a long distance because of the area limited in the Motion capture room, and the limitation of the area that the cameras can catch, we can’t walk freely.

SOLUTION: Keep walking in at one spot, or a small area, and then drag the biped forward in max.

n The most annoying part should be this, when we import the animation into the scene, the feet of the character always goes into the floor.

SOLUTION: Well, I think the only way to fix it should be just key frame by hand, or someone need to improve this organic motion capture system, to make the system recognized the feet touching the floor.

Finally, I really enjoy myself with this new organic Motion Capture System which we don’t need to carry something too heavy with us while acting.

2524_Vivienne_MocapAssignment

Hi~This is Vivienne.My character’s name is Ben. He is a lovely crocodile.I use motion capture to recording a video for him.

At first I do the model is so cute （short arm short leg），but it is hard work in motion capture.

I change the leg and arm to become longer ，I feel better~ it can do easy things, can do dance and do ratation.

I want do the acation like a hip-hop dance，it is hard for me.lol~ And also hard for my character. His leg and arm still not longer enough.

When I do the acation like squat,he will become distortion.When I use the props _chair ,I want to stand on the chair.He is become broken. And also I cant sit on the chair,his tail will become so strange.

And my charcater’s left arm have little problem.it cannot move more. I donot know why .maybe I do it not well in 3Dmax.

I selected the clothes that I think the cream can easy to capture.And it is ~~

By the way I get many useful information from this recording~~

Thank you~

hi, guys.this is my pre-product video version.
as you see,it is not very good. but I still want to upload this video.because it can clearly illustrate the problem of this system.
1.the reason is that i want to show how important the camera is.in this record process. one camera didn't work, so it could not catch my action obviously.the whole system is totally misunderstood my motion. therefore, before the record process, it is necessary to check and re-check whether the whole system work or not.
2.we should avoid the close motion as much as possible.we can see every frame i want to do close motion, the whole system is not working well.
3.the system may only catch the body of the human, but can not recognize the other things. so we have to create the other thing in the 3d. sometime, it takes a long time to match the body motion. it is expensive and inefficiency.
4. the organic motion capture is not very accuracy.
5. the organic motion system still takes a while to set up. it still need two people to work together.

2644_Teresa_MocapAssignment2

Hello~~~ This is my character, Little Cow. She is dancing in the garden. I made this animation with the Organic Mocap.

In performing, the MoCap capture all the actions successfully what I did and reaction these movement on my character Little Cow accurately and timely. Her movements are quite smooth. In general, capture and production are quite successful. As you see in my recorder, I took an iPhone props when I was acting.

In the recording, I have a few of the problems in the process. Because this dance is relatively fast and smooth, so in response of the character act has a bit slow and unstable. When on the official record, I deliberately slowed down the pace. On the original Clip, the character has a normal physique. It does not like my character have a fat body. As this, when I did my action like put hands or arms close to my body, I have deliberately moved them slightly to the outside or raise them. Therefore, my character did a similar action when the arm will not run into the body.

I found some strange activities of my character’s toes, it like my character always dancing on tiptoe. But in fact I did not go to dance on tiptoes. Some of my friends said that the bones of feet are too much out of my character’s feet, and some say that the skin weight may not adjust very well. I tried modified, but still not much changed. There is another problem of the left arm on my character. When she did some action, the left arm will occur the strange distortions. My friend told me because the shoulder bone of my character was out of too much, but the same size for my right arm, was not has this strange distortion.

That is all my report, although there were a lot of trouble, but overall the process is still quite enjoyable, especially in record time.

Thank you for watching!!!! :D

2837_Anita_Mocap_Assessment2

My character is a very simple and honest deer. His name is Robbi.

I did this record with Teresa. We spent a lot of time setting up our files and then we do some testing before we record.

When I do the record, I forget most of the movements I should copy. So I have to think what should I do and I create some actions by myself. Finally, the deer looks really stupid and honest. His personality is already there.

There are some problems when I do the records.

The deer nearly die when I do the close action, such as squat. So I have to stand a little bit to make sure the deer doesn’t die during the record. Also, I try to do most of open actions and avoid the closed actions.

