Motion Capture for the Masses
We wich you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Have a nice holiday season!
30% Holiday Sale! Let the New Year be full of success and creative achievements! Stay safe and healthy!
Feel free to use the coupon code NY2026 to get 30% off any product till Jan 4th, 2026.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
| A Q&A with Prof. Dr. Umut ÖZSOY, PhD, Dr. rer. medic. from the Medical Faculty of Akdeniz University, Turkey The Akeniz University is a public research university established in Antalya, Turkey. It has been chosen as the second most beautiful university in Turkey, and is one of the leading educational institutions in the country. We spoke with Professor, Dr. Umut ÖZSOY, to get known how they are using iPi Soft (https://www.ipisoft.com/) technology in their medical research. |
 |
Q. Please describe the areas at Akdeniz University that are using iPi Motion Capture.
At Medical Faculty we use the system to perform research on patients with motor function deterioration, such as Parkinsonism, cerebral palsy, etc.
Q. How long has the iPi Motion Capture been in use at Akdeniz University?
We have been using iPi Mocap for more than five years now, since 2020.
Q. How did the Akdeniz University team first hear about the software?
We learned about iPi software just by web search, and after thorough testing found it well suitable for our needs.
Q. Please describe in detail how iPi Motion Capture is being used at Akdeniz University.
We use the system for gait analysis and for the other joints to detect the ROM or calculate the duration of movement, cycle, sequence, etc.
Q. How many people (students, teachers) have the opportunity to work with iPi Mocap?
More than 10 academic staff members use the iPi Mocap system directly or indirectly.
Q. Does using iPi Motion Capture improve upon a previous workflow, or is this something completely new?
Sure, it improves the collected data by converting it to objective, quantitative data rather than subjective and unstable scoring methods.
Q. What are the major advantages of iPi Motion Capture vs competing products that made you choose it for your work?
It is evident that it is not a gold standard method; however, its mobility makes it more advantageous than the marker-based systems, which require laboratory conditions, so that the patient must come to the laboratory. However, using the iPi Soft is possible in clinics or at the bedside.
Q. Where do you see the future of markerless motion capture use in your area?
There are more ways to go, but it will overcome the pose estimation problems using AI’s power.
Q. Please describe a particular project iPi Motion Capture is being used for.
We are searching for a relationship between hypomimia and gait functions.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
| A Q&A with Aanuoluwapo Ojelade, PhD Candidate from Virginia Tech Occupational Ergonomics and Biomechanics Lab. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United StatesWe spoke with PhD Candidate Aanuoluwapo Ojelade, to get known how they are using iPi Soft (https://www.ipisoft.com/) technology in their research. |
 |
Q. Please describe the areas at Virginia Tech that are using iPi Motion Capture.
We are part of the Occupational Ergonomics and Biomechanics Lab at Industrial and Systems Engineering Dept. We are using iPi Mocap software to quantify whole-body kinematics as alternative to using marker-based motion capture and inertial measurement unit sensors in our studies.
Q. How long has the iPi Motion Capture been in use at Virginia Tech ?
We have been using iPi Mocap for more than two years now.
Q. How did the Virginia Tech team first hear about the software?
We learned about iPi software in other research articles and research blog posts.
Q. Please describe in detail how iPi Motion Capture is being used at Virginia Tech.
We are using iPi Motion Capture to capture whole-body kinematics during manual material handling tasks. We extract body joint data in terms of joint positions and rotations and used these data to define physical exposure assessments related to the task performed.
We are also using iPi Mocap during construction-related tasks to quantify physical exposures associated with the tasks.
Q. How many people (students, teachers) have the opportunity to work with iPi Mocap?
Five (three students, 2 professors) are working with iPi Mocap
Q. Does using iPi Motion Capture improve upon a previous workflow, or is this something completely new?
It does improve upon previous workflow. We are using iPi Mocap as an alternative approach to quantifying whole-body kinematics.
Q. What are the major advantages of iPi Motion Capture vs competing products that made you choose it for your work?
Using iPi Mocap, we do not have to spend hours fixing markers or placing sensors on participants. We can start data collection in minutes. Also, we do not have to spend valuable time filling in markers. Instead, we leverage advance processing in iPi Mocap to edit and track kinematics.
Q. Where do you see the future of markerless motion capture use in your area?
In our field, markerless motion capture has the potential to be used in-situ to monitor whole-body kinematics without interrupting workflow or causing discomfort from straps. Also, markerless motion capture is not limited by battery life. Overall, this product could be adopted to develop proactive ergonomics interventions for workers.
Q. Please describe a particular project iPi Motion Capture is being used for.
We are using data obtained from iPi Motion Capture to automatically classify manual material handling tasks.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
What’s new:
Also, the release includes bug fixes and other improvements. For more information and download links visit Release notes.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
We are proud to announce a strategic partnership with Strobotrack Europe doo (Serbia) that became our general representative in the international market. Strobotrack also provides its own software products designed for live human pose tracking that can be used for AR/VR and other kinds of real-time interactive applications as well as animation production and biomechanical analysis. Read More>>
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
What’s new:
For more information and download links visit Release notes.
30% Holiday Discount: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Stay safe and creative!
