http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_moving – Since Voodoo is free, I might give it a whirl.
Category Archives: cam studio
way back machine… motion capture from video…
funny how some keywords hit you years later and you find posts from yourself from long ago…
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-208448.html
found that from this google…
yep, that’s my post from 2005! Geesh… Too bad I didn’t keep up with trying to learn this stuff back then. I think I even created an open source project for this type of stuff, but it never went anywhere since I wasn’t great at programming and knew little about the algorithms and stuff needed…
What I was looking for back then, and that I don’t think anyone has created to date, at least, not cheaply… is a full scale 3d motion tracking system… What IS NEEDED IN 3D ANIMATION!…
D-Sculptor and programs like it use photogametry to calculate an images location based on a scale that’s below/behind the object being photographed. It uses the photos as textures to make a 3d model… the model is not very great as far as animation goes since it’s basically a static point cloud…
What needs to be done is someone needs to do something like that and make it so that the created model is animatable directly from the getgo- something that detects human forms, animal forms, etc… mixes and matches with bvh type files and fbx type files to make skeleton rigs that are ready to roll, and do all of this cheaply… and/or as open source/free…
What needs to be captured would be the base form, some math to change that in to a quad/plolygonal mesh that has skeletons inside… and even mix it to do motion blends and stuff… Rigging as things are now is still very old school for the most part and animators do most work by hand… we need to eventually get to where it’s all automated so animators can focus more on the craftmanship and the fine details that they usuaully only get to at the very end of projects now so that the craftmanship of the entire industry can go up a few notches…