Due to some rigging problems, the deer’s arm does not work well sometimes.

Otherwise, it copies very well and does exactly what I do in the organic motion capture room.

Anyway, I really have a lot of fun in the organic motion capture room. It is so cool.

Thanks for watching. Bye.

KAris

The successful mimicked captures:

The motion of Pink B(my character’s name) was captured really well for some detailed movement like when I was dancing on my heels, the system could catch this tiny action and record it. And the coolest thing is the cameras catch most of detail about I was doing a cartwheel.

What’s more, the camera did a really good job for catching like rotation and bending the body, shaking his (Pink B) ass and waving his arms. Even acting with Prop, it did great!

The Unsuccessful captures:

Doing the Cartwheel:

The reason of this movement can’t be perfect is the actor’s head is covered by her hands when she was moving. The font cameras couldn’t catch her hands. It affect Pink B’s hands were covered.

The result of the Organic Motion System does not only depend on the actor’s movement, but also depends on the proportion of the character that was used.

(Pink B has a big head and short, thin hands)

Standing:

If I put my hands down straight, Pink B’s hands would cross into his body. I had to remember to pay attention to open my hands when I was dancing.

Taking off the clothes in the system:

For my first testing, I wear a colourful jacket. I checked the video and it got some stash light at my video camera. I thought the reason maybe because the fluorescent colours on my jacket. It effected Pink B can’t follow the detail movement.

So I decided to change my clothes and saw the difference in the movement and it worked!

It helped after I change one.

I think what material of the fabric for the actor wear will affect the system.

2802-Tutorial Week 5

How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder
1.Put the character on T-position and the character stands on the center floor of world
2.Turn off the figure mode
3.No animation
4.Export as .fbx


How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture
1.Build a new folder with your .fbx file and texture
2.Set a favorite path in the assets browser
3.Device→Drag om device on stage.
4.click online,live,recording →create a model binding→rename character and characterise
5.Drag your own model on stage→ rename--3d max biped temp, characterize→character input on model, and stance input on om, tick both live.


6.device→ recharacterise, reset tracking


How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton
capture face enable

user calibration save as .omu file →recharacterise, reset tracking→click start→overwrite→ finish by T-position→stop record→take off online →non-record→choose character →plot→skeleton→change stance input→deactived→save as .fbx


How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max


get out of figure mode→click biped→import .fbx and update scene→save

2930_Assignment 2

Character Trailer
Video Report


written Report
Hello, this is Denise. This video is about motion capture the organic system.
I am going to do a series movement for a character to see how the system works.
First, I want to show you what movements I am going to do. Let’s start it!!
*First movement, raise your hand and move your shoulders.
*And walk, walk, turn, shooting, shooting, walk, walk, back, back, turn.
*And shoot again, shoot.
*look left, right, left, right, big circle down, stop.
*Circle, circle, circle, and bend, pose.
*Walk, walk, walk, walk, bend again.
*Bend to the left, right.
*Wave, wave, turn to right, doing like running in slow motion.
*And face front, do like pray.
*Head down a little bit, come back.
First recording, the hands are inside the body, I think I should pretend I am as fat as my character. Head has some problem. As you can see, my feet have some problems because I was standing too close to the front cameras, so it can’t catch me well.
In second recording, I try to remember my movement and my body position, also pay attention to my hands and feet. So, you can see the capture is better.
While showing my third also the last record for this dance movement, I also want to mention a big problem I had with this project. After I rigged my character, I resize my character by using Units Setup. It’s a big mistake. Because after I import the motion capture file which is plotted file back to 3DSMAX, the animation totally went wrong. My character just move all over the place. So, never resize your character after you rig.
I use umbrella as prop. I think it works really well, I am totally satisfied with the result, please take a look.
Now, please enjoy the final result.
Thank you for watching, Bye~

Original video recording

2917_Assignment2

Writing Report

My character is a soft creature with hat. His name is Packy, I named him Packy because he looks similar to Pacman in some way. He is very cheerful and always happy.

