Mocapped animations?

I'm curious: are the Sine Wave animations motion-captured? Some look like they are, some I'm not so sure. If they're all keyframed, I want to know what I'm doing wrong in Poser!

More generally, what can we do to improve fluidity in Poser? If I upload at anything more than 15 or 20 FPS, I seem to drop frames. Should I just go for 60 FPS and hope the result will look like 30 FPS?

I'm pretty sure that SineWave, and the Bits N Bobs animations, use motion capture.

I am inclined to agree about Sine Wave, but I thought Craig used keyframes. I'll ask him.

From http://www.sinewavecompany.com/animation

MmhmmI've read the formula for optimizing involves all the axis of rotation as well as time, so motion captures are less likey to drop frames with all the information (greater data change) BUT usually has keyframes every single frame. So even if there's little enough change to drop one or two, maybe there are a lot more keyframes than from manual animation even after optimizing?

From what I've read in the past, with SL's interpolation, high FPS doesn't offer all that much, and also remember that according to the user statistics, most people see SL at about 13 fps so spending extra effort to achieve more is rather lost isn't it?

FPS stats:

So is the answer for us keyframe folks to increase the number of keyframes we use? That's not completely impossible with only, say, 450 frames for a 30-second animation at 15 FPS.

When you upload an animation to SL, the system optimises it to run at 15 fps - it drops frames if your animation was running at a higher fps. It doesn't matter whether you keyframe, stop frame or convert mocap data - in SL it will all end up at 15 fps. The mocap data isn't really running more smoothy, it just has more movement information in each frame - more joints moving, more subtlely and naturally.

The Sl upload has to be in bvh format - and that has every frame a keyframe anyway.

It depends on the key frames?

Because, after all, not all keys are timed right or nice fluid motions, which motion capture can't really have happen, certainly not nearly as readily as key-framing (unless your subjects have twitches? )

The quantity of keys doesn't matter any more than the amount of notes in a piece of music, whether it's smooth depends on which notes and when they happen doesn't it?

Certainly, I have looked at some of Bits N Bobs animations (and very good ones indeed) and they have looked to my eyes, as if a combination of mocap and keyframing techniques have been used. I think it is good to be able to use and combine animation techniques to achieve better results than just a single method would.

Completely agree Crystal. Your point about timing is crucial. The advantage of mocap is in getting natural, realistic motion in real time - but if you want a cartoon type motion, where motion is pushed beyond the boundary of physical reality, then mocap is no use.

I wonder if there's another minor advantage to keyframing, namely looping. When I make an animation in Poser, it's straightforward to make it loop perfectly; I just copy frame 2 to frame 449, and I smooth out transitions after frame 2 and before frame 449. Is it as easy to do this with motion capture? Perhaps mocap machines have "return to start" settings? I ask because I noticed looping trouble in many solo Sine Wave dances I examined today.



For the most part, I don't want cartoon type motion -- I want realism! I've been making animations in SL for a couple years, and I think I've gotten better, but it's hard to compete with something motion-captured. I suppose I should just work harder to study how human anatomy moves. Anyone have suggestions on books or other resources on the subject?

I'd actually consider investing in a mocap suit, but aren't they $10,000 or so?

I guess you can find out here. http://animazoo.com/default.aspx - these folks just put up an island not too long ago. Been a fan of them before they came to SL. They sell the suits here -- never checked tho

Thanks for the link. Probably at least as pricy as I surmised, given that you can't find any price information on that site. I've found a few systems for less than $10,000, but all in all, still expensive.

How about US$5000 or so?

http://www.naturalpoint.com/optitrack/

(not affiliated, never used it, never seen it used.)

I agree with you there, Ricky - it is more straightforward to make a looping animation using keyframes. Another problem with Mocap is simply finding the right people to capture motion from. If you want to create a specific dance, you need a dancer to do it for you - and finding a person to help may not be so easy. I can skate and I have learnt ballet - so I know how to keyframe those motions - but I can't dance Swan Lake or jump a triple axel myself and I don't know anyone who can and who would be readily available to let me mocap such action - even if I had all the equipment (which I haven't).

LoL, good point, Deira. I actually tried to imagine myself wearing a mocap suit and trying to do a tango or a waltz with an imaginary partner. Then I fired up Poser again and went back to keyframing.


Well, that's getting closer to the realm of reason. Thanks for the link!

no there are no return to start setting when using a motion capture suit you have to manually do that in poser which is a fairly easy process if you know what a loop is lol,the hard part with motion capture is getting the suit dialed in or configured to your human body,if its not set up right you can move your arms but it doesnt mean the software and suit will convert it properly,the suit is also very fragile so if you plan on dumping 20k into a suit make sure you have them send replacement parts.And also finding people to dance for you is not simple and could be costly.We have not yet really used the suit we have just because it is a hassle to set up and after about an hours worth of misc. sets it can get tiring so its good to have a plan of what your going to capture in the time you have and if its not to your liking you have to do it over.In my honest opinion the suit was not worth the money but in the long run if it was put to good use it could be although if we knew now what we didnt know then we would have gone a different route.Animazoo also does custom work for a price of course!!

Heh, I had the same idea. They hire suitable people for mocapping. Football players for sport games, actors for acting 3D models and I can imagine, dancers for dancing poses. Maybe porn models for sex poses ?

How about tinies? Someone was asking for a pole dance for a tiny.