A short summary of the Motion capture with Kinect project
- I'm doing quality motion capture based 3D animation with low budget devices for my Honours Project at Uni.
Who Am I?
- I'm Louise from Denmark, living in the sunny Edinburgh! I'm a final year digital media Student and I wish to accomplish my big plan for my honours project.
- I love movies, animations, special effects... and dancing and dogs. So the best possible combination of these are in my project. (I wouldn't dare to do Mo-cap with live animals, maybe next time!)
My story
- The original inspiration came from Ryan Woodward:
- During my studies I learned 3D modeling and animation, which introduced me to the world of motion capturing. With the constant desire to achieve new goals and test new limits, I knew I wanted to do some kind of unique animation about dancing, based on Motion Capture.
- Always set up high bars! - It's a motto for me (which I sometimes regret by the end of the day!)
My idea is to NOT use an expensive, high end motion capture studio, but I'll use Microsoft Kinect devices with a laptop. (I already managed to get most of the necessary hardware from my university.)
- The dancing scened contain 2 actors, a girl and a boy. They will dance some Wiener Waltz - Salsa mixture. The choreography is self made and unique. The point is not to represent an existing dance but to send a message, especially because the 3D animation will contain "unrealistic" effects.
The current pool off effects (which may change during a later phase of the project):
- Stretching arms
- Extra fast movements
- Slow motion movements (with camera movements, like in the Matrix)
- Water like behaviour with chaning colours for the actors body
Where will the money go?
- My biggest (and basically the only) need is a license for the ipi Studio 3. This is a special software, which makes it possible to use 3-4 Kinects for parallel recording. It also makes it possible to track multiple actors and export it to several formats, so I can easily import it into my 3D animation software. Unfortunately I need the pro version for this.
http://ipisoft.com/software/pro-edition
3 month license: GBP 517.50 (After tax)
The "over the minimum" found would go to:
- A Kinect for Windows (first edition) (£30-45 + shipping)
- 2 tripods (£21 each) (as a stand for the Kinects)
(Currently I have 3 Kinects, a 4th would improve my tracking accuracy. Extra stands would make my setup more professional and decrease the chance of accidental camera movement during setup.)
In the unexpected situation if the found overgrows my needs and expectation, I'll use the extra money to support an other project here in Hubbub.net.
I will give you bi-weekly status update about my projects until next spring when it is to be done.
Rewards
- Besides being part of creating something cool, your reward will be a dedicated place in the Credits of my video. (The way of representation is based on the level of support and your preference.)
Find me here
Help Me succeed!
- You don't need to give money to help us succeed! Please share this project with anyone you think would support me – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, by email, telephone, in a chat over the fence or on your blog.
- In fact, share it with everyone you know as I think it's a great idea, and the more people who know about it, the more likely I am to make this work out brilliantly.
- And I know we said you don't need to give money to help us, but I'd love it if you did! Please sponsor me and help make this happen.