The scene which he'll playing in is like a playground. It has a toy car for him to play with. And he'll pick up a branch to be his weapon. As the original video is a animation, some of the movement I need to use hand-animation(just move his position) to help me achieve mimicking. You'll see both Mocap and hand-animation in my character trailer

During the record time, I found out that some actions are very hard to mimick, acually it's not hard but the result I get on the screen is not what I want. These actions are the set of close actions. When I did close action, my silhouette will become bulky and the system will have no idea what I'm doing. After I did a close action, my character always went wrong. I think it should be the way to record upper part of the body and come back to record lower part then combine 2 movement in to 1 full body animation could solve this problem.

Another thing which is not successful is the walking action. Acually it is my mistake, I shouldn't perform a real walk while recording. Because for this system, there is its limit. The actor must perform around the center of the room otherwise he/she'll get out of range for some camera. Result in miscalculate position in 3D space.

While doing close actions frustrate me, the open actions are not the same at all. The system interpret all of my motions perfectly and what's showing on screen is exactly what I want.

Overall, this is impressive system. It is very nice to feels like become the character which I model. I found that the model should be well rigged in order to make more satisfy result. I'll take all mistakes I did in this record as the experience and improve it next time.....

Video Report

Character Trailer

2921_Motion capture Assignment 2 charactor trailer

Character trailer Report



My character is a frog, which is dressed like a superman.
During the motion capture process I did motion capture which contains open actions close actions and actions with the prop.
There are some of the points that I did unsuccessful.
1. My character is too fat so when I was doing close action the arm become underneath the belly.
2. Sometimes I did the mimic too fast that the motion capture can’t recognize some of it so it becomes distorted at some of the area. And it looks terrible.
3. I made the character too big in the motion builder and it makes the chair too low to be stand on and it looks not as I expected.
4. at the time I was doing motion capture I still cant help looking at the screen to follow the movement and when it come back to the motion builder the head looks stupid and it seems the character is keeping looking something fascinating.
5. The animation seems too boring.
6. The feet seem shaking all the time.
I tried to fix them in some ways
1. I tried to be the fat character and assume I have a big belly (I do have but not that big )
2. I slowed down the mimic and let the motion capture system follows me.
3. I didn’t fix that cause when I realised that it was too late to do the change so I kept it. I think I can do better when next assignment comes along.
4. I tried to remember the movement and it worked a little bit.
5. I added the plot that the character fell down from the chair. And it changed a little bit.
6. I still can’t figure out the reason so far.

Overall I gained more knowledge on this program and how to do motion capture more effectively.

Report
First, I’ll introduce my video clip. That about monkey dance with balloon. It like crazy dance, The style is look so hard to acting. I am be not sure my model can do like that or not.
When I finished working I got problem that is when I turn around Immediatly. The body of my model look like a twist. Next problem is the hand going to the body because my model is too fat. Finally when I roll the model go in to the floor. So far some path of this Assignment is incomplete I think it will be fix it up later.

3255_ariel_Ass1Task3Final

Video Analysis

The written report

Motion Capture Report, from Ariel

Attendee: Jenny, Choi, Ariel

Time: 12:00-15:00 1^st Dec, 2010

Location: Motion Capture Room, AIT

We started with set up the motion capture system, by adjusting 3d model in 3dmax, set up cameras calibration, and bring in motion builder to read to start to record. Due to the problem of we were not familiar to that long processes of setting ups that time, we tried few times and finally make the models worked.

Basically I am the first one to start of recording that day, I set up a camera, Choi helped me on my body calibration and face capture, jenny assisted me on recording and playing the video for me. I used the video that I been chosen at first place, it has pretty much of close motion and was not easy to follow, so I been tried 3 times and still was not as good as I expected. The reason is the video I choose was too short, and less interests to mimic from, therefore, my model was always broken in the half way of performance, I was quite upset when in see the result. The movement of my model does not interpret any characteristics or personalities at all, does even hard to see what she is doing or trying to present.