Use the coupon code NY2025 to get 30% off any product till Jan 19th, 2025.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Our long-term customer and professional animator Caria Loïc took time to get experience with AI tracking features, we’ve been gradually adding to iPi Mocap software for the past year. Here’s the feedback we got.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
What’s new:
Calibration for RGB cameras based on AI-detected joints added.
We’ve been working hard to utilize AI tracking for calibration process and we managed to implement simplified calibration workflow for RGB cameras. You now have option to use human joints detected by AI algorithms as markers instead of flashlight.
This also made possible calibration based on action video itself, without the necessity to record dedicated calibration video. Of course, there are certain limitations, but generally the calibration workflow for RGB cameras becomes much easier.
For more information and download links visit Release notes.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
What’s new:
For more information and download links visit Release notes.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
What’s new:
For more information and download links visit Release notes.
30% Holiday Discount: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Stay safe and creative!
Use the coupon code NY2024 to get 30% off any product till Jan 17th, 2024.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
The new version 4.6.1 includes improvements to AI-based pose detection and a number of bug fixes.
What’s new:
Bug fixes:
For more information and download links visit Release notes.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
A Q&A With Josep Maria Duque, Technical Coordinator at EMAV
(School of Audiovisual Media), Barcelona
Since 1970, EMAV («Escola de Mitjans Audiovisuals», https://www.emav.com/), a public school dependent on the Barcelona Education Consortium, has been actively involved in the training of professionals in the field of Audiovisual Communication. The exciting evolution of the sector over these decades has given the school some convictions regarding the contents and the learning methodology of students.
Being a keystone in audiovisual productions, 3D animation takes its important place in the school’s higher education cycle curriculum; 2-year course consists of 2,000 hours. Motion capture is an important technique in modern production pipelines, so the school needs effective tools for teaching motion capture. EMAV’s choice was iPi Motion Capture, and it’s been successfully used in the school for over 5 years.
We spoke with Josep Maria Duque, EMAV’s technical coordinator, to find out how the school is using iPi Soft (https://www.ipisoft.com/) technology.
Q. Please describe the areas at the EMAV that are using iPi Motion Capture.
iPi Motion Capture is used at the «Escola de Mitjans Audiovisuals» (EMAV) to make the motion captures that are used in the subjects of “3D Animation” and “Videogame Design” of the “3D Animation and Videogames” cycle, where the movements made by the students are captured and applied to the bipedal characters that are imported into 3D Studio and Unreal.
Q. How long has the iPi Motion Capture been in use at EMAV?
We have been using iPi for 5 years, first evaluating its possibilities with the trial version and later acquiring the commercial version.
Q. How did the EMAV team first hear about the software?
We found out about the existence of iPi on the Internet, reading in various forums (like https://www.cgchannel.com ) about its possibilities.
Q. Please describe in detail how iPi Motion Capture is being used at EMAV.
We use the “Basic” version to capture an actor with iPi Recorder with two Kinect v2 cameras (sometimes also with up to 6 Sony PS3 Eye cameras) to later process them with iPi Mocap Studio and export the “bip” file to 3D Max, where we import it into a Character Studio model to later render it, or export it to Unreal, in order to make a video game character. We have also made sometimes a connection with LiveLink, connecting iPi via Real-Time Tracking feature to Unreal to capture in real time and make a live performance.
Q. How many people (students, teachers) have the opportunity to work with iPi Mocap?
Normally we have 30 students per course, but the captures are made in small groups of 3 or 4 students so as not to overwhelm the capture set, and later they are processed individually on a PC that has the program installed.
Q. Does using iPi Motion Capture improve upon a previous workflow, or is this something completely new?
Before iPi we used manual video rotoscoping techniques, which is a lot of work.
Q. What are the major advantages of iPi Motion Capture vs competing products that made you choose it for your work?
The main advantage is that it can be used with affordable hardware, such as Kinect cameras or webcams, and that the process is quite automatic. When we need an ultra-precise capture we use the capture system with VIVE trackers and the Valve index controls for finger capture.
Q. Where do you see the future of markerless motion capture use in your area?
It is increasingly common to use simple webcams that, supported by “AI” techniques, simplify the process and greatly reduce costs and capture time, so systems with “markers” or complex hardware will be relegated to high-budget productions or technical-scientific applications.
Q. Please describe a particular project iPi Motion Capture is being used for.
iPi has been used in several of the subject of MP (“Project module” ) at the end of the course for several years, to animate the 3D characters of the video games made by the students of the cycle.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
For the past year our dev team’s been busy working hard on the new version that has just come out. We experimented a lot with recently introduced AI-based tracking algorithms and find effective way to use them for high-accurate full-body motion capture we master in since 2008.
Despite all the hype around AI algorithms they have not only widely advertised advantages, but also their limitations. If we talk about human motion capture, the major one is that AI algorithms that guess based on numerous movement patterns contained in training datasets, cannot track well unique / rare / complex motions. So we combined AI tracking with our proprietary high-accurate algorithms that find pose that best match actual input data, to make the tracking pipeline easier, faster and add more features without the need for accuracy trade-off.
30% Fall Discount:
To celebrate current important software update, we offer special 30% discount off any perpetual, one-year or annual support prolongation software plans, in our Online Store. Use coupon code NV4623 (offer expires Sept 26th, 2023).
