Look, Ma, Two Hands! (and a New Blog System)

It's a lovely Friday afternoon in Miami and I'm sitting here waving my hands like a madman in front of me while sitting at my computer, holding two shiny spheres - each screwed onto a plastic pedestal of their own. You'd think I was a madman, a lunatic, or maybe in attempt to justify my erratic movements, you'd convince yourself I was trying to visualize an idea using these little plastic toys. If you're of the reasonable crowd that falls in the latter portion of my previous statement, then I admit you are quite close in your assumption. Indeed, I am attempting to visualize a concept for an animation using what looks like two toys - but I'm doing it in real-time, interacting directly with the objects and characters I'd like to be animating in Maya!

Is this a dream, you ask? Well it was for someone like me, at least, since coming across Johnny Chung Lee's head-tracking using the Wii remote video a few years ago; he demonstrated how (with some software magic) the Wii remote's infrared camera can be used to track the movement of two LED lights (placed above your head) to give the viewer an even greater sense of perspective in a 3D scene - and it works beautifully as you can see in the link! Having a vague understanding of the way the Wii remote functions since then, I always wondered if it were possible to create a "poor man's mocap" system using several Wii remotes and the appropriate software to interpret the cameras' data to affect the translation and rotation channels of an objects in Maya. Of course, due to my limited knowledge in such matters, I never actively pursued this concept past it being a dream of something "neat if it existed." I mean, how neat would it be to have the ability to do some motion capture animation at your desk and not break your bank? Sounds awesome, right?



It is awesome and it's a reality. No, it doesn't involve Wii remotes, thankfully. In fact, it's a much more elegant solution than my dream explained above. Allow me to introduce you to Motion4U™'s Xaelander™ 2, the company's semi-professional desktop mocap solution (assuming you've never heard of this before or I've been living under one heck of a rock).




With the Xaelander™ 2, the user is able to interact with 3D objects in real-time using a set of individual points (for full 3D movement - the translation channels of an object), or a set of "paddles" with five points each (for full 6D movement - translation and rotation of an object).


 

The two paddles shown. With these, you can get full 6D motion in your 3D software package using Motion4U's software and the infrared camera setup overseeing your movement over your physical desktop.

Let me get this out in the open before we move on with further explanation of Xaelander™: I am beta testing this product. I was sought out by Motion4U, and through a series of events, was essentially asked to be a beta tester and explore its uses within Maya. With that said, let's move on!

I believe the only fully functional and supported 3D package at the moment is Maya (32-bit Windows), with support for other 3D software and operating systems, coming down the pipeline in the not too distant future - correct me if I am wrong, please. The integration between the software and Maya is seamless, and setting up Xaelander™ 2 is not as painful as one may expect at first glance. In fact, I was up and running within 5-10 minutes of placing the mic stand and cameras. Granted I already had the software installed from the day before, but doing that only takes a couple of minutes at worst.

The cameras mounted on a mic stand with a customized M4U bar. I assure you the Florida Marlins are not involved!

I can't imagine many people will struggle with the initial setup aside from the bumpy learning curve with actually figuring out how to move the points and understand how the software is interpreting it. That, however, can most likely be attributed to never having actually interacted with a computer like this before. You see, when you've used a mouse and keyboard for so many years, having to learn how to manipulate objects on the computer by actually moving around in a 3D physical space certainly takes some getting used to. Think of it as having to learn how to ride a bike for the first time, or finally learning how to swim -- well, maybe it's not as extreme as those examples but it does feel like having to learn a new skill. The point is that it will take the user/animator some time and practice to properly learn how to use Xaelander™ as a tool in their trade - but the result will be worth it, I'm sure.

Why, yes, that is a bed sheet on my table. The glass table's reflections give the cameras trouble. No biggie!

How worth it? The answer to that question is a journey I am inviting you to experience with me these next few weeks/months as I animate and experiment with the limitless ways this intriguing setup allows one to visualize and animate their ideas. Each week I will try my best to post an update on my experiences, including videos and images to give you a better idea of what's going on. You'll see ways a biped character can be animated like a real puppet, how a camera in a Maya scene can be manipulated by the movement of your hands, and much more. I'm also going to explore ways a rigger can approach the method in which they build their rig that may be used by an animator using Xaelander™. Whatever the outcome of this experiment, it'll be fun! So, join me, will you? :)

-Mike Navarro

EDIT: Here's a clip of something I created using Xaelander™ 2:

This is a recreation of a shot from the intro of Atlas' Revenge.

A New Blog System

This sub-post isn't very important, and frankly, if you're even reading this I'm very impressed. I just wanted to alert you all (all 2 of you) that this blog has been moved to another system and is actually now being hosted off-site. It's still Blogger, but is no longer hosted off my own website due to the company dropping FTP publishing in the very near future. After that point, all Blogger users are required to have their blog hosted on Blogger's servers - but you can still maintain a custom domain name, which is fortunate. It's a tad annoying for me, but there should be no effect to you, the reader. I tried as best as I could to keep the page hosted on their server to blend in with mine, and so far I think it's pretty seamless. 

However, I may have missed something in the switch. It's possible you may be directed the wrong way when navigating through my website or run into a broken link. It's very possible as I now have this site hosted on two separate servers (blog on Blogger, the rest on my own). If you do run into any issues when viewing my website or blog, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated, and I am also open to any critiques or ideas you may have. Thanks so much!

-Mike Navarro