Why Does the Songbird Squeal?
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My first motion-capture-attempt
A while ago @aardvarkianparadise posted his first try of using Kinect for Mocap in SFM. (His old blog got banned, so make sure to follow his new blog)
His video made me curios and I started to read a lot about this topic. After going through hell, while trying to animate a characters walk without looking silly, I finally decided to order two Kinect V2 from my patreon-pledges. I spent the hole Sunday for setup, but finally I was able to finish the first animation. There is a big hitch, but first have a look:
Disclaimer: I only spent around 90 minutes on manual precision of the animation, so it is not perfect.
I think, Mocap via Kinect is a big advantage for SFM-animations. Especially non-looped animations for the story-part of movies are way easier and they (more important) look way more realistic! In the following short video you can see the progress of this animation through the several process-stages:
But as I said before, there is a problem. I recorded this animation with only one Kinect, which of course could only track the front side of the recorded body. This causes the animation to struggle with finding the correct bones and so the animations are easily messed up or don’t even work for specific models. For example in this animation you will never see Yennefer’s hand behind her body, because the tracking would fail afterwards. For full 360° recording you need to record with one Kinect in the front and another in your back. I already bought two Kinect-cameras, but sadly a PC can only handle one Kinect at a time. So you need another machine, but my laptop is way too slow for that.
And that’s why I proclaim my first patreon-stretch goal.
Once my patreon-account reaches 500,-USD, I will buy a notebook, which is able to handle the Kinect-requirements. The machine will obviously cost more than that, but I am willing to spend the rest from my own pocket. I just can’t justify it for myself to buy a computer, just for this hobby of mine. So I hope for your support and maybe we are able to already use this in the “Triss Unspoken Desire”-Movie.
Did I say thanks to my patreons already? I don’t think so. A huge animated hug from me for making it possible to buy the Kinect-equipment, guys. Love you!
Wow…it’s impressive…I just have to support this.
Finally there’s a new pick-up line possible…
“Wanna come home with me? I have some sex mo-cap to do and could use your help.”
Patreon Pin-Up Reward: November 2016
This was one of my patrons choice of poster for their November reward. I really am happy with how the lighting turned out.
You can check the clothed version out on deviantart as well.
COMMISSIONS| PATREON | DEVIANTART
Well, everyone’s favorite rogue bitch - and one of the two leading ladies of my Blue Star Mass Effect series - is more or less done, model-wise. StealthClobber is working on building up her tattoos, and Ordagon is giving modeling her wraps a spin (they’re textured onto her body, on the original Jack).