Our users are filmmakers, CG animators, videogame developers, broadcast motion graphics designers and prosumers. It would be great to hear from others with experience in animation workflows and motion capture processing with 3DS Max and Motion Builder.Our customers are from: entertainment, 3D design, education, military. The end result is that we have been able to author all of our crazy motions and sequences using our actual physical actions, and stylize them them in 3DS Max without too much hassle. Keep in mind we already had 3DS Max and a computer built to handle the capture and processing efficiently. The total amount we spent for doing our motion capture, including the wacky clothes from Target, is $1,462. Then each motion takes another 30 minutes to an hour to refine in 3DS Max and get working in-game. With the new machine setup, we can capture a session of motions in around 15 minutes, and it usually takes about out hour to track and fix up around six motions with a session. Also, having one or two people there to help critique the motions, run the machine, and provide endless jokes is super helpful.
Yes, the software is marker-less, but we found we got much better results the funkier we dressed ).
We use a quad core Intel i5 with a nVidia 480 GTX, and it works fine with a six PS Eye camera setup as long as you have three separate USB2 controllers each that can take two USB2 PS Eye cameras plugged in at full performance.
The results worked seamlessly in game, and we decided to upgrade to the standard package and get a six-camera 360 degree studio setup to improve capture quality and get more range of motion. Recently, we moved this step to our own internal export and retain the root motion to move our physics representation in game instead. For movement-less actions, delete X and Z root key frames.Clip the animation to the intended boundaries.
Some manual work here required to get the right cycle working.