Does anyone know if a mocap file can be applied to any model? I don't know much about it but it sounds like it could cut down my animation time drastically.
MoCap
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/MoCap mocap data usually is far from ready for ingame use. One point is: when you capture the motion of a walking man, then his position will change, since he's walking. But for a model he should walk on place. One could walk on a assembly line, maybe those home trainer things. This way you could capture a walk cicle with a stationary actor.
Fragmotion claims to be able to import BVH files, and AFAIK biovision BVH is Motion Capture Data.
An other thing is: how about a low cost MoCap system for this community? It would be possible if we could access two webcams at the same time.
Well basicly it is already possible when you own two video cameras. You will then need a visual sync signal on both movies. The captured scenes will then be imported over firewire or video capture card. I have released a userlib extension for AviFil32.dll that allows to access certain Movie Frames fast and reliably.
The tricky part is to get some sort of assembly line to be able to capture clean walking/running animations.
If this is once working, an implementation of MOCAP that actually is useful for Game Chars will be relative easy.
I had this impression most of the mocap data files you can get for free cannot be attached easily to game characters. Maybe the most productive solution would be to get your own MOCAP system.
Fragmotion claims to be able to import BVH files, and AFAIK biovision BVH is Motion Capture Data.
An other thing is: how about a low cost MoCap system for this community? It would be possible if we could access two webcams at the same time.
Well basicly it is already possible when you own two video cameras. You will then need a visual sync signal on both movies. The captured scenes will then be imported over firewire or video capture card. I have released a userlib extension for AviFil32.dll that allows to access certain Movie Frames fast and reliably.
The tricky part is to get some sort of assembly line to be able to capture clean walking/running animations.
If this is once working, an implementation of MOCAP that actually is useful for Game Chars will be relative easy.
I had this impression most of the mocap data files you can get for free cannot be attached easily to game characters. Maybe the most productive solution would be to get your own MOCAP system.
I was kinda hoping mocap/bvh was preset animations you could just implant into your model. But I guess that would be too efficient. =(
Well don't let JFK put you off entirely. What he's talking about is raw Mocap, animations which have not been cleaned up. Most of the Mocap you see around to buy *has* been cleaned up and is "somewhat" usable. ( IE: some is very good and some is not very good. )
They are preset animations and if your skeleton matches the model, you can just implant them. But there will still be work involved, fixing positions and stopping your character from floating and that sorta thing.
It's not quite as easy as you were hoping, but it's not entirely unfeasible either.
They are preset animations and if your skeleton matches the model, you can just implant them. But there will still be work involved, fixing positions and stopping your character from floating and that sorta thing.
It's not quite as easy as you were hoping, but it's not entirely unfeasible either.
Sorry, I didn't mean to put you off. Of course you can buy MOCAP animations. I only wanted to make clear that this is a pro level, and so are the prices. Of course, for a serious game MOCAP is neccessary today. Buying a lot of animations probably costs more than to set up a low cost system by your own. I'm not talking about a couple of run and die animations, but about a game with various characters (This is where MOCAP is very powerful: you really get the characteristic physics of various types of people) and each of the characters has a rich repertoire of sequences. All in all maybe 400 animations or more. if you pay 50$ for each one (that's still no pro stuff) then this is 20k$ for the whole work.
From this point of view it makes sense to build your own MOCAP system. You'll be able to capture with 50 or 60 Hertz - that's not a lot, (high speed shutter cams would be the first choice), but it should work relative well.
Ideally you would use more than 2 cameras: 4 would be nice. You need a room that is big enough, say 10 meters square.
Scanning the frames for special markers will be easy, then simply apply their positions to a skeleton (after some fiddling of course). Grab Smiffs "Save animated B3D" source, and there you go :)
From this point of view it makes sense to build your own MOCAP system. You'll be able to capture with 50 or 60 Hertz - that's not a lot, (high speed shutter cams would be the first choice), but it should work relative well.
Ideally you would use more than 2 cameras: 4 would be nice. You need a room that is big enough, say 10 meters square.
Scanning the frames for special markers will be easy, then simply apply their positions to a skeleton (after some fiddling of course). Grab Smiffs "Save animated B3D" source, and there you go :)
We do MoCaps these days at work and I can't even START to explain how difficult it is - it does cut down animation time but setting up, calibrating and taking the actual clips require huge amount of time, knowledge and sweat. And you need pro MoCap actor to do the stuff, your average Joe just won't do.
And getting the data cleaned and marker info transfered to a custom rig (which is a huge development effort itself) takes time too. And you DID know that no MoCap system (usually) records fingers and facial animation? So after all the hassle you STILL need to nad animate all the fingers. And there's more, but if some "hobbyist" is considering doing MoCap I will quietly shook myead and leave the room :)
Buying readymade clips is another thing but being able to use those might be problematic, so be sure that your pipeline is OK for that... and you still have to animate the fingers, weapons etc.
And getting the data cleaned and marker info transfered to a custom rig (which is a huge development effort itself) takes time too. And you DID know that no MoCap system (usually) records fingers and facial animation? So after all the hassle you STILL need to nad animate all the fingers. And there's more, but if some "hobbyist" is considering doing MoCap I will quietly shook myead and leave the room :)
Buying readymade clips is another thing but being able to use those might be problematic, so be sure that your pipeline is OK for that... and you still have to animate the fingers, weapons etc.