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
| A Q&A With Martin Rahmlow, Director of Blood & Clay Short Film
Blood & Clay (https://bloodandclay.com/bnc.php) is an animated short movie (~20 min) co-directed by Martin Rahmlow and Albert Radl. The movie tells the story of the orphan Lizbeth, who tries to escape her nemesis Director Kosswick and his Golem. The movie is produced in a hybrid stop-motion/cgi technique. The film is created by a three-member team – Martin Rahmlow, Albert Radl and Onni Pohl. We spoke with Martin Rahmlow, film director, to get known how they are using iPi Soft (https://www.ipisoft.com/) technology in their production pipeline. |
 |
Q. Please tell a few words about yourself and the team.
All three of us met 20 years ago at film school: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Albert supported me during the production of my first stop-motion movie ‘Jimmy’ (https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/66549889) and I did the VFX for Alberts ‘Prinz Ratte’ movie (https://www.amazon.de/Prinz-Ratte-Albert-Radl/dp/B07HM1WMGD). ‘Blood & Clay’ (https://bloodandclay.com/bnc.php) is the first movie all three of us collaborating. Albert and I are the directors of the movie and Onni focuses on the technical part.
Q. How did the team first hear about iPiSoft Mocap? And, how long has the team been using it?
In May 2015 Onni was assigned setting up real life 3d characters for an advertisement for Mercedes Benz Sprinter (production: Infected). It was a freeze moment at a festival. There was a life shooting, but all the background people were made with poses that were extracted from tracking data made with iPi. A college of Onni, Fabian Schaper, had proposed this concept, as he had a Kinect sensor and appropriate notebook.
A Year ago, we discussed this possibility with our team and after trying the software, we decided, that it could help us with our ‘Blood & Clay’, as we have human like characters and a lot of animation. We did a few tests in the beginning but had a serious recording session (with an actress and our two directors) just in May. We have to process and clean the data and will have another session for some missing details.
Q. What is the storyline for the film?
The movie tells the story of the orphan Lizbeth, who tries to escape her nemesis Director Kosswick und his Golem.
Q. Please describe briefly your production pipeline, and the role of iPi Mocap in the pipeline.
Q. How long has the team been working on the film? What were the overall technical challenges that the team faced and how iPi Mocap helps to meet them?
We started with production in 2020. Since it will be a 20 min short, we have a lot of animation with 3 very different, but (partly) human characters. The feature of iPi to load an individual rig for the export gives us the possibility to fit the recording to the character at export time perfectly. Eventually all scenes with intensive human body movement, that are on the ground (not hanging or dangling) are planned to get a basis animation for body movement with head tracking from iPi – sometimes we use separate hands tracking. Fingers and face will be animated separately.
We had a first technical test in January. It took some hours until we found the perfect way to calibrate our two cams. We did our recording session in May, using 2 Kinect v2 cams and 2 JoyCon controllers. We have another Azure Kinect, but unfortunately it can’t be used together with Kinect v2. Nevertheless, our calibration was good and the tests we did with our recordings turned out very promising.
At the moment we are experimenting with iPi to assist for a roto scene. Hands are shaping clay in this shot and we want to replace the hands and fingers with 3d hands. We got a close up of hands shaping clay and recorded with iPi from another perspective, using special trackers for the hands. We hope that this will give us a base for the roto to facilitate the finger roto-motion, as hands are always quite difficult to track, while moving the fingers a lot. Because we had limited space, we modified the T-Pose. Arms were stretched out to the front.
In our recording session, we recorded movements like crawling and somebody pushing himself forward with his arms, sitting on a rolling board, but we did not processed the recordings yet and are very curious if iPi will be able to help us with this task.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
A great opportunity to win a perpetual license of iPi Motion Capture – just send your animation to Renderosity Animation Halloween Contest. Submission deadline is Oct 31st.
1st prize is Pro, 2nd prize is Basic, and 3rd prize is Express edition. A lot of other sponsors give away their software licenses as well.
Good luck in the competition!
https://www.renderosity.com/contests/1594/2022-animation-halloween-contest
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
iPi Mocap Live Link plugin for Unreal Engine 5.0 released.
Use it in the same way as plugins with UE4. Live Link menu item is now in Window > Virtual Production group in UE5.
Plugin download link: https://files.ipisoft.com/iPiMocap-Unreal-5-0.zip
Docs on how to use the plugin: https://docs.ipisoft.com/Animation_Streaming#Usage_in_Unreal
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
We have released updates and fixes for editing of motion transfer profiles.
What’s new:
See details in the release notes:
http://docs.ipisoft.com/iPi_Mocap_Studio_Release_Notes#ver._4.5.7.258
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
The recent release of iPiMocapStudio 4.5.6 includes support for Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman character and other motion transfer enhancements:
See details in the release notes:
http://docs.ipisoft.com/iPi_Mocap_Studio_Release_Notes#ver._4.5.6.256
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Computer Graphics World explores how our iPi Motion Capture technology is being used to create safe industrial warehouse settings and assembly areas for humans working alongside cobots, collaborative robots. Read the Q&A with Marco Capuzzimati, a research fellow at the University of Bologna, who is streaming mocap data from iPi Mocap Studio to Unity to analyze biomechanical movements and produce ergonomic designs to maximize operator satisfaction and system performance. https://bit.ly/3CH2XNS
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
While most high school students are pushing parental boundaries, Keanu Brayman, a high school student and team co-captain and animation lead of the Dirty Mechanics Competition Team 3923, is more interested in pushing his motion capture creativity. Keanu and fellow members of the Dirty Mechanics team compete in FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit international youth organization that aims “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation.”
