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palenoue
Participating Frequently
November 8, 2016
Question

Will you be adding "hand tracking" in the future?

  • November 8, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 3548 views

If you watch people talking you'll notice they move their hands.  Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  People use their hands to accent, emphasize, or add nuance to their words.  Also notice how each person uses their hands differently.  Some may wave their left hand to the side when talking about an event in the past, while another might wave their right hand forward for the same thing.  You could save us animators a _lot_ of time and effort if you could add hand tracking.

Is it possible to add hand tracking?  Will it be too complex for today's computers?  If so, could you record a video and have Character Animator go through it much more slowly to catch all the movements for a smooth animation?

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      1 reply

      oksamurai
      Community Manager
      oksamuraiCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      November 8, 2016

      We'd love to eventually include this. Currently most standard webcams are not going to be reliable enough to deal with this sort of thing, unfortunately - we've done tests! As technology improves (for example, depth-sensing cameras like the Microsoft Kinect), more complete motion tracking could be possible. I think this is a logical path you can expect CH to go in the future.

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        palenoueAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        November 8, 2016

        Thanks for the answer.  I was afraid you might be too focused on faces to consider hands, much like Adobe is too focused on web visuals to consider adding web sound (ever try to make a children's web site about orchestras without good sound tools?) 

        How about if people use two web cams?  Put the extra camera away from the main, get more of the person speaking in the frame, and have it focus on hands rather than the face?  Both cameras could still use each other for 3D tracking or more realistic movements.

        oksamurai
        Community Manager
        oksamuraiCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        November 9, 2016

        Yep, we're trying a bunch of things in top secret labs. Stay tuned.

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