Animation:Master has been able to use motion capture for years but it's always required expensive and complicated equipment.
Not anymore!
Now you don't need expensive equipment to record motion capture! No special cameras, no tracking balls! You can make motion capture from regular video!
Get in on the Summer Mo-Cap Challenge!
Learn how to do mo-cap for your A:M characters!
There will be prizes including a $25 Hash Store credit for everyone who enters.
"Follow" to this thread to stay up on developments (button in upper right corner)
Learn to... Cap Your Mo!
1 Shoot some action video
I recommend you try something simple for your first attempt.
2 Edit your video
3 Convert your video to motion capture
Deepmotion.com will convert your cellphone or camcorder video to a motion capture file. Their free account lets you convert up to three video clips of up to 10 seconds each per month. You have lots of chances to try your hand at mo-capping... for free!
4 Constrain your character to the mo-cap object
Your motion capture file becomes an Action Object in A:M that your character will follow.
Update: see "Version Trouble" post below about a bug in v19 and about using v18 for this step
Part 1 (hip and legs)
Part 2 (arms and spine)...
Bonus tut: Matt Campbell has an alternate mo-cap process you may find useful... Matt's Video
Fully constrained result:
This is the BVH file I used in the video if you wish to practice with it: MAH01152Dance_Adult_Male_Alt.bvh
What about the hands and fingers? We'll cover that later.
5 Use your animation in a chor
Dress up your mo-cap animation with scenery, props and lighting!
Video... coming soon.
6 Show your work!
I bet you can think of more interesting things to do with mo-cap and your characters than I did!
Maybe you can tie together a few different shots into a small story?
Post your experiments and questions and comments in this thread!
7 Enter!
Entries due in by October 31 November 28 December 20
Update: the Contest is concluded (see winners here)but you can still qualify for the $25 participant prize with an entry before end-of-Summer 2023!
Pick out your most interesting work and submit it. Everyone who enters will get a $25 Hash Store credit!
Basic guidelines:
-Use your original A:M character, not a stock character.
-Your entry will include both your animation and your mo-cap video. You can put the video before the animation or after.
-Of course, all your characters and animation will be modeled and rendered in Animation:Master!
-Everyone wins in this Challenge but we might have a vote among all the entrants for a favorite entry. So if you want to vote... you have to enter!
-Subscribe to this thread to stay up on developments
Entries due in by October 31 November 28 December 20
If you are uncertain about any step... contact me!
Have fun! Lets see some cool A:M stuff!