So I let jenny and Choi did their motion captures first, and through my observation and learning from them, I found the following mistakes I been made:

•    Lots of close motions need to be done in a opening motion ways, for opening motions it needs us to do it as exaggerate as possible.
•    A good long funny video is essential, because as you perform more and more, you will find you are more into the character, so I won’t stop to accidently and feels like unfinished performance. Even if I edited the clips later, I could choose some good clips or cuts as much as I want later on.
•     I shouldn’t wear a big shirt during the performance.
•    I should try to perform with a prop

Overall, I studied a lot during the time my two classmates was performing, so I purposed I should record the things again, and jenny suggest me to use her video as a reference to mimic to, and I brought up my all energy to dance this time, I tried as good as I can to show liz’s characteristics and personality this time. It’s all turns out to be great in the recorded video.

That was a best practical experience in the motion capture room, I barely analyzed my failure before and never do the whole setting ups and performing all by ourselves.

After this time, we all pretty confidence on mastering the key of making good record on motion capture, and we are looking forward to make it works better next time.

Original files of 3dmax and motion builder 

 original 3dmax with scene

motion buidler original file 

l          

The video recording

2668_Jenny_Assignment2_Trailer

Let me introduce my character--Gogg. Dogg is a space god travels in between space.

He has a little alien gun that he uses to defeat the aliens.

Through out the video clip, there were movements tested on open pose, closed pose and some movements with a prop. (Which was my water gun)

Different result had applied to each movement.

Open Pose

These are some of the example from the clip. Dogg plays the open movements pretty ok. This indicates that the motion capture system catches the open movements pretty well.

It is easier for the camera to capture a clean shape outline (silhouette) .

These poses are successful because it was captured clearly and has no overlapping against each other.

Closed Pose:

However the cameras in the mocap system doesn’t detect the over lapping silhouette that well (close poses). When any parts of the actors’ /actress’ body is overlapping with in the shape…the character twitches and sometimes flicks a bit. This is because the system cannot read where the model binding is going, and the system is trying to guess.

These poses aren’t successful because the poses were overlapped. (Silhouette not clear).

Or I was almost on the edge where camera cannot detect my silhouette shape.

To make it successful I needed to adjust my pose into a particular position to achieve that specific pose.

However sometimes it still doesn’t work because there is no perfect recording,

Will need to clean the key frames up after recording according on the application the model was build in.

The clip I’ve recorded hasn’t been cleaned. It is normal if there is a overlapping or twitching. Tried my best to get the best result, sooner I’ll clean the animation up for the incoming assignment.

Props:

When having a prop in hand while recording in the system, the cameras recognised the prop as part of the body as soon as you brought it in.

For my Dogg, he has an alien gun, and I had my water gun with me when I was in the mocap system. it was capturing really well. All I did was attach the gun model on to the hand bone (bip) and export a fbx file then into Motion Builder.

2885 - Tutorial week 5

Create a cheat sheet, for the steps on

• How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder

Firstly, make sure the character is standing in T position.
Then, Export and save as SID_exported_CharacterName.fbx (Create a New folder name it as SID_Name)
Get out of figure mode and minimize 3ds max.

• How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture

Go to Asset Browser, right click and add Favorite path, find and select the folder that you just created.

Under Asset Browser, go to Templates - Devices, select OM Device and drag on to the stage.
Go to Navigator, go online, when it turns into green, that means its successful, tick live and record. and create model binding.

Go back to Asset Browser, drag your exported character into stage, and click on merge, and no animation.

Under Asset Browser, go to Template - Character, drag Character on the OM Skeleton, when the bond turns green, click on characterize, and click on biped on the pop up window.

Under Asset Browser, go to Template - 3ds Max character, drag it on your character's bond, and when it turns green, click on characterize.

On the Navigator, go to OM and click on active, go to YOUR CHARACTER, change to character input, and click on active.

Go to Device - OMdevice, click on recharacterize and reset tracking.

Rename the skeleton and the Biped01 into OM and YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME.
Save as SID_Characterize_YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME.

• How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton

Ask the actor to go into the stage and look straight on the front and stand on T position, when it's ready, press capture Face and tick on the box to enable.

Then do the User Calibration, ask the actor to do 3 poses and when they turn into green, stop.
and then save it as SID_Calibration_StudentName, then save. and load it, and save it.

