Added on Monday 12 July 2010 04:27:30
by newscientistvideo
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Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727684.000
People in video footage can be transformed into 3D computer animations, opening up the prospect of cheap motion capture
Fuck that why don't we just continue what we did in the 90's?
But with all seriousness this method of animation is a tad dumb. The result is the animated character will move normally but since humans wobble in the legs and other places it will do so with the animated character, so it will look weird and has looked weird in every time it was used.
Being able to animate one's avatar in real time opens up new interaction possibilities, ie. in adult VR sites such as Jewel of Indra.
Similar techniques have are used to animate hands, eyes etc.
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Software could be trained more interactively to solve & 'understand' problems.
A coming revolution will be interactive robot arms, cheaper & more dexterous than people. especially light engineering. where robots manufacture will happen.
Socially challenging IMO as could lead to rapid mass unemployment.
@robomanus MOCAP has been around for a while as you say, however it usually requires expertise and expensive set ups, suits with markers, multiple cameras etc.
With this technique it appears that a single video is enough to animate a skeletal rig.
This makes it easy for anyone to do MOCAP. all they really need is the software + a couple of minutes prancing around in front of a web cam, or perhaps just loading up a video file; export to other software & out pops a robot movement or animated rig.
@robomanus Conventional motion capture requires expensive equipment and time. Don't forget the suit with pingpong balls stuck to it. This "easy" mocap reduces both time and money though I don't see this replacing conventional mocap any time soon.
Very cool technology.
But, "easy Animation" is kind of an oxymoron, having gone through an Animation program. It might be a good replacement for motion capture though, It probably should've been titled "Easy Motion Capture". Still, very awesome technology.
@oqal I wouldn't say that. the User in charge of the tracking in this video chose specific parts where there was high contrast. This doesn't produce accurate 3d tracking thus it's only an amateur tool. It's getting easier, but you still need to tell the software where to get its cues from. The suits w/pinballs are still needed for high accurate 3d tracking.
@fuunguus you might need several cameras but attaching "white balls" to your clothes isnt all that hard.
i expect this software here to be not affordable just to play around with thus being as much for amatures like photoshop if it werent that easy to crack
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