For the past three years, iPi Soft has been a team sponsor providing licenses of our markerless motion capture solution, iPi Mocap, as well as technical support.
Founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor and advocate for science and technology, FIRST has over 97,000 students and 29,000 volunteers. The Dirty Mechanics team is comprised of students aged 13 to 18 from 12 different schools, placing a heavy emphasis on teaching digital skills to those who are younger to ensure the sustainability of the team’s future projects.
While the Dirty Mechanics’ key focus is building 60kg robots for competition, the league also competes in FIRST animation competitions. In 2021, Dirty Mechanics submitted a sophisticated short animation film “Be Safe to Each Other” to the FIRST Robotics Safety Animation Award. The project fully utilized iPi Soft 3D motion capture technology and allowed the team to experiment with real-time virtual production by streaming mocap data from iPi Mocap Studio to Unity 3D and using an HTC Vive VR system for camera tracking. (behind the scenes video link).
“We have used iPi Mocap to compete in FIRST competitions three years in a row and appreciate iPi Soft’s continued support of our animation projects,” Brayman says. “Learning as we go, my team has grown strong as has our knowledge and passion for animation.”
We spoke to Keanu about his team’s animated short films and how our technology helped bring them to fruition.
–
Q. How did the Dirty Mechanics team first hear about iPi Mocap?
KB: This will be the team’s third year using the software. While preparing to work on our submission for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2020 Digital Animation Award, I started searching for a motion capture solution that we could use without prohibitively expensive equipment, and quickly found iPi Soft’s website. iPi Mocap was exactly what we needed to perform achievable motion capture with amazing results.
Q. What was the creative brief for the film?
KB: The FIRST competition is sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). They were asking teams to “create an environment where everyone feels safe to do their best work. We know it is critically important that teams are physically safe by making sure work environments are clean, organized and hazard-free, but safety is also about caring for each other’s feelings and mental well-being – their psychological safety.” Film submissions were restricted to 40 seconds, including opening titles and credits.
Q. What is the storyline for the film?
KB: Our animated film “Be Safe to Each Other” shows a robotic astronaut walking through a derelict spaceship corridor while being stalked by a shadowy figure. Thankfully, the shadow turns out to be just another friendly astronaut. After this reveal, the ship’s astronauts work together to repair the corridor.
Q. Tell us about how the team fully utilized 3D motion capture and built a working real-time capture system and virtual production pipeline.
KB: Our real-time capture system used the iPi Recorder running two Microsoft Kinect V2 sensors with the distributed recording; real-time motion tracking in iPi Mocap Studio; live streaming mocap data to Unity; an HTC Vive VR system tracking a motion controller as a virtual camera; a phone attached to the controller streaming the virtual camera’s perspective. This system was developed and tested in conjunction with our “Safety Animation” film project, although we opted to use a more standard iPi Mocap workflow for our final submission. This decision was made due to lower framerates in the real-time stream.
 |
 |
 |
|
Q. How long did the team work on the Safety Animation piece? What were the overall motion capture technical challenges that the team faced?
KB: Our team spent about three months writing a script, developing our mocap system, creating 3D assets, acting out scenes, and rendering the final product. Our greatest challenge was finishing all the complex character animations in our script before the competition deadline. Thanks to iPi Mocap, we were able to create refined, highly accurate animations using motion capture, a task that took only a few hours. Without iPi Mocap, such an undertaking would undoubtedly have involved weeks of tedious keyframe animation.
Q. How did the team improve on its mocap skillset since your previous films?
KB: We learned a lot in the time between the 2020 “Infinite Reef” film and our 2021 “Safety Animation.” First, our overall knowledge of animation and rendering improved immensely. For the 2021 film, we utilized ray-tracing to create a much more realistic look. Additionally, we gained a much better sense of scope, deciding to focus on a single scene with a small number of detailed assets rather than modeling as many things as possible. We also became much more experienced with iPi Mocap, allowing us to incorporate more complex motions in our script. The primary goal of these projects is for everyone on the team to learn as much as possible, and that goal is certainly being achieved.
Q. You mentioned Dirty Mechanics is planning to improve its real-time virtual production system even further by utilizing Unreal Engine 4 and switching to PlayStation Eye cameras for tracking. How will iPi Mocap be incorporated into this pipeline? Is there a project underway?
KB: We are excited to say that there is a project underway. Currently, we are in production for our FRC 2022 Digital Animation Award submission. Our newest pipeline utilizes iPi Mocap with 8 PlayStation Eye cameras arranged in a circle. This has facilitated a smoother workflow by allowing us to operate the entire mocap system with a single PC and avoid some annoyances present in the Microsoft Kinect Sensors. Once we have captured high quality motion capture data with iPi Mocap, we import the resulting files into Unreal Engine 4, then record the final render in real-time using our HTC Vive VR system to track a virtual camera.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
A Conversation with George Carvalho, Animator /Director of Animaza Studios
Miami-based Animaza Studios, led by animator George Carvalho, has been in business for nearly four years creating a mix of original and client-based animation work. More than just an animation studio, Animaza sees itself as an entertainment company, with several of their original short films serving as trailers for books that have been published by the company’s publishing arm. The studio recently invested in iPi Soft markerless motion capture technology and has put it to use, particularly in two recent short films they’ve produced, “The Goblin Pact” and “Termite Samurai.” Both films were entered into international film festivals and received accolades
We spoke with Carvalho about Animaza Studios, its work and how markerless motion capture is helping the studio achieve its creative goals.
iPi Soft: Tell us a little about your background in animation and what drew you to it? How long have you been working in the field? Prior to Animaza did you work for other studios?
