iPi Studio (oh the problems)

If you're here, it means you got the recording done and are ready to move on.

Either read this, which contains info about errors you may encounter, or watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyyUXZzKYr4 Which doesn't.
This isn't me (I'm female!) but I learnt from this video.


Thanks for sticking around :D

Lets open up iPi Studio and get acquainted with it. It'll change in a bit too, so let's move quickly.

1. These are your standard File/Edit menus but THERE IS NO ABILITY TO CTRL+Z OR UNDO. Remember this because it's a pain if you mess up some how
2. This handsome man is your actor and skeletal tracking rig.
3. Up on this ribbon, you have 'Skin' and a slider. Click Skin if you just want the skeletal rig or use the slider to make him more or less opaque.
4. These tabs contain all you need to get this running, but right now, we'll ignore them.
5. Your play/pause controls. You're not stupid.
6. Your timeline. It's currently empty but you'll need it later

Now we got that out the way, click 'Open' and locate your Kinect recording and open it.


THIS IS WHERE SOME OF YOU WILL ENCOUNTER ERRORS.


Namely "Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that memory is corrupt." I had his error for a day before the problem was fixed. If you can play the video in VLC, it's not a corrupt video. 


Try to follow the official fixes here: http://wiki.ipisoft.com/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#Video_codec_problems


But in the end, mine was fixed with installing the Combined Community Codec Pack from http://www.cccp-project.net/
Follow the installation and agree to everything. Hopefully that fixed it.

Now nearly everything has changed.

1. is still the same
2. you actor is now a green man, you have a video and depth map in the background
3. now has "Video" and "Depth" buttons and sliders
4. is now actually useful
5. are still the same
6. now has 2 grey bars in them named "Region of Interest" and "Take 1"

The movement controls are as follows:
Scroll Wheel button (Mouse 3) pans you about the scene
Right click rotates you
Left click selects stuff

The software will have processed the background as you imported the video. This whole this is a little cluttered for me so I clicked "Video" and this hit the video track, leaving me with the depth and the actor.

Grab the slider at the timeline and drag it over until you see your actor get in the "T" position. Find a section just before the actor stops the "T" position. Grab the left end of the "Region of interest" bar and drag it to where your slider is. This stops the software trying to compute the actor before that point. Do the same for the end. Drag the "Region of interest" bar when the acting stops. Copy this with the "Take 1" Bar too.

When you're ready, move your slider to the beginning of your "Region of interest" bar. Click on the "Actor" tab on the right. Here you will see a height slider. Get your skeleton rig to the right height and position. Use "Move" and "IK" up on the ribbon. Don't be too precise. The software will do it for us.

Click on the "Tracking Tab" on the right. In this menu, make sure "Enable foot tracking" is ticked. Then click "Refit Pose". Watch your rig do a little dance. When it's finished, click "Track forward" and sit back and wait. The software will now track your actor through your selected "Region of interest".

MORE ISSUES
Mine works fine but my boyfriends doesn't actually track it. It just does nothing. Still working on fixing that

When it's finished, hide the depth the same way as you hid the video, ramp up the actor skin and press play. My animation was a little juddery, so I clicked smooth until I was happy.

When I was happy, I clicked File and exported it for a 3DMax Biped, which exports as a .BVH

Onwards!