First, thanks Jeffh for pointing out this forum on the poserforum I never woulda seen it! OK, How do I make my own BVH motion? I was reading through the adds in a local paper, and I saw a Sony Digital Cam Corder for $999.00 In the list of features it said "Motion Capture". Is it possible to cap a bvh motion using a digital cam corder?? Also, I have been experimenting with animations. I am wondering if anyone has any guideline suggestions for creating animations along the lines of, what is the best frame rate, and why does a 30 fps animation look like its sped up? It's like the scene is in fast forward mode or something. Is this the result of too many or too few keyframes? Also how long should your basic animations be? So far I have been keeping my poser animations to under 160 frames, using 12fps rate. I create half a dozen or so animations, like that, then I splice them all together and lay down the soundtrack using Adobe Premiere 5.0. For some reason I lose the picture quality when I do the post editing in Premiere. Is there a better way? Is there some way to link avi's together in poser itself? Also, I've read the manual over and over and I just cannot get the interpolation concept. Can anyone tell me in plain English what a friggin spline is? Spline Break etc...? For that matter the whole animation chart that pops up when I click on that animation dial at the bottom center of the poser window escapes me as well. I've read and re-read how to use it to edit animations but again I am still baffled. Thanks for reading this far!

Spline interpolation means connecting the frames with a smooth curve (no abrupt changes in value, slope or curvature, assuming that the degree of the splines is at least three). Linear interpolation means connecting the frames with line segments, so there will be abrupt changes in the slope, but the value will change continuously. Constant interpolation uses "horizontal" line segments to connect the frames, so the value will change abruptly. Sometimes spline interpolation will result in unwanted movement. For example, if you want to move a model in one direction, and then abruptly move it in another direction, spline interpolation will tend to "smooth out" the change of direction. A spline break at the transition frame provides a way of forcing the transition to be abrupt. A good way to learn how to use the animation palette is to remove any figures, and experiment with animating one or two simple objects, such as a ball and a torus. Try using one palette feature at a time, and observe the effect. Make sure that "skip frames" is off and "full tracking" is on, so that the results are easy to see.

You can animate a poser figure and export that as BVH motion. The "motion Capture" on a video camera is something completely different. The BVH motion capture that you see offered from Zygote was probably performed by a live model with sensors attached to different body joints. -Jeff H.

Here's a clearer depiction of the different types of interpolation:

I can answer the frame rate question: The more frames that you use per second, the smoother the animation will look. 30 frames per second is the rate at which North American videotape runs. 24 fps is the rate of film, most tv cartoons are done at 12 fps and a lot of games and cd roms are done at 10 fps. The key here is the words PER SECOND. So... if you animate an action that you want to happen in 2 seconds, it would take 60 frames to accomplish it at 30 fps, only 48 frames for the same action at 24 fps and a measly 20 frames at 10 fps. The action will run at the same speed but it will look choppier at the lower frame rates. Motion capture is a complicated, expensive and generally useless procedure. No video camera can do it; it invoves a mass of expensive equiptment to do the job of one animator. To make things worse, raw motion capture data is full of errors: jiggling and twisting limbs etc. It still takes a few animators days of ear bleeding tedium to fix it to a useable state. Bunk! Chris

I believe you can get a complete Polhemus motion capture "starter system" for under US $1,000...I'll do a little more research and let everyone know...

Wow, my very first post at Poser Forum, which later became Renderosity.   I wonder what ol' Willow is up to these days. I wonder if this really was it though, I thought I found this place in like '95 or '96 when I discovered a peice of Software called Poser 3.0 sitting on the shelf at my local Best Buy for just under 80 bucks.  My how times have changed eh?  But, the memory is getting foggy at my age. 

I was all hot and bothered about 3D art and animation back then, I still goof around with it today.  Back then I was getting serious about it, but there were no schools that taught this stuff that I was aware of, at least none near where I lived.  I wasn't quite smart enough to really become a pro at it via self study, almost smart enough, very close, but no cigar.  My life took a different route, not a bad one, but probably less lucrative than it might have been, considering I was kind of in on the ground floor of this whole 3D art and animation being brought to the home computer enthusiast wave.  It was a great time to be there, and watch this thing evolve and take off as it has.  The first time I saw Posette used in a television commercial, I realized I may have been passing up a good opportunity.  

Oh well, I've done okay.  But,  a lost soul who will always wonder what might have been had I the guts to go after it in the 3D animation movie business in the mid 90's, I was still in my 20s  Today I'm a 40 something sucker who took the safe road.  For that, stable middle America life.  Not a bad alternative.  My advice to any young whippersnappers out there who find they take a keen interest in Poser and the like, is to disregard what anybody else tells you about your odds of making it in that business. While you are young, without kids of your own to take care of, you are as free as you will ever be.  If you have a dream, go after it with everything you've got.  If you have the right stuff, your talent will be obvious, and prospective employers may very well come looking for you.  Even with my mediocre abilities, back in a time where not many were doing what I was doing here... ILM contacted me via ICQ one day. I refused.  They told me I was nuts.  I agreed.  I had two little babies and a young wife, and a good job I could not walk away from to chase a pipe dream.  Don't make that mistake.  Chase that pipe dream.  

Hear, hear. Well said.

Thanks Dave for taking time to discussed the deffirence of Spline interpolation, Linear interpolation and Constant interpolation.