Building a $20 Motion Capture Studio with a Kinect

As I practice character animation in Blender, my interest in motion capture technology grows. While options like the Rokoko Smartsuit exist for prosumers, I wanted to find an inexpensive, existing hardware solution- that's when I stumbled across the Kinect. In this video, I discover if just $20 for a failed Xbox 360 accessory, and some help from Brekel Body, Blender, and the Rokoko Studio plugin can create the ultimate low-cost motion capture studio.

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[BigBadBeaver]

Hope you guys enjoyed. If you have any advice on using Rokoko's Blender plugin, let me know here or in my Discord server :)

[vansapha]

I use 2 Kinects, the result is perfect. I can turn round my body 360 degree. Just need more space of room.

[theeddytor]

as someone who has worked with lighting setups here is a tip for you brother never let your shadow cast in background unless you are making scary movies. it's distraction for informative content but huge advantagous for creepy, scary shoots. i hope you don't take my advice as bragging i just feel like you are sort of rising youtuber and this might help you. also if you find difusers expensive then you can try those cheap LEDs and add butter paper in front of it. to this day we use that method in case we have some unsettling spots and we need to light those places we carry LEDs and butter paper or white sheet just in case we need.

[SatoshiAR]

Hey! I remember learning this trick years ago from following Hyper & Maxofs2d's videos back in the day. Glad to see a more in-depth video on it.

[DigitalAndInnovation]

It was funny because as soon as you mentioned "the connect" I was saying "good god" but then the "oh brother" line came in and I was like- well with that realization out of the way- lets go.

[namuzed]

I can relate to the setup issues. Getting it to connect consistently required some kind of voodoo.

[mikerusby]

This is awesome, thanks. i will give it a try tomorrow :)

[indieartsmidwest]

I've owned my kinect for about 5 years and just recently purchased Skanect. It's been a great asset so for scanning objects and environments. I've been on the fence for years about Brekel Kinect but their multi cam setup looks solid. Three sensors would be great but at least two allows seamless front to back tracking. I also bought the nyko zoom but barely use it because the result are mediocre. Yeah it helps a bit with zoom but the kinect still has a finite depth distance. Also, after owning one for so long, I find any ghost hunting video using these becomes a comedy.

[yes-ivpo]

production value is good, and your personality and humor is perfect for informative yet entertaining videos. i subscribe and ill stay subscribed as long as you keep up the quality content!

[BeastMaster-menb]

Bought a new Kinect camera adapter the other day just to play it again. Just started learning Blender a week ago, and today this video popped up.

[nikolaikostka]

This video is fantastic and informative but I have a question. How does this compare to using a regular camera and then adding the joints in post? My brother has a very good ape impression and I want to take his motion and turn him into an ape. I want him to be able to interact with things like furniture and people. In your opinion or of anyone reading this, should I record with the connect in addition to my camera or just do the camera and add the joint? Or possibly a third option that I'm not thinking of? Thanks a ton!

[mikhailstarovich]

Thank you bro. Your work so goodness. 😊

[KUREHAD]

jw if it matters which kinect i'm using? amazon only offers the xbox one kinect. is the workflow the same?

[HumbleHerman]

I have 8 Kinects and Brekel v3 ... for capture of multiple figures ... and no idea how to put it together yet. I'd appreciate it if you'd give it a whirl with 4 or 5 people!

[faridmohdismail]

i did explore using xbox one cameras,
faced similar issue as u, and dont have a large space, and mostly gave up..
but what u have is good, congrats

[itsmariaprod]

This is making me hopeful that I can actually do mocap with low cost

[mikerusby]

I thinjk maybe a lot of the issues are caused by the re targeting. I tried to retarget to a rigify setup and initially had to carefully match the joints or it just went a bit weird, but I got it working fine now. ( the rokoko auto build list was far from perfect)
I am hoping that by using the rigify rig for retargeting that i can do some addional tweaks using the Ik

[silvernva]

I'd be really interested in if the Xbox One Kinect would be better since it does have a better camera in it. Perhaps a friend has one you can borrow? They came with the original Xbox One, I'm pretty sure even I have one laying around somewhere.

[gone]

Can the program work with 2 kinects setup to fix the the issue of your body occluding your arms and legs in certain poses?

[vegastandalone]

Does Brekel allows to use 2 Kinects v1 at the same time for better recording?