Win an iPi Desktop Motion Capture Standard system

Richard Hill | Competitions | 03/02/2011 11:39am

Enter our competition for your chance to win a licence plus a year’s maintenance for iPi’s revolutionary markerless motion capture system, which needs no special equipment.

We’ve teamed up with iPi Soft to give you the chance of winning one of five completely markerless motion capture systems – plus a year’s maintenance – making for a combined prize total of $4,975.

iPi Desktop Motion Capture Standard Edition is a markerless motion capture technology that, as the name implies, puts motion capture at the animator’s desktop. Since it’s markerless, actors don’t need to wear special costumes with markers or sensors – your normal clothes are fine. You also don’t need to worry about ensuring the background is uniform, or set up any special lighting.

All you need are three to six standard, inexpensive webcams to record video to your PC, in a capture space which can be up to 20 ft x 20 ft. An HD camera isn’t necessary, as the system will happily work with image resolutions of 640 x 480 or 320 x 240. iPi Soft recommends the Sony PlayStation 3 Eye camera, which is cheap and widely available. The software then analyses and converts this to motion capture data, with processing typically taking one to ten seconds per frame, depending on your CPU and GPU speed. Converted data is exportable as BVH, Collada, 3ds Max Biped-compatible BVH or Valve’s Source engine animation format SMD, with more formats being supported all the time. Using integrated motion transfer, animations can instantly be re-targeted to custom rigs and skeletons. The system can be used together with many popular 3D applications, including 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, Poser, DAZ Studio and iClone.

Released in June 2010, this software is already used by several Hollywood studios, and many animation hobbyists. It runs on any reasonably modern PC with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, and requires a Direct3D 10-capable graphics card (with SM 4.0).

How to enter

We’re giving away five licenses of iPi Desktop Motion Capture software (Standard Edition), with one year’s maintenance.

To enter, visit www.ipisoft.com/3dwcomp and download a 30-day free trial of the software. Use the software to produce an original 3D animation, and email the animation to 3dwcomp@ipisoft.com.

Five animations will be chosen after the closing date of 7 April 2011 and their authors will be awarded a full licence.

Visit the iPi Soft website

Terms and conditions

These rules and any other rules specified by Future Publishing Limited or any of its group of companies (the “Company”) from time to time (“Competition Rules”) apply to any competition which is run by or on behalf of the Company (“Competition”). By taking part in a Competition, you agree to be bound by the Competition Rules and by the decisions of the Company which are final in all matters relating to the Competition. The Company reserves the right to disqualify any entrant and/or winner in its absolute discretion for any reason and without notice in accordance with the Competition rules.

All entries must be received at the place specified during the period in which the Competition is open and late or incomplete entries will be disqualified. Proof of posting (if relevant) shall not be deemed proof of delivery. No responsibility can be accepted for entries which are lost, delayed, misdirected or corrupted during delivery to the place specified for any reason whatsoever.
Entries must be submitted by an individual (not via any agency or similar) and, unless otherwise stated, are limited to one per household. Prizes may be provided by a third party sponsor of the Competition. The Company reserves the right in its sole discretion to substitute any prize with cash or a prize of comparable value.
The winning entry will be that which has met the entry criteria and which most closely meets the Competition criteria specified.
Unless otherwise stated, each Competition is open to any person of 18 years and over, except employees of: (a) the Company; and (b) any third party appointed by the Company to organise and/or manage the Competition; and (c) the Competition sponsor(s).

By entering a Competition you:

grant the Company, any third parties appointed by the Company for the purpose of organising and/or managing the Competition and the Competition sponsor(s) permission to use your name and likeness for the purpose of organising and/or managing the Competition, for announcing the winner of the Competition and for related promotional purposes; and
grant the Company and any Competition sponsor(s) the right to use your personal information to send you information about their respective products and services which may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive this information, please follow the instructions given.
accept that all entries will become the property of the Company upon receipt and will not be returned. You will retain all rights you have in the copyright and other intellectual property rights comprising the Competition entry but, by entering the Competition, you grant the Company and its licensees the right free of charge to republish your Competition entry;
waive any moral rights or similar rights you have in your Competition entry whether such rights arise pursuant to the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 (the “Act”) or equivalent legislation anywhere in the world; and
warrant to the Company that the Competition entry is wholly original to you and not wholly or substantially copied from any other material and that the Competition entry does not defame, cause injury to or invade the privacy of or otherwise infringe or violate any statutory, common law, regulatory or intellectual property rights of any third party.

You may be offered the chance to subscribe for a free newsletter or other service of the Company but failing to do this will not disqualify you from a Competition.

If you are a winner, you may have to provide additional information (including, without limitation, proof of age or identity) and/or complete additional documents and return them to the Company within a specified period. Failure to provide additional information and/or complete additional documents within the required time period, or notification returned as undeliverable as addressed will result in your disqualification as a winner and an alternative winner will be selected.

The name(s) of the winner(s) and details of the winning entry or entries will be sent to anyone who requests the same within three (3) months of the closing date of the Competition. Requests should be sent to the postal or email address for competition entries and, if postal, should be accompanied by an SAE.

If you are a winner of a Competition:

the receipt by you of any prize is conditional upon you complying with any and all applicable laws, rules and regulations including, without limitation, the Competition Rules;
you acknowledge and agree that neither the Company or any Competition sponsor(s) or any of their employees, agents or subcontractors shall have any liability to you whatsoever in connection with your use and/or possession of your prize, provided that nothing in these Competition Rules shall exclude or limit the liability of any party for personal injury or death caused by negligence or for anything else which cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Unless otherwise stated, the Company is the promoter of the Competition.
If any of these rules are deemed to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable, the affected rules shall be deleted from these Competition Rules but the remaining rules shall continue in full force and effect.

These Competition Rules and each Competition are governed by English law. Any disputes arising between the Company and any third party in relation to these Competition Rules and/or a Competition shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales (save that the Company shall be entitled to take action against a third party in any other jurisdiction).

Posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 11:39 am under Competitions. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.