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Capturing in an 11x11x9 room

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:24 pm
by kdoyle
A reference was made in a recent post regarding the BVH capoeira demo, and that it would be 'hard to get a capture like that' with a 10 x 10 space.

While we are looking at the purchase of an Optitrack 6 or 8 camera system for our game development projects, an ideal space for us at this time is around 11 x 11 feet with a 9 foot height. Cameras mounted fairly much at corners.

I'm mostly interested in the possibilities provided by the 60 degree lens attachments, to make this sort of area viable for full body capture. I've done some pre-vis of the theoretical volume this should provide, and it seems that such a volume would be enough for our requirements. At least initially.

The motions required are those that 'plug-in' to our game control network. We are working with Natural Motions morpheme, building up a character control prototype, and integrating that to our game. So far I have filled all animation data with hand animated motion - so I'm fairly sure on exactly the types of captures required. The majority tend to not deviate too far from a few 'base' postures. Also since the animator (me) is also the performer, who is also writing a lot of the control logic, then I could 'work with' the volume to get desired results, both in positioning the performance and doing work on the animation data.

So, the question is .. am I out of my mind ? Is it possible to carefully set up a close-range, full body capture of 8 cameras, fitted with 60 degree lenses. There's mention of IR illumination loss with the non-standard lenses. However, the ranges are close so the better image quality of the marker might offset this?

Would be happy to hear NaturalPoint's view on this or any others that have tried out the same scenario.

Re: Capturing in an 11x11x9 room

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:23 am
by Birch
Its possible to use the 60 degree FOV lenses, and at closer range the reduced IR intensity beyond the 45 degree range will not be as pronounced, but it may still be an issue. The stock 45 degree lens also has much lower distortion than the 60 degree lens. The lower distortion means you get better calibrations and more accurate tracking.

If you are looking to get better coverage in a small space you may want to consider adding a couple more cameras instead. They can help get a slightly larger active capture volume out of the same space.

One of the forum members in the threads below, Brad Friedman, has some experience using the 60 FOV lenses and might have some thoughts. You might PM him for additional feedback, not sure how often he checks the forum though.

http://forum.naturalpoint.com/forum/ubb ... mber=26443

http://forum.naturalpoint.com/forum/ubb ... mber=29801

Re: Capturing in an 11x11x9 room

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:48 pm
by Jim
Hello:

If you would like to email me at jim at naturalpoint dot com I can provide you with some extra information for your 60 degree lens setup.

Jim

Re: Capturing in an 11x11x9 room

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 10:14 pm
by kdoyle
Thanks for good support Jim and I did go ahead and purchase the system. Larger space though - 11x15x8, about. Getting calibration all 'excellent' for 8 cams at 60 degrees on first weekend of setup - good volume too.