iPi Soft Helps We Are Formation Score With ‘Take On Blake’ Facebook Game For Kia Optima
London-Based Design Animation Studio Uses Leading Markerless Motion Capture Solution To Create Realistic Slam Dunks And Other Basketball Moves
Los Angeles Clippers star forward Blake Griffinmay be known for his impressive slam-dunk ability, but to capture those skills in 3D animation London design/animation studio We Are Formation turned to iPi Motion Captureto provide a layer of authenticity to Take On Blake – a Facebook game for auto maker KIA’s Optima car that allows players to create their own animated avatar and compete in a slam dunk contest against the NBA star.
May Contest Winner Shares His Opinion on iPi Mocap
Well-written dialogue and an intriguing use of the POV camera style help make “Craiglist Horror,” directed by Russell August Anderson, so memorable. The May winner of the iPi Soft-sponsored monthly filmmaking competition has the intense feel of the opening to some popular crime procedurals like CSI or Law & Order, or perhaps a gritty indie film.
The three-minute piece begins with a man filming a woman sleeping inside a car while he comically debates the ethics of what he’s doing. We quickly learn they’ve accompanied the man’s actor brother to a remote film shoot in the desert. Shot POV style throughout, things take a suddenly real and violent turn, ending on a cliff-hanger that leaves viewers ready for the next scene.
A professional editor in commercials and film in Los Angeles, Anderson says “Craigslist Horror” came about as both a test of iPi Motion Capture software, and with the Source Filmmaker package from Valve that features the mocap software.
“‘Craiglist Horror’ served as a proof-of-concept that the technology is getting to the point where filmmakers who aren’t insanely tech savvy can pre-visualize their ideas and use motion capture easily to get a feel for the visual flow of their story before shooting it,” Anderson says. “The script was a short film a friend of mine wrote and set aside because he was unsure whether or not it worked, so it seemed like the perfect candidate for a test run. The project helped me gain mocap experience that I’ll apply to my next pre-visualization project — a short film we’re shooting this month.”
Anderson adds, “With iPi Soft I was able to act everything out beforehand and easily drop the mocap data into Source Filmmaker with DMX files. This was my first time using the software and the one Kinect setup was a breeze.”
iPi Soft is pleased to announce that we added multi-person tracking functionality and multiple video cards support for increased tracking speeds, as well as batch processing and support for eight Sony PS Eye cameras (up from six in previous version). See more info in Release Notes.
Responding to the demands of our growing customer base of filmmakers, animators and videogame developers, the new capabilities are free to all Standard license owners. Limited-time discount! Over 30% discount offer for new customers and owners of Basic and Express licenses is valid till August 25. Details and pricing and available here.
Almost every animation was made with the help of two Microsoft Kinects and an iPi Soft DMC. Except for running sequences and a few other animations, like the first shot with Guard standing in front of a door, animation of one Guard in ambush, close-ups.
Every animation was then refined with the build-in filters of iPi DMC, then brought into 3ds max CAT rig, and adjusted and refined further there.
We also used Endorphin to create ragdoll dynamics in the starship scene.
Kinects were upgraded with vibro-motors. One was made from a USB fan, and another was made from an old shaver. Vibrations helped to isolate pattern projections for each kinect, and make overall quality of recordings about 2 times better. Can’t wait to get my hand on Kinect 2.0, I hope iPi guys are ready to add support for them as soon as possible, after the release!