First Capture and Setup

For our first day of motion capture we setup the camera tripods and cameras and linked them to the laptop with the Motive software. Each tripod held two OptiTrack camera's with a total of 18 camera's for the capture. All except one used only infrared to capture data and the exception was able to provide a live low quality feed as well. The camera's were connected to a USB hub which was connected to the laptop via USB cables. The hubs were also synced to one another and required their own power source. 

Layout of the MoCap setup

Through Motive we were able to determine where the camera's should be pointing and if there were any objects reflecting or producing infrared light. Once clear, we were able to start the wanding process to calibrate the camera's and the capture space. Next we set up the character in Motive and aligned the markers on the actor to correspond with the software.

Overall the setup was fairly straight forward and the software UI is clear and simple to use. Next we were able to play around with capturing footage by testing the limits of the system by pushing the capture region boundaries and directing the actor in different actions. It was good to test and introduce props, where we discovered a chair for example could occlude certain markers and cause issues. This was good practice not only to make sure props didn't reflect infrared but to make sure the actor does a T-pose before and after each recording.
Here's a behind the scenes video of Juan acting like a monkey: