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[Feedback Needed] New Character Animation Plugin Proposal

Development Discussion VR and AR Development
#1

EDIT: We will be sending a $20 Amazon gift card to the top two most helpful responses. Details contained at the end of the form.

We are developing a UE4 plugin that will allow developers to input training data to create a machine learning model which can predict a full body skeleton based on motion controller and head inputs. The plugin will use motion capture data from an Xbox Kinect to train human body movement models. To animate a character, the general workflow for developers would look something like the following:

  1. Identify type of animation to create
  2. Activate plugin with UE4 to collect live motion capture data + VR hardware output
  3. Perform the movement in front of motion capture sensors while wearing VR controllers in order to train a model
  4. Map motion capture skeleton joints to character rig joints
  5. Input VR controller data to model produced in part (3) to produce an animation

Our plugin aims to make realistic character animation in VR accessible to a wider range of developers. We would like feedback to accurately gauge the needs of the VR developer community. If this plugin seems useful to you (or not!), please fill out our survey below to provide suggestions and feedback.

https://goo.gl/forms/rhn6bJ1Z3jTzMkNx2

Thank you!

#2

$20 Gift Card for top two responses

We will send a $20 Amazon gift card to the top two most helpful form responses. Please specify at the bottom of the form. If you have any additional questions or comments, feel free to reply to this thread.

Thanks everyone who has replied so far.

#3

This sounds like a great idea! I think that one of the biggest problems with Unreal right now involves creating custom animations, and it sounds like your plugin might be able to help with that.

Do you think that the Kinect data will be accurate enough to train a good full body model for the plugin? It seems like you might need to use more expensive motion capture software to train a good model.

#4

Thanks for the question. We are also exploring other motion capture options, including an Optitrack setup we have access to, to ensure that we are not thwarted by bad data. However, we would like to use a low-cost solution if possible, to make our system more accessible to developers. Ultimately our approach, should allow developers to share movement models that can be mapped to custom character rigs. A lower-cost solution will allow more people to contribute to this “movement library”.

If you have other mocap suggestions, we would love to hear them.

#5

I hope it works, was entering info but realised my info wouldn’t help you at all so I just quit it ;D
But I hope someone with experience with IK will help you out

If you have a version of this plugin, I am interested in it.