GC: I’ve always liked animation, especially Japanese animation. Many years ago, I was working with a software called Infini-D (now DAZ) to create titles for corporate video work. At the time, my brother was learning Autodesk 3ds Max, and told me that it was the software that Hollywood studios use and I should try it out.
I had recently finished a live-action independent feature film where I was also the cinematographer and thought the lighting could have been better. To improve the quality, I needed access to lights, and at the time only tungsten lights were available but very expensive to rent. With 3ds Max I was able to simulate lights that behaved like real world lights and create photo real results from my home computer. To better learn the software, I started making short films. When I started posting them on YouTube the response was better than I expected. That’s when I decided to start the company.
iPi Soft: How did you initially hear about iPi Mocap? Do the two Animaza award-winning short films – “Goblin Pact” and “Termite Samurai” – both use iPi Mocap?
GC: I watch an enormous number of behind-the-scenes and making-of videos, and mocap occasionally would come up as a new way of animating characters. Both of our short films make extensive use of iPi Mocap and received either best animation short or honorable mentions. I definitely hope to enter future film projects in festivals.
iPi Soft: Tell us a bit about your motion capture process and the major benefits it brings to production? Were you using other animation processes prior to using mocap that prompted you to switch gears towards using a motion capture solution?
GC: When I started on this journey, I was using key frame animation and doing everything by hand. This took an enormous amount of time. After much research, I came across iPi Soft motion capture software and presently use it with the Microsoft Azure Kinect camera.
One of the main benefits of using iPi Mocap in the character animation production process is that it drastically cuts down on hand animating characters. I capture all the performances in my living room conveniently and efficiently. I find iPi Mocap is very simple and intuitive to use and doesn’t require a whole team to get excellent results.
In addition, the quality of the software captures, including small nuances of movement like picking up objects or turning, is helpful in allowing me to capture individual movements that bring out a characters’ unique personality to life.
iPi Soft: What other software and hardware tools were used in conjunction with iPi Mocap in the Animaza production pipeline on the above films?
GC: The main tool I use for animation is Autodesk 3ds Max with the Arnold renderer. Adobe Photoshop is used to manage the textures while we used Adobe After Effects to composite all the images rendered out of 3ds Max while Adobe Premiere is for film editing. Adobe Mixamo is used for some of the animation, with DAZ studio used to acquire 3D resources such as 3D characters and settings.
iPi Soft: Can you walk us through a couple of key scenes in Goblin Pact and Termite Samurai where iPi Mocap helped meet a particular creative challenge? Is there something in particular about a markerless mocap solution, like iPi Mocap, that makes the content creation process easier to use?
GC: A challenging scene in “The Goblin Pact” was in the beginning of the film when the fairies are admiring their wings. I had my wife act out the motions and capture them with iPi Mocap because females have a different center of gravity and move differently than males.
In “Termite Samurai”, we faced a particular challenge when the Termite Samurai must draw out his sword as the spider is attacking, and then fight the spider. The samurai motion was captured all in iPi Mocap and the spider was hand animated – all of it had to be synced together to make it believable.
The advantage of markerless mocap is that it makes if fast to capture the movements needed. So fast, in fact, that it allows me to experiment and refine the animation so that it’s the best it can be. Other solutions may be more accurate, including the use of camera rigs or wearing a suit, but are much more expensive and require a team and extensive preparation to use.
iPi Soft: Are you working on any other animation projects currently that rely on iPi Mocap?
GC: We just released the trailer for the novel “The Proto Sapien Protocol”, on November 1st. The next project is based on Aesop’s fable, “The Hare and the Tortoise”. It is currently in production and both the film and the book are on track to be released early next year.
iPi Soft: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your mocap workflow?
GC: The first time I used mocap was on a “Silver Surfer” fan film where an alien character is holding a baby. The moment I saw the character move in such a convincing, fluid way, I knew the software would become an integral part of my future content creation workflow, especially since all the other characters were hand animated and you can see the difference. At the time, I was using the old Xbox Kinect camera, which had limited motion accuracy. But when Microsoft released their Microsoft Azure camera, and iPi Soft updated its support, I jumped right in and haven’t looked back since. I will always be grateful for iPi software, because it has truly allowed me to create high quality animation at a reduced cost and build a thriving entertainment company.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
A Q&A With Marco Capuzzimati, Research Fellow at University of Bologna
To hear many future-of-work theorists tell it, the manufacturing workspace of the future is one that will be increasingly filled with humans and robots working together. These collaborative robots — or cobots — work alongside humans without any separation. Moreover, they’re easily reprogrammed making cobots ideal for repetitive or dangerous tasks humans would prefer not doing.
