Realtime Kinect skeleton device for MotionBuilder

(Update: just to be clear look to the right menu of this page for the download links)

Over the xmas break I played around a little with NITE from PrimeSense.

Turns out with a bit of hacking it’s quite possible to track a person using a Kinect and stream the 3D skeleton to MotionBuilder in realtime.

The custom device for MoBu is still in a pre-alpha phase but if there is enough interest I may make it available here.

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 Kinect

56 Comments to Realtime Kinect skeleton device for MotionBuilder

  • Duong Ngoc says:

    How to connet realtime brekel kinect pro body trial and motion builder 2013.
    Because I can’t install brekel kinect v0.50, error ” brekel kinect v0.50 has stopping working”

  • 今あなたのサイトにブログ記事のカップル、私本当にブログのスタイルのように。私は私のブックマークのウェブサイトのリストにそれをタグ付けし、すぐに戻ってチェックされます。 plsはまた、私のウェブサイトをチェックアウトし、私はあなたが何を聞かせ。

  • carl says:

    hi, I am trying to make a gremlin move in motionbuilder 2013 I connect brekel and it works fine , i recieve data from brekel create skeleton and it moves ,but trying to connect to a gremlin or to mia example merging in I don’t know how to do it, in the video commands are different from 2013 version of motionbuilder
    anyone can explain me please? or if there is a tutorial or video for this
    thanx a lot
    carl

    • Duong Ngoc says:

      Excuse me! You can give me brekel pro body ??? I can’t connect to Autodesk_MotionBuilder_2013_Win_64bit. I use brekel pro body v1 trial. Thank you!

  • […] Microsoft Kinect camera system, as Motionbuilder supports performance capture with the use of the Brekel suite. I think this will be the next logical step as Dark Acre expands, but for now I’m […]

  • brekel says:

    Hi I’m sarwar I live in Iraq I work with motion builder & 3ds max programs, and I’d like to know what’s the price of the kinect device (camera & other device that I need).

    • brekel says:

      Sorry, the mirrors somehow stopped working.

      But I’ve just updated the links and the auto installer with the latest versions, so they should work again, and even include a few minor fixes and improvements.

    • hannody says:

      @sarwar
      hi,
      u can buy it from “bab alsharji-Baghdad” with 150$, try to get the 1 that comes with electrical adapter and usb cable for using it with a pc!

      good luck!

  • […] finally got round to downloading the Brekel Base application yesterday. This enables you to control motionbuilder characters with kinect input. That is if you […]

  • amine says:

    i don’t have the brekel kinect device 🙁

    • amine says:

      in motionbuilder

      • brekel says:

        If your MoBu is installed in the default place download the installer, otherwise download the zip and check the readme on where to put the plugins manually.

        • Duong Ngoc says:

          Excuse me! You can give me brekel pro body ??? I can’t connect to Autodesk_MotionBuilder_2013_Win_64bit. I use brekel pro body v1 trial. Thank you!

    • Mike says:

      just buy an Microsoft Kinetic search an local store that provides the cam loss in the box an you need an ac power adaptor for it then use the software you can download from this site it will work ^^ done here the same thing only dont try this on an windows 8 machine it will fail xp and windows 7 will be fine for that
      plugin the kinetic in your usb ac power from that back to the usb in your pc use the autoinstaller from brekel this one works just fine
      and you are good to go but remmeber to uninstal previus drivers like microsoft sdk driver and that kinnda things fresh install is recommended

      Good luck with the short tut its garantied money worth buying

  • Steven says:

    This is amazing work! Great capture data with minimum costs. Great for small businesses and experimental projects! I’m very intrested to see you take this to the next level. Awesome stuff!!!

  • Jocken75 says:

    I have tried Brekels very good program and instruction with Motionbuilder and with help of Reuben Flemings tutorilals and it works good : ) Have anyone tried to use a BVH plugin, like the one for MikuMikuDance?

    Just would like to here whats best and fastest to use.

  • I´m very interested in your software. Coult you send me the stuff for testing?Thank you in advance.

    • brekel says:

      Just take a look under “Kinect 3D Scanner” and the “Download” section on the top right menu of this page, it’s there for grabs 🙂

  • Olusegun says:

    Hi the quality of work appears to be very close to the work done by primesense. Well done. Your capture is one of the best I’ve seen.
    Will it be possible to download the actual kinect interface application based on OpenNi and nite?

  • AHAK says:

    I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT EVERYONE WHO SEE THIS WILL WANT IT. EVERYONE I HAVE SHOWN IT TO LOVES IT. GOOD WORK. PLEASE UPLOAD IT FOR US TO GIVE IT A TRY.
    THANK YOU

  • Lune says:

    its completely amazing, im tempted to buy a kinetix system only for this!

  • Alex T says:

    Very interested in trying this out!

  • Rushsaun says:

    Love what I’ve seen to this point. Great work! I would love to be added to the list of Testers should you need some.

    And again Great Work!

  • Till says:

    Hey, would be great for educational purposes. We would highly appreciate using such an application.

  • […] Jasper Brekelmans crafted the hack, and has said he may release it on his blog “if there is enough […]

  • Simon W says:

    Really cool, i’ve been looking for years for a makeshift video-based motion capture system, this would be perfect! Adding this site to faves and checking back regularly!

  • Myk S says:

    I’ll add my voice to the interested crowd.

    I’ve been more excited about the non xbox related software than the gaming implementations, and this is exactly what i’ve been looking forward to. As a modeler / animator, without access to a mocap studio this looks tantalizing.