Click on Record, and click on overwrite, and press play to start recording.

the actor should be on T position at the start and the end of the recording.

when finish, press stop.

untick record.

go offline.

go to Your character, Plot, and on the pop up window, click on Skeleton.

change the input type into stand input.

if the character is doing something, that means it works.

file, save as SID_Recorded_CharacterName.

• How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max

In motion Builder...file, save as SID_Recorded_CharacterName.

close motion builder, go to 3ds Max, make sure the character is not on figure mode.

import the file you just saved, "SID_Recorded_CharacterName".

a window will pop up, change file content into update.

hide your biped and test the animation.

File...Save as SID_Animation_YourCharacterName.max

Close 3ds max.

2930 - Tutorial week 5

How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder
the character should be mesh, biped it on T-position(Better have the character no bigger than the grid.) export it as .FBX file(no animation)

How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture
*have your files ready in one folder (texture folder should be under the folder too)
*Open asset browser in motion builder, add your folder in by using "add favorite path".
*Under template/Device>drag OM device into the scene
*In navigator window - Device - OM device > tick online>live>recording>createdrag *drag your character into the scene
*asset browser - template/character - character drag into the OM yellow bone.
*asset browser - character - 3dsmax biped template drag into your character's bone
*Navigator window - characters> rename character to OM (stance input, active)
*Navigator window - characters> rename bip001 to your character's name(character input,active)
*Navigator window -Device>click Recharacterize and reset tracking

How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton
*make sure the recording is tick on OM device
*The actor go in, T-position, capture face enable,user calibration, save and load.
*In transport controls press red record button, press play starting record, press stop to stop record.
*OM device offline, untick recording, press play to see the result.
*Navigator window - characters>your character, plot character>skeleton>Plot.
*save as

How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max
*open your character(mesh, not in figure mode) in 3DS max
*import>update>ok
*save as

3255_tut_week5

• How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder 

 make sure character is on T-position and the character is standing on the floor and the center of world


 turn off the figure mode and export as .fbx format 

• How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture 

bring your .fbx file and texture in a folder,set a favorite path in the assets browser


device>drag om device on stage> online,live,recording > create a model binding > rename character and characterise


drag model on stage > rename--3d max biped temp, characterize > character input on model, and stance input on om, tick both live


device > recharacterise, reset tracking

• How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton

capture face enable

user calibration save as .omu file 


recharacterise, reset tracking


click start > overwrite> finishing by T-position > stop recording


go offline > non-record


choose character > plot > skeleton > change source to stance input > deactived


save as .fbx

• How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max

get out of figure mode

click biped

import .fbx and update scene 


save

3004_tut_week5

• How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder
  

-Biped on T position, make sure front and side view on the middle
-Export to .fbx

• How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture

-Set favourite part
-divice>OMDivice to le stage>online>live>record>create
-drag 3d character into stage> 3d biped on the bone
-rename om and your character>om(stance input,active)>your character(character input,active)
-divice>recharacterize，reset .

• How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton

-capture face
-user callibration
-click start >overwrite >go back to T position>stop record
-offline ,unclick record
-your character>plota,change to stance input ,dis active

• How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max

-out of figure mode
-import>update>save as

2668_Jenny_Tut_Week5

1. Create a cheat sheet, for the steps on

• How to Set up Character from Max > Motion Builder

export--> fbx file

• How to Set up Character in Motion Builder > Motion Capture

drag OM device from assets browser into the scene-->
go to navigator browser-->under device--> Om device-->tick active-->live-->create
drag fbx file character in to the scene--> merge--> no animation-->
go to assets browser-->under character--> drag max biped on to character's bone...
go back to navigator browser-->under character-->rename bip001 to your character's name
go inside character-->change input type menu change it to character input-->tick active
go back to device in navigator browser--> re-characterize--> done.

• How to Record and Plot Animation To Characters Skeleton

Go to navigator browser--> under character-->find your character name-->go inside and next to Input source..there is a plot character button--> click that then you're sweet-->save as fbx

• How to Export Animation from Motion Builder > 3Ds Max

import the fbx you just saved into 3dx max with your character opened.
pop up a window, press ok.