But how do you know if the cobot is safe to work around humans? How far should the arm move? How fast? Figuring out those details is the job of researchers like Marco Capuzzimati, a researcher at the University of Bologna, who use markerless motion capture software tools like iPi Motion Capture to work out the range of motion details using the software before trying it out in the actual workplace.
In fact, scientist and medical researchers discovering innovative ways of incorporating motion capture technology led iPi Soft to create the Biomech Add-On, designed to enable visualization of tracking data for gait analysis and rehabilitation, sports motion analysis and research in 3D human kinematics.
We spoke with Marco about his work and how he’s using iPi Soft technology.
Q. Tell us more about your work?
MC: The project aims to create a management and feeding system for a collaborative cell, represented by a human operator and a cobot, or a collaborative robot. We are developing a system capable of being autonomous in the feeding phase, such as selection, picking and storage, of parts and components involved in the production process.
Q. How are you using iPi Soft to analyze movements? Is this being done in the assembly cell area of a warehouse?
MC: We stream mocap data from iPi Mocap Studio 4 to Unity 3D where we can do a biomechanical analysis of the movements both in the warehouse and in the assembly cell.
Q. Can you provide additional detail on the biomechanical analysis?
MC: We have developed a C-sharp code to handle the incoming mocap data. The data is then sent to a Microsoft HoloLens where we can do biomechanical analysis. We are particularly focused on the angles between certain joints so we can determine critical configurations.
Q. How does motion capture technology help in your research?
MC: Motion capture is helping us in warehouse settings where the cobots and people work together to load components and various parts onto warehouse shelving; and in the assembly phase with support from cobots and people doing tasks that cobots can’t do. The ergonomic design of the assembly cell is very important to maximize operator satisfaction and system performance, so the main objective of motion capture in this project is ergonomic optimization and risk assessment following the execution of certain assembly or load handling activities. In this way we can optimize system performance and reduce the risk of injury.
Q. Can you describe the assembly cell in greater detail? Is the assembly cell a specific area of a warehouse where the robot is assembled?
MC: The entire area of the ‘Pilot Line,’ as we call it, consists of a warehouse setting with inclined shelves. An assembly cell is formed by a fixed cobot and a flexible working table, this is the main area of interest. These elements allow cobots to carry and move materials and components from a warehouse to the assembly cell.
The main objectives are real-time biomechanical analysis of human operators and application of the ergonomic index for risk assessment during work activities. We have to analyze every single movement during assembly and consider the weights of the parts and components handled, the frequency of handling and the efforts that the operator has to make.
Q. Finally, how long have you been conducting the motion capture research at the University of Bologna? Is there an end date?
My research in the industrial engineering department began in September 2020 and is scheduled for completion in July 2022. I’m looking forward to future projects and opportunities to deploy this motion capture technology.
Picture 1. Marco Capuzzimati, University of Bologna researcher, pictured here at the Bi-Rex: Big Data Innovation & Research Excellence competence center, is conducting biomechanical analysis using iPi Soft motion capture software on workplace safety between humans and collaborative robots (cobots).
Picture 2. Marco Capuzzimati, University of Bologna researcher, pictured here at the Bi-Rex: Big Data Innovation & Research Excellence competence center, is using iPi Soft motion capture software to analyze workspaces between humans and collaborative robots (cobots), to ensure workplace safety.
Picture 3. Marco Capuzzimati, University of Bologna researcher, is using iPi Soft motion capture data in conjunction with the Microsoft HoloLens to conduct biomechanical analysis in warehouse settings to ensure workplace safety where humans and collaborative robots (cobots) will be working together.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Thank you Digital Media World for reporting on our exciting plugin announcement for iPi Mocap and Unreal Engine. This integration is an ideal real-time workflow solution for game developers, virtual production content creators, and more. Take a look at the news here.
#iPiSoft #iPiMocap #UnrealEngine #gamedev #virtualproduction #motioncapture #DigitalMediaWorld
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
New Plug-in and Enhanced Features Deliver Immersive Experiences for Markerless Motion Capture in Game Development, Virtual Production
MOSCOW, RUSSIA – March 24, 2021 – iPi Soft, LLC, developers of the markerless motion capture technology iPi Motion Capture, announced a series of new enhancements supporting Unreal Engine suite of development tools for real time content creation. These iPi Motion Capture enhancements include a new plug-in that affords real-time motion tracking, motion transfer to 3D character and animation streaming into Unreal Engine.
Pavel Sorokin, iPi Soft’s recently named CEO, explains that closer integration with Unreal Engine via the new plug-in gives motion capture users the ability to stream tracking results to Unreal in both the live feedback and offline tracking mode, thus allowing creators to see how motion will look on their character in Unreal Engine and in their particular 3D setting. Additionally, users can have both iPi Mocap Studio and the Unreal Engine editor open simultaneously for viewing animation changes in real-time.
“We are excited about the creative possibilities the new plug-in will deliver to our customers already working with Unreal Engine,” Sorokin says. “Users can now preview captured motion in an actual game scene inside the Unreal Engine editor and integrate the animation stream from iPi Mocap Studio into Unreal Engine for a more seamless and immersive experience.”
Sorokin noted that previously iPi Mocap users working in Unreal Engine would have to export animation from iPi Studio to FBX or BVH files, then import assets to Unreal. “The tighter integration into Unreal is a huge benefit that will provide iPi Mocap content creators increased flexibility to create game, virtual production and other projects quickly and with more accurate results without the need to create custom code.”
