BLOOP
Rapid Motion Capturing using
Blender and Kinect
Florian Biermann
Nikolaas Steenbergen
Benjamin Walther-Franks
TZI Universität Bremen
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Who Are We?
 Florian Biermann and Nikolaas Steenbergen
 Studied Digital Media B.Sc. at the University of Bremen
 Just finished their theses using Blender
 “Automated Camera Placement to View Three-Dimensonal Curves“
 “Timing Techniques for Three Degree-of-Freedom Input Devices“
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
What is Bloop?
''The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful
underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in 1997.''
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop)
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
What is Bloop?
Bloop:
Blender Loop Station
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
What is Bloop?
Bloop is a Python add-on for Blender 2.59 that brings speech controlled
Motion-Capturing and Digital Puppetry to home users
using Microsoft Kinect.
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Motivation
 Key-frame animation takes a lot of time
 Experimenting during production? No way!
 Other artists are unable to enjoy computer animation
 Actors
 Puppeteers
 Simply beginners
 Also, in general motion capturing equipment is very expensive
 Pretty much no home-user can do mo-cap
 Additionally, single user mo-cap is pretty cumbersome
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Motivation
''A user should be able to fully animate a 3D character with a minimum amount of
time, experience and technological knowledge required and without breaking his
or her work flow by using different modes of interaction.''
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Idea
Implement a system in style of a loop station as used by musicians
but with modal channels switched.
Sound
Recorded Footage
Motion
Control Input
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Idea
Implement a system in style of a loop station as used by musicians
but with modal channels switched.
Sound
Recorded Footage
Motion
Control Input
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Idea
Speech commands
OSC data
Motion
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Demo
BLOOP DEMO!
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Main Features


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Create new mappings via gestures
Calibrate these mappings
Quickly record animations
Layer recordings for different mappings
Record animations with more than one user acting on the same
character
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Commands
 Basic set of speech commands
 Mapping
 Calibration
 Recording
 Start
 Next
Recording
Mapping
 Previous
Calibration
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Technical Aspects
 OSC Client (Sender) with Microsoft Kinect SDK
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
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Microsoft Speech API
Skeleton Data
Bespoke OSC library (http://www.bespokesoftware.org)
C#
 NUI Add-on
 Receives OSC data
 pyOSC (http://docs.ryancoyner.com/python-osc)
 Python
 Bloop Add-on
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Manipulates the selected 3D character
Reads data from NUI Add-on
Modal operator based on timer
Python
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
What‘s It Good For?
 Intended to let novice users and other artists create 3D
animations
 Digital Puppetry
 Performance animation
 Live performances
 Animation prototyping
 Get a first impression of your scene
 Experimenting
 Extend upon and play with it
 It‘s fun!
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
Download
 Visit our project website at:
dm.tzi.de/research/hci/bloop
 Available for download
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de
End
Thanks for listening!
Shoot us an e-mail:
Nikolaas.Steenbergen@online.de
fbier@tzi.de
Enjoy the other talks!
Florian Biermann, Nikolaas Steenbergen and Benjamin Walther Franks
dm.tzi.de