We’re going to need mocap, lots of mocap…

What’s next for Mocappys?

So, after launching my MotionBuilder Fundamentals Course over the summer, I decided to set myself a new challenge: How much of the iconic “Lobby Sequence” from The Matrix could I recreate at home using an Xsens MVN Animate Motion Capture System and MotionBuilder?

I’d been trying to think of what to do for the next project that would move things on from How to Characterize a character n MotionBuilder and How to create a walk cycle in MotionBuilder and make things a little more interesting.

Then, for some reason I may regret later, I had the crazy idea to recreate the “Lobby Scene” from The Matrix – yeah, I’ve no idea why, either…I mean, flipping off a wall…at my age…in my house…with no training…

The Plan:

1. Motion capture everything I can at home using an Xsens MVN Animate Motion Capture System. I’ve been using this system since 2008 when I first used it on Paul, so I know what it can and can’t do. It’s also the perfect system for this kind of working from home, with limited space and needing to move between rooms. Plus, the very lovely people at Xsens were kind enough to loan me a system to attempt this.
2. Build a model of the lobby – possibly the most challenging as I haven’t done an modelling since Maya 5! But, hopefully the simple box shaped room and columns won’t be too difficult.
3. Create the characters in Adobe Fuse – for no other reason than I know they have a SWAT and Security Guard costume/character, and enough other bits and pieces to create someone resembling Neo and Trinity – oh, and they’ll be rigged and ready to use.
4. Then, just recreate every shot using MotionBuilder and record the process to create the next set of tutorials. What could be easier?

The Good Stuff

As this is going to be a pretty big project, hopefully there’ll be a little something in there for everyone.

Xsens MVN Animate

• How to setup and calibrate an Xsens MVN mocap system.
• How to capture data in MVN Animate
• How to set up and stream data from MVN Animate into MotionBuilder
• How to process and export data from MVN Animate into MotionBuilder

MotionBuilder

• Motion Editing,
• Character Animation,
• Story Tool,
• Cameras,
• Constraints,
• FCurves,
• Control Rigs,
• …maybe even a little Python scripting for those that are into that kind of thing!

Everything you ever wanted to do on a mocap project, but couldn’t find the right tutorial – or that’s the plan anyway.

Follow Along…

So, if you want to follow along and see how far we can get, head over to my YouTube Channel and subscribe if you aren’t already.

And don’t forget to let me know in the comments below what you’re looking forward to seeing.