Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Inside Tips of Mocap Acting

The Mocap Vaults founder, Oliver Hollis-Leick, is a 13-year mocap acting veteran that has worked on over 80 videogame and movie titles, with roles in such films as Iron Man 2, Stardust, Total Recall, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Godzilla, Hercules, Fred Clause among many others.

In his interview to Digital Production BuZZ he talks about the challenges that motion capture actors are facing and about the new opportunities that iPi Motion Capture provides for them.

“There is actually a revolution happening in motion capture, thanks to the companies like iPi Soft. I can take a Kinect camera, and just put it on a tripod in a room with actors. None of them need marker suits. I can record their performance and the key see it on screen within a minutes on a character.“

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iPi Soft Partners With Acting/Filmmaking Education Resource The Mocap Vaults

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Fine actor adjustments included in the latest release of iPi Mocap Studio allow to change actor’s proportions:

• Legs length
• Arms length
• Head size
• Feet size
• Shoulders width

These new features allow to increase tracking accuracy due to more precise adjustments of actor model used for tracking.

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Since the release of iPi Biomech Add-on a year ago, many customers requested us to extend the list of formats available for point cloud export. MATLAB and PCD formats were convenient enough for researches, but  not for animators.

In animation, point cloud can be used as a video reference, which makes life easier in many cases. iPi Motion Capture is the only commercially available product so far, that allows to obtain point clouds recorded with multiple Kinect sensors. Now you can use this product feature to its full extent.

New! The latest release of iPi Biomech Add-on (included in iPi Mocap Studio) supports export to  Krakatoa PRT, PLY, OBJ, Leika PTS formats that can be recognized by various 3d packages, including 3ds Max and Maya. Read More>>

For more information on iPi Biomech Add-on, please refer to its User Guide. Please be aware that iPi Biomech Add-on requires separate license. 30-days free trial is available.

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Engadget website has just published  a round up story on using Kinect devices to create motion capture content.

What they think of iPi Motion Capture:

Another mocap dev that exploits the Kinect 2 is Ipi Soft, which supports multiple sensors. The app, plus a Kinect 2, will never beat a full-blown studio, of course. But if you stay within its limitations and keep square to the depth sensor, you can capture full body performances for games or animated shows. After a bit of cleanup, the results were very usable.

Read the full article>>

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iPi Soft is proud to announce ground-breaking performance enhancements to iPi Motion Capture Version 3.0, the company’s advanced line of markerless motion capture technology. The latest updates include new distributed recording functionality that sets a standard for capturing synchronized video by providing up to 16 Sony PS3 Eye camera support or up to 4 Kinect sensors recorded onto multiple PCs during the same motion capture session. Additionally, the ability to track three actors simultaneously gives professional users working in film, TV, videogame development and beyond, a powerful and efficient motion capture tool.

New! Taking into account increased number of supported cameras, we are increasing number of cameras supported in Basic Edition from 4 to 6, thus allowing accurate capture of more complex motions.

In addition to this good news, the price of Basic Edition was dropped by 30%. Now 1 year subscription for Basic costs $345, 3 month subscription – $165. We hope that this will make the solution affordable for wider audience.

Limited-time offer! Till March, 29 We offer 3 year subscriptions for all products at the cost of 2 years. We also see that 3 months subscription are quite popular. Get 30% discount for 3 month subscriptions, also till March, 29.

To order at discounted price, just put coupon code from the table below into “Your coupon code” field of on-line order form:

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iPi Motion Capture listed as the most affordable among professional-level motion capture solutions by RenderDigiMania. The closest competitor is over 5 times more expensive! Actually our solution is even more affordable, as they referred to the most expensive Pro edition.

Read the full publication:
http://renderdigimania.com/blog/affordable-mocap-for-animators

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Distributed recording feature is useful if:

• You want to use two or three Kinect 2 sensors for tracking. Due to limitation in Microsoft Kinect SKD 2.0 you can have only single sensor at one PC, but distributed recording allows you to connect each sensor to a separate PC.
• You do not have enough USB controllers on board. Only single depth sensor or two Sony PS3 cameras can be connected to the same USB controller. Using additional laptop for recording will allow you to record with more cameras.
• HDD recording speed or CPU power is not enough to record in realtime with multiple cameras. Using additinal laptop will be an alternative to hardware upgrade.

