Since I am an independent artist/game developer, I am always looking for ways to make my life easier. For example, that’s why I use Reallusion’s Character Creator to make my humans, while others happily spend 100 hours making the same human character. Animation is another thing I would like to optimize if I get the chance, and Rokoko Video might actually do that for me.
In case you don’t know, Rokoko is a company that sells portable mocap solutions. They have this mocap suit that can be used anywhere, without the need for huge mocap volumes (the metal rigs with cameras). Recently, they came up with Rokoko Video, a web tool that plugs into your Rokoko account (which is free) and lets you upload the video to create animation from it.
So far, the only web-based video-to-animation tool I had used is Plask, and if I haven’t written about Plask is because I was not impressed. Rokoko Video is a different story, though. All you need to do is go to the Rokoko Video website (https://video.rokoko.com/ ), record a video of yourself, upload it, and then use Rokoko Studio to export the mocap to your format of choice. I used FBX with a HumanIK rig, and then I brought it into 3DXchange to send it to iClone 7 (if you are using iClone 8, I think you can import it directly into iClone). The animation works perfectly, although it needed some tweaking on the feet to make them lock to the floor.
While Rokoko Video might not completely replace all mocap needs, it will be very helpful in some situations. If you need a free mocap solution for your solo artist needs, this might be the one for you.