Behind the scenes
MOTION CAPTURE
This was my first experience with Motion Capture. In the example below, I am using iPi Soft, which is a markerless motion capture system. By plugging in an XBOX One Kinect to my computer and utilizing the iPi software, it is very easy to create MOCAP data.
With two or more cameras in use, the tracking software is more precise. Since I only had access to one Kinect camera, there were some problematic areas. These errors appear when something blocks out a body part from the camera. This occurred in my video when I held up the piece of paper – tracking of the arms and head in that moment were way off.
My main rig has a switch that allows it to connect with a separate set of “MOCAP” bones. However, I made sure to allow for controlling the main rig with the original controls, while still following the “MOCAP” bones. With this setup, I was able to manually animate the character up to the point where he’s throwing the paper. This required seamlessly blending my manual animation into the MOCAP keys.
Character Breakdown
If you would like to see the breakdown of “The Homemade Ninja,” click here.