Beta Results Prove Positive:
New Discovery, a full-service digital agency based in Mexico and the US, took part in the iPi Soft beta-testing program of the closer integration of iPi Mocap and Unreal Engine for a VR documentary entitled, “Northern Route, Border Identity.” Funded by the Secretary of Cultural Affairs of the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, the project takes an empathetic look at the refugee experience that has slowly become part of the border region’s social-economic fabric.
“We were incredibly impressed with the fidelity of the iPi Mocap data,” Jonalex Herrera, CEO and co-founder of New Discovery, says. “Even with two Kinect Azure sensors, the results were amazing. Best of all, we were able to push animation streams directly into Unreal to realistically share details of the refugees’ journey in search of a better future.”
Link to the press-relese on PR Web>>
Pricing and Availability:
iPi Motion Capture Version 4 is available as a perpetual license or subscription-based model. Prices range from $165 to $1995 depending on the version of the software (Express, Basic, Pro) and duration of the subscription. Additional information on iPi Soft pricing is available here.
About iPi Soft:
Moscow-based developer, iPi Soft, LLC, develops powerful markerless motion capture software technology that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s software is used by creative professionals and prosumers around the world to digitize the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it expressive in 3D characters for video games, computer-generated films, as well as for medical, military and other applications. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing, configurations or a 30-day free trial please visit http://www.ipisoft.com.
# # #
All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
|
We are excited to share this interview with our new CEO Pavel Sorokin in the business entrepreneur news site Startup.Info. In the Q&A Pavel discusses his vision for the company, how it’s weathering the Covid pandemic and how we continue to innovate and lead in the markerless motion capture space. Enjoy! |
 |
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Company Co-Founder Michael Nikonov To Continue As Chief Technology Architect
Moscow, Russia – February 08, 2021 – iPi Soft, LLC, the leading developer of markerless motion capture software technology named Pavel Sorokin, current Chief Operating Officer (COO), as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
|
“I am excited to lead iPi Soft into our next stage of growth and deliver on our promise to bring the most accessible and reliable motion capture products to market that help our customers achieve their creative goals,” Sorokin says. “We will continue to improve our existing product inventory and remain focused on innovating products compatible with real time applications and making use of rapid advances in AI tracking tech for exceptional user-experience.” Since co-founding iPi Soft in 2008 with Michael Nikonov, Sorokin has held various roles including lead developer, finance and administration, business development/marketing, as well as spearheading major strategy and technical shifts across the company’s product lines. |
|
As CMO, most notably, he introduced iPi Soft and its markerless motion capture solution, iPi Motion Capture, to US, European and Asian markets leading to its adoption into some of the world’s most prestigious VFX and creative studios and educational institutions. His efforts have also been instrumental in marketing the real time capabilities available in iPi Motion Capture and the software application’s integration into leading game engine platforms including Unity and Unreal. Additionally, Sorokin managed the marketing strategy for iPi Biomech, an add-on motion capture software tool that opened new channels for markerless tracking and visualization of motion capture data for medical, sports analysis and movement science applications.
Sorokin succeeds Nikonov, current iPi Soft Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Architect. Nikonov will continue as Chief Technology Architect to lead technology development efforts that strengthen iPi Soft’s focus on quality and innovation.
“Pavel brings hardcore engineering skills, global business perspective and marketing savvy to his new role,” Nikonov says. “I can think of no one better to lead iPi Soft at this exciting juncture in the motion capture technology industry.”
Prior to iPi Soft, Sorokin served as Founder and CEO of Irbicon, a Moscow-based IT service provider of business analytics solutions to customers form financial and telecom industries. Before that he held project managerial roles at Samsung Research Center in Moscow. Over the course of his career, Sorokin has also assumed various software engineering positions. He holds a degree in applied math from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
About iPi Soft
Moscow-based developer, iPi Soft, LLC, develops powerful markerless motion capture software technology that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s software is used by creative professionals and prosumers around the world to digitize the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it expressive in 3D characters for video games, computer generated films, as well as for medical, military and other applications. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing, configurations or a 30-day free trial please visit https://www.ipisoft.com.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
iPiSoft’s Founder/Chief Creative Architect, Michael Nikonov, shares his thoughts in PostMagazine’s annual “Outlook” issue on trends that 2021 may bring to markerless motion capture technology.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
From time to time, we like to take a closer look at the artists that are using iPi Soft technology in interesting and innovative ways. This time we are shining a spotlight on Raul Miguel Ruiz Esquer, a Mexico-based, self-professed creative jack-of-all-trades working as an audiovisual producer and 3D animation artist. Currently, his one-man studio is focused on the realization of 3D cinematics.
