HW6 - Motion Capture

show in the class

NOTE: Your walk cycle videos will be shown to the class (on Nov. 12th ), so it is recommended that you allow sufficient time to refine and polish your animations in an effort to make them look good!

Next Tuesday

Something reasonable

Part 1 - Keyframe Walk Cycle: Tues., Nov. 12th, 2024

Part 2 - Motion Blend: Thurs, Nov. 14th , 2024

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group of 3

motion capture, a group 1hour, ta there

Thursday teach motion capture

motion builder, everyone build a keyframe walk cycle

submit a video, show in the class

part 1: get data

part 2: motion builder

due Tuesday

record motion as BVH file

do a walk cycle

Part 1

1. Download the “Beta” character (BetaCharacter-with_control_rig.fbx file) from the Canvas HW6 Assignment folder and copy it to the MotionBuilder tutorial directory.
2. Create a standard walk cycle for the “Beta” character using FK, IK and key poses. Save the key poses in the Pose Control window. Use these poses with the Key Controls to create the key frame animation. You must animate the pelvis rotation as well as the leg and arm swings in your homework submission. Use the HW6 Keyframe Walk Cycle Tutorial for details.
3. Create an animation that consists of at least 3 complete walk cycles that includes translation of the root. Try using the match, mirror and gravity Pose Control functions in MotionBuilder when creating the walk cycles.
4. Play with some of the advanced features of MotionBuilder such as Fcurves, constraints and IK/FK Blending to improve your walk cycle. For example, make sure there is no slipping of the feet on the floor. Clean up any slipping by editing the appropriate motion data in the Fcurves window.
5. Use the time warping feature to slow down and speed up the walk cycle. Check out the MotionBuilder video tutorial on how to create a time warp (which can be found in the Modules section of the CIS4620/5620 Canvas site). You must make sure that you have cleaned up the warped data so that it plays smoothly and accurately.
6. Once you are happy with the style of your walking motion, export the motion to a bvh file named “lastname_walkcycle.bvh” using the Export command under the “File” menu and save the MotionBuilder project file with the name “lastname_walkcycle.fbx”. Also render your walk cycle animation to a video file using the Render command under the File menu. Render as a MOV or MP4 (not AVI).

Part 2

1. As part of a group of three, use the Captury motion capture system in the 057 Graphics lab to capture your walk cycle and at least 8 other animations from the designated list. Save out the resulting motion data in both the bvh and fbx formats for at least three of the motions. Please follow the tutorial and instructions regarding using the Captury equipment and software in the 057 Graphics lab. As a group of three conducting a mocap session,

   • one person should be the mocap actor,
   • one person should be operating the Captury/MotionBuilder software and
   • the third person should be videoing the person performing the mocap movements.

2. Using the Motion Blend window in MotionBuilder and the Beta character, create an animation consisting of at least 3 different motions where you cross dissolve (i.e. blend) between each of the motions. Make sure the transitions between the motions are smooth (i.e. no jumps) with minimal foot slip. A video tutorial on how to create a cross blend is available in the Motion Builder Tutorials on the course Canvas site (in the Modules section). Use the bvh mocap data obtained from your motion capture session (and/or the bvh mocap data in the assignment folder as) as the basis for the motion blends. Once you are happy with the cross blends, render the animation to a video file using the Render command under the File menu. Render as a MOV or MP4 file (not AVI).

3. Before you submit your assignment to Canvas, please put your MotionBuilder keyframe walk cycle and story mocap blend projects (in the fbx format) into a zip file with the name “hw6_lastname.zip”. Also include in this zip file the associated walk cycle and motion blend videos using the mov or mp4 format and at least three of the mocap files (in the bvh format) that were used in the motion blend part of the assignment.