A Motion Capture & Martial Art Installation

Yunzhu Li January 3, 2019

Week 5 - Motion Capture Systems That Don’t Cost $60,000

Yunzhu Li October 9, 2018

Workshop

This week we tried to use Perception Neuron and UE4 doing a small animation in weekend.

Click here for “how can I setup the UE4 Plugin”

Click here for OptiTrack Unreal Engine 4 Plugin

Click here for ive with Perception Neuron - Axis Neuron and Unreal Configuration

Compared to previous workshops, this workshop is faster and easier, but the quality is not as good as optitrack.

Step 1: Check if you have everything (including hub, neurons, gloves, usb cable, body straps..etc)

Step 2: USB Interface

Perception Neuron works in Wifi and USB mode. There are 2 mini USB ports on the Hub
For USB mode, use the upper port to link the Hub with computer for data transmission and power supply.

Step 3: Prepare Working Environment

Set up wifi router (set up the unicycle pswd)
Download and install the sexy AXIS NEURON installation package from neuronmocap.com

Step 4: Put on the gloves and body straps (Thanks to pratik for acting!)

Plug Neurons into the gloves and body straps
Put on the gloves and body straps
Link the Hub with gloves and body straps

Step 5: Link with computer and connect.

Step 6: The four step calibration

Click on the Calibration icon
Perform the four-step calibration (steady pose, a pose, t pose and s pose)
Check real-time mocap animation

Step 7: Open UE4 and streaming (remember to create bp and change to the right name)

Recording video is here:

Video

Week 4 - Movement for Motion Capture

Yunzhu Li October 2, 2018

Last week, I join two groups to practice and it is really fun. It’s good to see how different people collaborate with each other and create something really fun. Also, by targeting the movement to my avatar, I could clearly see the bad quality without data cleaning.

Section A

I was also touched by the moment when we tried to rig two lovely people and it works! Ridwan and Gabriel’s daughter, Stella did really good job on performing.

Stella and Ridwan <Beauty and Beast> Clip

Section B

thanks to shuting for her wonderful performance, we created some really interesting movements

Homework creating 3 bp for interaction.

this time I tried substance painters, sound, and toggle point light

Week 3 - Data Cleaning

Yunzhu Li September 25, 2018

Scene

Character-making using medium

Workshop

We tried data cleaning in this week’s workshop.

Below are the procedures:

Step 0:

Before cleaning

Step 1:

Edit layout (open trim tails)

*at least record two tapes named good and best

Step 2:

Change color of the skeleton

*click file name and display windows.

Step 3:

Click data view (the third one tracks view)

open data labeling

Step 4:

Copy our files together (back up)

save as .tak file and copy the entire folder

Step5:

There are two types of data: missing or mislabel

For the mislabelling one: find gap in the bottom & match from tables

Quick mode & Select mode

Step 6:

Address gap (channel view)

Find next button to find data

linear
cubic (for curve)
model-based (sth is missing)

Step 7: Motion Builder after exporting as 30fps .fbx files

Week 2 - Purple World

Yunzhu Li September 18, 2018

This week I tried to use 3ds max and Unreal to create a white sand environment.

A World of “Ice and Fire”

I want to create a radical inclusion world which includes several characters. They will take you into different levels and show you different aspects of this world

Second Week - Calibration and Rigid body Lab

Unlike previous week which only Create Optitrack Client Origin and object, we calibrated the room and created a skeleton for our team this week. We have some difficulties rigging our model in unreal since we realized each part has to named step by step.

How-To for the MoCap System

A. Start and Calibration

a. Wanding

Before wanding, we need to check the number to make sure there is no marker.

Make sure that every connected cameras get over 10,000 markers

b. Calculate

When it shows exceptional, it is ok to use.

c. Positioning

When those cameras are tilted, we use Z-axis stand to adjust the position.

B. Marker Up

Open the Skeleton pane and choose a marker set you wish to use. Follow the skeleton avatar diagram for placing the markers. If you are using a mocap suit, make sure that the suit fits as tightly as possible. Motive derives the position of each body segment from related markers that you place on the suit. (make sure there are 41 marks each person)

Make sure all marks are positioned correctly

C. Define Skeletons and Rigid Bodies

To define a rigid body, simply select three or more markers in the Perspective View, right-click, and select Rigid Body → Create Rigid Body From Selected. You can also utilize CTRL+T hotkey for creating rigid body assets.

D. Record Data

Once the volume is calibrated and skeletons are defined, now we are ready to capture. In the Control Deck at the bottom, press the dimmed red record button or simply press the spacebar when in the Live mode to begin capturing.

E. Import models into UE4

(We use Mixamo to download one character and name each skeleton in UE4)

Below is the tutorial that Todd helped us out rigging our monster using Teamviewer)

E. Data Streaming and Acting

Simi and I were doing acting while our other team members doing recordings and moving chairs

Week 1 - Introduction

Yunzhu Li September 8, 2018

Assignment:

Use Pinterest or another similar program to create a mood board describing what of environment/world you want to create in Unreal. What is the place you want to put all your mocap?

Tea & Temple

Chinese Tea Culture - China National Tea Museum and Temple culture