Building an Actor
_Building an accurate actor is
the first step in a strong foundation towards creating high fidelity
motion capture. Here is a tutorial on how to build a clean and precise
actor.
- Open A New scene and from your Asset Browser, drag in the Actor C3D file. > Click on C3D Import.
- In your Asset Browser go to
Templates > Characters > Actor
Drag in an Actor - Depending on where you position the actor in real life you’ll need to move the Actor into the marker cloud.
- Select the Hips and translate the Actor inside the markers
- Switch to your Front View (CTRL+F)
- turn on your Pivot Points so you can see where the Legs pivot from.
- Position your Hips markers to be slightly above the Pivot points
- Go back to perspective View (CRTL+E) and ensure the hips are inside the marker cloud.
- If need be, Select the Stomach and Chest and scale the Actor body to better fit in the marker cloud.
- From the Upper most part of the leg rotate the leg to fit the markers.
- Adjust the Length of the legs to fit the C3D data.
Note: Make sure the Knee Marker stays above the actor knee joint. Having it below will cause incorrect motion transfer
Note: All people are different proportions. It can be a good idea to use reference Video or Pictures to create a better actor. - Turn on IK Manip and adjust the Feet into the marker cloud
Note: Some People will stand toe in or tow out, Don’t be afraid to match up the actor feet to the Marker positions.
Note: Make sure the feet are flat on the floor by Zeroing out the Z Rotations - Rotate the Arms starting at the Shoulder trying to line up the shoulder to the elbow marker.
- Then rotate the Elbow trying to line up the elbow to the hand markers
Note: Scale the Arm as needed - If the Person has their hands tilted or on an angle adjust accordingly
- Adjust the head to fit inside the cloud. You do not need to scale up the head/neck to fit right inside of it.
- If you have unused markers that are for rebuilding purposes only. Hide them now using SHIFT+H.
- Select any Rigid body markers (Head, Hips, Chest, etc) and press “3” to make them solid.
- Double click on a marker and in the Navigator go to the Rigid Bodies Tab
- Select the 3 or more marker you wish to add to a Rigid Body and Click > Add
- Now Select the 4 Markers and in the Resources Window go to the
Properties Tab, Scroll to the bottom under “OpticalModeMarkers” And
alter the color, Choose anything except Green since that’s the color of
selected markers
Note: This process is to make it easier to see these important markers when the character is not in a T-Pose (rolling, in a ball, etc) - Double Click on the Rigid Body Name in the Rigid Body tab and Rename it
Example: Chest_RB, Hips_RB - Repeat these step for any remaining Rigid Bodies
- In the Navigator Click on Actor > Actor > Markerset… > Create New Marker Set
- Now we will ALT Drag in the markers into the Marker Set.
Drag the 4 head markers into the Head Node
Drag each Shoulder Marker into the Shoulder Nodes
Drag the 4 Chest Markers into the Chest Node
Drag the 4 Hip Markers into the Hip Node
Drag each elbow marker into the Elbow Nodes
Drag the 2 wrist Markers into the Wrist Node
Drag the remaining Hand Marker into the Hand Node
Drag each Knee Marker into the Knee Node
Drag each Ankle Marker into the Ankle Node
Drag the Meta and Heel Marker into the Foot Node
Drag each Toe Marker into the Toe Node
Note: If you make a mistake just click on the Marker name in the MarkerSet window and press DELETE - When you are done click > Active
Note: You should see a slight pop in the Actor when it activates. - Scrub or Play your timeline you should see you actor move with the markers.
Check for fidelity when the actor bends his arms, bends his hands, lifts his legs. If you see anything irregular deactivate the Actor, make any changes and then click > SNAP to activate with the new changes - Click on MarkerSet.. > Rename and name the Marker Set the name of the Actor
Example: MAT_ROM, CAI_BF12_ROM - Rename your Take the Same as your Marker set and Save the file. Make it read only.