Kinect Real-time 3D Model Reconstruction

I just came across a interesting article in the German computer magazine c't. Just a while ago Microsoft Research Lab showed how to get a 3D scan from an object or scenery with the Kinect. Now the Austrian company PROFACTOR released their software ReconstructMe which allows us to play around with that technology as well. With this software now Real-time 3D Model Reconstruction is in our hands. Having a decent graphics card it even allows 3D capturing in real-time. And it is free for non-commercial use. Export formats include .obj and .3ds. I made a short test and scan of one of my favourite objects and then imported the scan into Blender. It's still some work to use this in a machinima movie project. The model data has a high polygon count, which has to be reduced and so far there in no texturing data grabbed.

ReconstructMe capturing the object:




Captured object imported into Blender:

Blender and Kinect again

In my previous post I introduced my first experiments with Blender and Kinect using Blender Game Engine. I've revisited the project and added some parts I have researched a while ago. So this time I have added a softbody mesh which is controlled by the Kinect as well (hand movements) and added live video/webcam.
I think Blender is the only (free) tool out that allows us having a softbody mesh to be rendered in real-time with live video/webcam feed and now with Kinect support.
This opens a whole new world for Machinima puppetry. Now it just need's some code for networking. It would be nice to be able to control multiple characters/objects by different users (Kinects) and to stream the webcam/video over the net.

Blender and Kinect

Having played around with the Kinect already for some time and using it as an input device to control some of my favourite tools (Processing, vvvv, and Supercollider), I was excited to see NI Mate released .
NI Mate is a small but powerful software that takes real-time motion capture data from a Kinect or other supported device and turns it into two industry standard protocols: OSC (Open Sound Control) and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). And they have showed already how to use it to control characters in Blender.
I joined their Beta program, but unfortunately it didn't work with the drivers I have installed (SensorKinect, OpenNI or NITE). Uninstalling and updating it with their versions of the drivers was not an option since I fear of some of my other applications might no longer work. So I looked at their Blender examples and after a weekend of Python coding and testing I finally got my own Kinect Blender setup to work. It uses OSCeleton as middleware to convert the Kinect sceleton to OSC data which are then sent to Blender. Although NI Mate is more advanced, OSCeleton is simple and Open Source. I've read that NI Mate maybe will become a commercial product after the Beta.
Now lets welcome the "Kinect Blender Bunny". This example was rendered in realtime using the Blender Game Engine.



It's still a long way to use this for a machinima movie project, but I'm excited to have this technology ready to be used. Controlling a 3D character in realtime with markerless motion capture is amazing.

Bitfilm Festival 2011 Winners

These are the machinima winners of the Bitfilm Festival 2011:

MACHINIMA

1st place:
"Tales of Crusade" by Philipp Schiefelbein (Frankfurt, Germany)
2nd place:
"Clockwork" by spyvspyaeon (Lisbon, Portugal)
3rd place:
"Stop, Rewind" by Harrison Heller (New York City, USA)

Congratulations!!

Machinima Expo 2011 News

The Expo Screening Reels have begun already. The films selected for the festival will run continuously 24/7 at the main Expo site:

www.machinima-expo.com

The main Expo events will start on Friday 18th with a screening in Second Life of the movies made in Second Life and a Master Class on 'How to create Second Life Machinima'.

Second Life UCSVille - The Expo Hub

On Saturday 19th all the jury nominated films will be screened which is followed by the Expo Awards Ceremony where the winners will be announced. Sunday 2oth is packed with a lot of interesting sessions on Machinima. From Monday 21th on screening reels continue to run through the week at the Expohub until Sunday, November 27th at midnight.

2011 Machinima Expo Schedule

Complete list of films Screening at the Expo

2011 Machinima Expo Trailer from Ricky Grove

My own promo trailer made for Machinima Expo:

2011 Machinima Expo Promo Video from CD Schulz on Vimeo.

'Order in Chaos' in at MachinExpo and Bitfilm

I'm happy to announce that my recent machinima movie 'Order in Chaos' made it in the finals at this years MachinExpo and Bitfilm.

The Official 2011 Machinima Expo Jury Nominations

The 2011 Machinima Expo will take place November 19th & 20th on the internet and in the virtual world of Second Life.

Bifilm Festival Machinima Award short list

Bitfilm Festival 2011 will take place in Hamburg, Germany and Bagalore, India.
If you like the movie please vote for Order in Chaos at Bifilm (until 17.11).

Login 2 Life: Where real life meets virtual.

An interesting documentary film on virtual worlds just premiered on German TV. (And it has Machinima in it)

Login 2 Life is a feature documentary about life online and what fascinates people about it so much. The documentary was on location in real life as well as in the virtual worlds the protagonists reside in.

It is available FREE for viewing online till Sunday 23rd Oct 2011:

Login 2 Life ZDF Mediathek

Only a small part is in German only. Most of the film is English language with German subtitles.

The films focus is on Second Life and World of Warcraft and a variety of people using it. It features disabled people using these worlds, virtual sex in SL, WoW machinimator Olibith, chinese WoW gold farmers and others.