VICON, developer of Academy Award-winning motion capture technology,
announced today the release of VICON iQ 2.5, the most recent
installment of the company’s industry-leading VICON iQ software. VICON
iQ has consistently streamlined and automated motion capture workflows
by providing intuitive controls and a user interface that simplifies
the tasks associated with recording and managing even the most complex
motion capture data. VICON iQ 2.5 adds features designed specifically
for professional production, including a new real-time engine, improved
kinematic fitting, lightning-fast labeling, frame-synced SMPTE and EBU
timecode video and capture and control of multiple reference video
streams in sync with motion capture data.
• New real-time engine ‘ Using multithreading, VICON iQ 2.5 scales to
production requirements and is optimized to take advantage of multiple
CPUs as well as today’s high-performance dual-core processors,
providing users with highly accurate multiple character real-time
previs and capture.
• Embedded timecode ‘ VICON iQ 2.5 can now embed SMPTE and EBU timecode
into 2D and 3D data. Whether the project calls for VITC or LTC, VICON
iQ 2.5 offers complete genlock at NTSC and PAL framerates and multiples
thereof, with timecode triggered via VICON MX hardware ‘ guaranteeing
data that is always in sync with other studio tools.
• Perfectly synchronized reference video ‘ In a motion capture industry
first, users can capture reference video in perfect synchronization
(even frame by frame) with multiple reference video cameras
simultaneously. Up to six streams of D-Cam or DVCam reference video can
be played back in sync with 2D and 3D motion capture data directly
inside VICON iQ 2.5, and users can even select their own codec for
compression. Motion editors and animators can now see more than one
angle for reference without trying to use analog hardware to mix
cameras together.
• 3D marker modeling and enhanced reconstruction ‘ VICON iQ 2.5
includes improved data reconstruction and introduces 3D marker modeling
to meet the new demands of full performance capture. 3D marker modeling
provides an efficient way to differentiate and process data sets
generated via simultaneous facial, hand and full-body motion capture
sessions by specifying the size range of the markers.
• Workflow features ‘ Building on the strengths of VICON iQ, VICON iQ
2.5 has evolved to provide a host of newly requested features,
including a new scrub time function, new file save functions and the
ability to save and remember camera and hardware setups. Beta tests
have shown that the new workflow tools coupled with the high quality of
VICON MX data can reduce processing times by as much as 60%.
“VICON is constantly working with a vast installed base of
professionals in film, television and games to address their most
pressing needs for today’s production,” said Tom Tolles, Entertainment
Product Marketing, VICON. “As we identify and implement new and
challenging requirements, we are rolling them out on a regular basis in
products like VICON iQ to benefit the entire VICON user community.”
With VICON iQ, customers have a complete real-time environment for
setup, calibration and capture with VICON’s ultra high-resolution VICON
MX systems. New features in VICON iQ 2.5 provide tight integration
between motion capture and other production requirements, such as
hardware-scalable real-time and live reference video on set. VICON iQ
2.5 support for frame-synced video and embedded timecode speeds the
transport of 2D and 3D motion capture data to applications such as
VICON’s Diva and Autodesk’s ® MotionBuilder software for the character
animation pipeline. And new capabilities in VICON iQ 2.5 also make it
easier for customers with high camera-count VICON MX systems to save
and manage and customize their system setups.
www.vicon.com