Raul came to our attention in September with his submission to our mocap contest. His elegant 3D dancer piece, “Big Bang Portal” was the winning entry due to its originality and the incredible detail he was able to portray using iPi Mocap along with Autodesk Maya and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine: https://vimeo.com/446939597
|
We spoke with Raul from his studio in Tijuana, Mexico Q. How did you first hear about iPi Mocap and how did you use the software in your winning entry? RR: first time I started using iPi Mocap was around 2012 when I was a student learning 3D and downloading all kinds of software and experimenting. The idea of an affordable way to make 3D motion capture was compelling since the mocap technology at that time was expensive and not accessible to the broader audiences.I started using iPi Mocap again this year for my winning piece “Big Bang Portal” as I noticed iPi Soft had made several improvements to the software. This video captured in the piece was created using iPi Recorder and iPi Mocap Studio. It is a work in progress for a short film I am currently producing. |
 |
Q. What benefits does the software bring to your content creation workflow?
RR: Since I was young, I have always wanted to create my own 3D animated movies. I have been studying the spectrum of 3D software applications with the goal of being able to create as a solo artist. When I first heard about iPi Mocap I knew it was a perfect match for me. As a one-man studio I need to make ongoing technical and budgetary decisions to support the artistic vision. The main advantage of iPi Mocap is being able to capture high quality animation instead of making it by hand and trying to recreate the illusion of life for my characters. It was very daunting at first because just to make one shot used to require a team, but with iPi Mocap the animation can be achieved accurately without sensors with one person or a small team of individuals. This is huge because it improves the productivity from a cost-effective perspective, but also allows an independent artist to direct a creative vision instead of wrangling a production. I can prototype fast and spend more time working on the creative, fun side of the project.
Q. What hardware are you using with iPi Mocap?
RR: My studio setup is nothing extraordinary, but it delivers results: Intel Core i7-3820 (4 core 3.6 ghz) with P9X79 LE Motherboard and 16 gb ram; Nvidia 1080 GTX; 2 Kinect Xbox One; 2 SIIG JU-P20612-S1 – Adapter PCIe 2 port USB 3.0.
Q. Can you tell us how you have already used iPi Mocap and your plans for using the software with the Unreal Engine?
RR: My plan is to produce films and series. Right now I’m continuing to experiment creatively using the iPi Mocap pro license on a personal project that I’m hoping to release soon. My plan is to acquire two additional Kinects to make a four Kinect setup to capture additional recording of acrobatic action sequences and different dancing styles.
Looking to the future I would also like to try using the software with the Azure Kinect to raise the quality of my captures.
The use of the Unreal engine was a choice made with the solo team structure in mind. It is just so much simpler to direct, assemble and render sequences using the Unreal editor. As a director, having more control of the output using the real-time pipeline provides additional creative flexibility.
I have studied and prepared myself to be able to execute my creative vision.
I’m happy that iPi Soft granted me a license and thanks to the contest, I feel closer to achieving my artistic aspirations.
To see more of Raul’s work visit his Instagram and Facebook pages.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Dessignare Media published iterview with our CEO Michael Nikonov in Spanish.
Link to the inverview:
https://www.dessignare.com/2020/10/el-futuro-del-motion-capture.html
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
In a recent interview with Production HUB, our CEO and CTO, Michael Nikonov, spoke about the benefits of using iPi Mocap during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. With Hollywood live action productions largely suspended and college animation students in the U.S. recently returning to an online learning environment, he outlines that our markerless motion capture software can find its place in the complex production pipelines of the big studios and is particularly effective for concept testing, previz, and background animation of large crowds or secondary characters that don’t require high levels of detail. The motion capture system can also be done at home or in a small office space, making it a good choice for remote work and learning.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Just like a ghost, iPi Soft keeps coming back…as a sponsor of the Renderosity Magazine Halloween Animation Contest that is.
This year’s theme is “Costumes, Cauldrons & Concoctions,” and iPi Soft is again giving away a free iPi Mocap Pro Perpetual license to the Grand Prize winner.
With zero preparation time – no markers, no sensor suits – coupled with our recent addition of real-time tracking and live-streaming capabilities into popular game engines such as Unity and Unreal, the iPi Mocap solution gives users the tools to help ignite scare-worthy content in minutes.
Submissions are being accepted now and will end on October 8th, when community voting begins. Voting closes on October 31 and winners will be announced that day.
For all the details go here. Good luck from everyone at iPi Soft. We look forward to watching your submissions (with the lights on of course).
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
The iPi Soft founder and CEO Michael Nikonov discusses the current state of markerless motion capture animation technology, including real-time tracking and live streaming.
Published at Animation World Network (AWN)
#motioncapture #iPiMocap #AWN #UnrealEngine #Unity
Article is available here:
https://www.awn.com/news/five-minutes-mocap-michael-nikonov
Image from the game, ‘The End of the Sun.’ Game images © www.endofsun.com.
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|
Dear iPi Soft Users,
among the many lessons the current global pandemic is teaching us is that no matter how dire the circumstances, there is no stopping the creative spirit.
Whether it’s the myriad of talk show hosts and musicians live streaming performances to the world from their homes; or filmmakers, animators and visual artists of all stripes creating content for their clients or social media, it’s clear that creativity cannot be quarantined.
It’s with that spirit of community that iPi Soft is offering a 30% discount on all of our markerless motion capture products, till May 15th. Please use coupon code: STAYSAFE30
Also, we’d love to see examples of your creativity during this challenging time, and share them on iPi Soft’s website and social media channels.
We also welcome you to participate in iPi Mocap Contest: https://blog.ipisoft.com/
Stay safe and stay creative.
Sincerely,
iPi Soft
| Tweet | Share on Facebook | Share on LinkedIn |
|
|