  • E. says:

    Motionbuilder integration is nice, but Motionbuilder itself isn’t free and it isn’t the most intuitive program for amateurs or hobbyists to learn. Perhaps they aren’t your intended target audience but I think it is something worth mentioning.

    Try doing a search for MikuMikuDance with OpenNI(Kinect) test 2. The program used is FREE and it works with Kinect in addition to having the capability to export BVH. Regardless, I’m bookmarking your blog as I really do like what you have accomplished in such a short time.

  • AndrewW says:

    Yep. Big interest. We just hooked up a kinect here at work and were planning to pipe mocap into Maya, as well as facial-capture point clouds to hook up to our face rig. I would agree that some mocap format output would be nice, as we don’t currently have motionBuilder. But if you release this, we may just get a lic of it;)

  • […] Realtime Kinect skeleton device for MotionBuilder [Thanks Geoff!] Tagged:animationkinectmicrosoftresearchxbox 360 […]

  • Fenn says:

    I got one of these on the sole hope that somebody like you would do this.

    Keep it up 🙂

  • Hurray says:

    Hey, really nice job !

    thats the piece of software i was waiting for before i buy kinect. Did not thought this will happen so fast 😉 pls release it. Would be perfect for 3d amateur /entusiast users.

    keep the good work up ! 😉

    Greetings

  • dan says:

    Amazing work. Thanks for sharing your results… I have a practical use for this right now and would be very interested in beta testing it for you as well. Keep up the great work.

  • Congratulations!
    This tool it’s invaluable for animators, hobbysts and small studios!
    I only suggest a direct BVH output for those who are not using motionbuilder. Or even a port for the 3DS MAX biped motion capture interface (wich works like motionbuilder)

    Anyway it’s a great tool!

  • Brent says:

    I really want to test this out. I work for a mocap studio that supplies customizable animations via the web for indie game developers to AAA studios. I used Motionbuilder 40 hours a week and we currently have a Phasespace camera system. I have a Kinect at home and would love to see how “markerless” capture could work. 🙂 Please contact me.

    Brent

  • Peder says:

    I want to be on your betatesting list to .plz
    Incredible work 🙂

  • Vinnie says:

    This is absolutely epic. I work at Chapman University where we currently have a 12 camera Vicon setup and your Kinect software already can do just as good, if not slightly better then what we have (if you factor in not having to ROM the character and Set up the Dots). We also have a growing CPSC and Gaming program that would love to help you expand the program even more. Drop me a line and we can chat ^__^

    -Vinnie

  • […] Captura de movimentos com o Kinect [Brekel, em inglês] var random = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000); document.write(''); […]

  • parkdalegardener says:

    Been working on this myself as I am sure others are as well

  • d mi says:

    got crazy interest in this.
    would love to be able to do this.

  • Rasmus Slot says:

    Great work using the Kinect for motion capture! I’ve tried quite a few of the solutions of mocapping with Kinect so far, but the Maya didn’t work for me and the OpenBVH program just gave me poor results.

    As a hobbyist machinima creator i would love something like to record animations for Source Recorder. I know ipisoft has something around the corner, but i would love to get access to your program and test it out.

    I hope you release this great tool in the very near future!

    Keep up the great work!

  • Marcus says:

    This is great!! want more!!

  • Ryan says:

    As others have said, this would be a big help to all those indie game and film makers out there who don’t have the resources financially to take advantage of a full-fledged mo-cap studio. I will watch this space for further updates and pray for a release.

    Color me impressed.

  • […] frei verfügbar, Brekelman sagte jedoch, dass falls es genügend Interesse dafür gibt, er ihn auf seinem Blog veröffentlichen […]

  • NaaOkth says:

    Wow, what a great idea!

    As an independent game developer, I’m indeed interested by this kind of application. This give indy dev (and all others devs) the ability to use motion capture at a relatively low cost.

    Please keep playing with it, so we can see a “beta” version 😉

  • subversus says:

    I wonder if it is possible to connect more than 1 Kinect and if this thing works in 60 fps.

    The app would be wonderful.

  • taran says:

    awesome mate, what I’ve been waiting for. finally something that makes the kinect useful. keep up the good work

  • Wael says:

    This is very interesting for sure, I would gladly help you alpha / beta testing this! Contact me as soon as you have something you want to share!

  • BobaJeff says:

    This absolutely incredible. As a modeler and animator, this would vastly increase production capabilities. Really impressive work!

  • Johan Steen says:

    Wow, just wow!
    This is awesome, much impressive!
    As an indie CG filmmaker currently using MotionBuilder in my pipeline for keyframing animation this is of most interest, and would be extremely helpful, especially for timing purposes.
    Anyway, I’ll follow your progress and will be looking forward to the time when you make something available to try out.

    Keep up the excellent work!
    Cheers!

  • Cronan says:

    Very good work, hope you’re able to post more details of the hack, along with source, sometime soon. There is huge interest in this.

  • Soy1Bonus says:

    Awesome. I would use that for sure!!!

  • evp_uk says:

    Hi brekel,

    This looks fantastic, I would love to alpha/beta test this for you.. I work with motionbuilder and intertial gyro systems, and just got hold of a kinect. I do full character setups for clients, with hands, face & custom features.. would be really useful to let me test my work in my studio at home without the need to go down to the studio and set up the full rig..;) also your physics plugins look great too, good work!

    If you do make this publically available be sure to drop me a thread..

    Thanks and kind regards,

    Alex Diplock.

  • Interest, Dude, I can guarentee that there is interest in it. I know @ the moment with 1 Kinect it wont replace a 16 camera mocap rig, But students, 3D hobbiests and independent film makers will be all over this.
    Do you think it will be possible to add more than 1 kinect?

  • Leave a Reply