Online Docs>>

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Randi Altman’s PostPerspective published a chat with Ghost Town Media’s creative director/lead designer Brandon Parvini.

We are proud to have Ghost Town Media among iPi Soft customers.

Read the article>>

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2014 Proves A Banner Year For iPi Soft

Markerless Motion Capture Software Developer Continues to Gain Worldwide Momentum From Visual Effects and Creative Studios

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA December 18, 2014 – iPi Soft, LLC, today announced that momentum in 2014 for the company’s flagship software, iPi Motion Capture, continues to be strong among visual effects and creative studios worldwide, including industry leaders like Rodeo FX, Big Lazy Robot, The Sequence Group and Ghost Town Media.  For iPi Soft, 2014 was a year filled with many high-points ranging from the launch of iPi Motion Capture V 3.0, to advancements in the bio mechanical market, increased visibility at key industry events and an expanding customer base of creative professionals that continue to push the software into groundbreaking directions.

Michael Nikonov, Founder and Chief Creative Architect of iPi Soft, notes that the company remains committed to developing affordable and reliable markerless motion capture solutions that meets the demands of today’s filmmakers and game developers.

“In 2014, we saw the creative community fully embrace markerless motion capture from entertainment projects in film, TV and videogames to doctors taking advantage of motion capture tools to help them better understand the complexities of physical movement,” Nikonov says. “With the launch of iPi Motion Capture V 3.0 and our new subscription model, we look forward to an impactful 2015.”

IPi Soft 2014 Highlights:

• iPi Motion Capture 3.0 Launch & New Subscription Pricing: In November, iPi Soft unveiled their next generation motion capture solution, which delivered a number of impressive new features for improved workflow, including support for the new Microsoft Kinect 2 sensor. Additionally, the company introduced a new subscription payment model.

• Biomech Add-On: In February, iPi Soft launched iPi Biomech, a new add-on software tool for the biomechanical analysis of human motion, which extended the functionality of iPi Motion Capture for markerless tracking and visualization of motion capture data for medical, sports analysis and movement science applications.

• Industry Events: A component of iPi Soft’s growth strategy has been to increase its presence at the numerous trade shows and industry events most relevant to its users. A high-point in 2014 was the company’s sponsored Digital Media Artists/Los Angeles (DMA/LA) educational event in March, featuring animation/mocap experts Ko Maruyama, Anthony Hoit, David Lewandowski and Don L. McCoy.

• Stalingrad: Among the many entertainment projects to benefit from iPi Motion Capture, one project, the Russian-produced epic film “Stalingrad” (Sony Pictures), which opened in February in the U.S., was particularly noteworthy not only because it became highest-grossing film ever in Russia, but because it featured 230 visual effects shots filling approximately 30 minutes of overall screen time.

Looking ahead to 2015, Nikonov anticipates positive reaction by users to many of the new features in 3.0 that will become available with future updates. Those features include distributed recording allowing users to record to several computers during the same session. Additionally, it will be possible to use several Kinect 2 sensors simultaneously, as well as record with up to 12 cameras tracking three actors — all at substantially increased tracking speed with improved clean-up of selected limbs and fine actor model adjustments.

Press-release in PDF>>

About iPi Soft:

Launched in 2008 by CEO and Chief Technology Architect Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft, LLC is the Moscow-based developer of iPi Motion Capture™, a markerless motion capture software tool that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s breakthrough technology digitizes the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it in expressive 3D characters for video games or computer generated films. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing or a 30-day free trial please visit, http://www.ipisoft.com.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts:

Ambient PR, Vicky Gray-Clark, vicky@ambientpr.com, 408-318-1980

Right Word Media, Ray Ecke, ray@rightwordmedia.com, 973-726-3797

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