Capturing Workspace - Axis Studio

This is the tab you will be using during recording.  

Suits window 

• Connect with Wizard: this will walk you through the setup process.  We recommend going through this process before every recording session.
• Quick connect: once you have connected with the wizard, you can use this button to quickly connect the suits as needed during a recording session.  
• Calibration for all: this will run through the full posture calibration for all suits connected to the software.
• Anti-mag:  only use this when you are in an environment with a lot of magnetic interference.  It lowers the reliance on the sensor’s magnetometer. 
• Resume Original Posture: use this to quickly recalibrate actors between takes.  Make sure the actor is facing the same direction they did during initial calibration.  This process resets the sensors to the last calibration. 
• LED on/off: this turns the LEDs on the sensors on and off.  This extends battery life and makes it easier to hide the sensors under clothing.
• Sleep: use this button to put sensors to sleep when taking breaks.
• Power off: use the power button to turn all the sensors off. 

Sensor Map Tab

Sensor signal strength (round dot)

• Green is good

• Yellow is medium

• Red is bad

• Grey is no sensor linked

Magnetic environment (Square dot)

• Green is good
• Yellow is poor
• Red is severe
• Grey is no sensor linked or in Anti-mag Mode

You can customize the Character Name in the Character Name option box in the lower left corner.

In the lower right corner are the motion capture mode and the number of capture frames.

Body Dimensions Tab

This is where you can adjust the body dimensions of your character. 

• Start by choosing a Template, this is usually sufficient, but for better accuracy, more adjustments may be needed. 
• The closer the dimensions of the characters are to the dimensions of your actor, the more accurate your results will be. 
• Click the Ruler button for guidelines of how to measure dimensions.  

Device Detail

Pay attention to this tab during calibration and recording as it will let you know if any of your sensors are having problems.  The Battery, Magnetic, and Signal columns should stay green the majority of the time.  If any of them are red for more than a few seconds, it may be time to troubleshoot. 

• Battery in the red just means low battery, so charging the sensors should fix that. 
• Red Magnetic means a lot of magnetic interference, you may need to check your environment and/or run a Magnetic Calibration on the affected sensors. 
• Red Signal means bad connection, this can usually be fixed by a dedicated router or changing channels.  

Solver Parameter Tab  

• Scenario
  • Single Level Constrain: If you are doing motion capture on a flat floor, use Single Level Constrain.
  • Free Climbing: If you are capturing go upstairs, downstairs or any motion without a certain floor, use Free Climbing.
  • Hip Locked: Hip Locked means lock your Avatar in the certain position, you can use it as running on a treadmill or hanging wire.
• Hands/Hip contact height auto detect: check this box to do different height of hand and hip contact in single level mode.
• Contact Points: choose which body segment will make contact with the floor or a solid surface during the performance. For most scenarios we choose foot contact, selected by default. If you want to record a movement with hand contact such as a cartwheel, select both the foot and the hand contact.
• Constraint Mode
  • Normal Mode: For normal situation.
  • Steady Contact: Select steady contact will let contact point more steady.
  • Customize: When the above default parameter mode is not applicable, adjust the parameter to adapt the current mocap state.
• Contact Constraint Tolerance: Axis Studio will use a pattern recognition algorithm to determine the contact between the feet and ground. The value affects the speed of this status change. Smaller values will plant the feet firmly on the ground and larger values will allow the feet to slide easily while contacting the ground.
• Joint Constraint Tolerance: there are gaps between different body segments, and joint constraint tolerance can modify the tolerance of the gaps. The smaller the value is, smaller the gaps will be.  This value will also tell Axis Studio how closely it should follow the selected body dimensions.
• Contact Sensitivity: the step constraint value determines the threshold a foot contact is activated. A higher value increases sensitivity of the foot contact algorithm. A low value reduces the sensitivity of a foot contact.
• Yaw: adjust the yaw direction of the Character. You can use it to control the Avatar direction directly in third party software.
• Pitch: adjust the pitch direction of the Character. If you find that the Avatar is leaning too far forward, you can make the Pitch value a little lower. Or if you find the Avatar is leaning too far back, you can make the Pitch value higher.

Viewport 

• This is where you will be seeing your character. 
• To navigate, use left click to pan, middle mouse to orbit, and scroll the middle mouse button to zoom. 

There are a few buttons on the top bar. 

• Multi panel views: change the layout. 
• Active Follow Cam: allows you to follow your actor without manually moving the camera in the Viewport. 
• Toggle Avatar Name: toggle on and off the character’s name display in the Viewport.  

You can change the axis from z up to y up by clicking the axis orientation diagram in the lower left corner 

Take information

The Take Information window will help you keep track of your takes. 

• You can name the takes, add comments, and view your other takes. 
• At the bottom of the window is the Record button, press it to begin and end recording. 
• Next to the Record button is a Clock that will track your time.