Project 1:

Overview:

There is a need to have well documented ideas before going into a motion capture session. In general, time is money, and the more prepared you are, the happier everyone will be. Normally, a motion capture session will have people that are working to come up with the shots, those responsible for capturing and delivering the shots, and those who will make something useful out of the shots. You will eventually be put into all of the rolls, but for this project, you’ll need to approach everything as if you’re a client about to go into a motion capture shoot.

Software:

Example documents are in Word format, but you can use whatever you’d like to get the information down.

Assignment:

There are some guidelines on the minimum number of captures you’ll need, etc. Everyone in the class should work in a group. Groups have to be at least two people and can’t be more than four people. For each person in the group, there has to be two captured motions to be edited and at least one blend for each person. ex: four people equals sixteen captured motions. This is a minimum requirement, so feel free to do more. The only real ground rule is that all the captured pieces should be of the same subject, and at least two of the pieces need to blend together. What you need to look for as far as blending will be discussed in class.

All the projects are group projects. You will have time to capture for individual projects outside of the class. Outside captures are encouraged for people trying to use motion capture for different projects, but they need to be involved in the group project for the class. The only exception is granted if you have taken this class once before and wish to work on your own on more advanced concepts.

I will put people into assigned groups during the first or second class.

At this time, you will need to decide on a marker set up as well. The marker setup must be different than the default marker set up used by Vicon (currently a 41 marker setup). Extra markers make the data a little harder to clean, but gives you better and more stable information. Vicon's marker set and model file which is known as a .vst file is here. These should be used as a reference or you can use it directly. To get an idea of what the .vst file is all about, please read through the Vicon documents that are in the class folder such as Y:\Courses\AC760_Windsor_Spring_2006\Docs\IQ\Books\Foundation Guides\Vicon iQ 1.x\ and the movies located at Y:\Courses\AC760_Windsor_Spring_2006\Docs\SubjectCalibration.

You will need to create a storyboard, a Planning Sheet, and a shot list. The shot list also needs to point out which shots are to be motion edited and which are to be blended. (Planning Sheet and Planning Sheet Example, Shot List Example, Storyboard Template, and Example). You will be evaluated on your ability to get all the paper work together by the deadline as well as have all the parts of the capture make sense.

Create on your web page: I will need a to see the storyboards on a webpage as well as a shot list. Each person in the group will have to have their name assigned to 4 of the motions. Of those four motions, it has to be denoted what will be motion edited and what will be motion blended.

Instructor:

If any one has trouble or questions, feel free to talk to me about them. This first project is a team project. Everyone needs to come together and decide what type of motion capture you’re going to do and how to do it. I recommend full body capture since that will be the brunt of my lectures, but other captures are also acceptable as long as you can figure out a way to blend one capture into another.