SIGGRAPH: Vicon, House of Moves Show New MoCap Software

Vicon has announced the development of a new software package, combining motion capture functionality based on the systems development and motion capture service experience of both Vicon and House of Moves, at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston. The software provides a single unified toolset that supports the needs of real-time motion capture, full performance capture, and on-set visualization, as well as makes processing and applying motion capture data for the 3D animation pipeline simpler and more direct than previously released software packages. The software includes a number of new capabilities and advancements, such as scalable real-time motion capture that allows the user to connect and scale up systems to handle increasing camera counts and amounts of data; the ability to bring clean and accurate motion data rapidly to a 3D application with House of Moves' Diva software and the intelligent fitting algorithms of Vicon; and the capability to handle large quantities of facial, finger and body marker information derived from multiple performers and longer scenes. Other enhancements over existing software include the ability to immediately visualize and verify results and how they work with other elements with real-time display of rendered characters meshes and lighting effects, video synchronization, audio, and video camera overlay; and the capability to streamline everything from system configuration to troubleshooting with enhanced intuitive management and control. Motion capture solutions from Vicon include high-resolution, high-frame-rate cameras built by Vicon specifically for motion tracking. Vicon's next-generation Vicon MX real-time optical motion capture systems usher in ultra-high-resolution, true gray scale processing, virtually artifact-free capture with Vicon MX 40, a four-million-pixel gray scale motion capture camera. The new Vicon software will be available as an upgrade to existing Vicon customers, and to new Vicon MX customers. “We are connecting more cameras and capturing more detail on more performers than ever before,” stated Brian Rausch, Manager of Motion Capture, Animation, and Scanning, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We are using motion capture not just to feed the animation pipeline but as a real-time rendering and pre-visualization tool. Vicon has already launched a revolution in motion capture with its Vicon MX cameras and hardware. Now, we can look forward to a single software package that supports these new levels of innovation, and brings together the best in post processing, management and adaptable tools sets.”