One of the problems of doing 3D animations in iClone is the work it takes to get the motion for the actors. One solution is to use BVH files which are motion capture files and many can be found online. Ever since iClone 1.5 one can import BVH files but they often needed some tweaking to work.
When Microsoft introduced the Kinect for the Xbox 360 as a controller hackers began playing with it and creating some interesting hacks. At first Microsoft reeled the hackers but then someone figured they might sell a few Kinects to folks without the Xbox. Hey more sales more moola. So Microsoft even has an SDK for the Kinect. You've probably seen kids playing games using the Kinect and Xbox in stores. There was even a cheap knockoff last Xmas in CVS stores. Anyway along the line folks figured out it may be possible to do motion capture which was previously only done in special studios with actors wearing special suits. So last year the motion capture hacks began showing up. And Reallusion introduced iClone 5 and a MoCap plugin that could do motion capture. I saw it in action for the first time last spring at the Computer Game Developer's Conference. Well, a friend came over on Monday and wanted to go to Fry's to buy a wifi router. Fry's had Kinects which retail for $150, on sale for $70 as refurbed units. So I picked one up. So I have been playing with the various free hacks and the 30 day trial version of iPiSoft's Mocap Studio. The free Brekel capture BVH files almost work in iClone 4 but require a bit of tweaking with their the iClone BVH converter. However once you get a working profile then conversion is easy. Basically the Kinect is a stereo camera with a laser. From the image a skeleton is overlayed which moves with the actor and is recorded as a BVH file. There is also BVHack which can edit the files as you often wind up with some junk at the end as you walk over to stop the capture. Obviously a stereo camera is not all that unique so ASUS has it's version called the Xtion and Sony it's system for the PS3. Mocap Studio has a capture program which just saves the video and then the main app scans those to create the BVH file. The nice thing about their (pricey) $200 app is that it can save the BVH file in a format that is compatible with iClone. But iClone 5 is real time capture and you can watch your model animated along from your actions. Here's a tutorial video so you can see how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ysV-6tnE00
