Xsens looks to solve the “unsolvable” in the world of 3D motion tracking with the launch of MVN Animate 2018. Xsens pioneers this software as a game-changer, saying that it will revolutionize motion capture. How? It’s apparently able to solve several issues that have been haunting inertial motion capture for some time now, one in particular being magnetic distortion.

Data capture on inertial techniques in the past was interfered by environmental magnetic distortion, which could be caused by metal in furniture or vehicles. It made it harder for productions. What MVN’s is supposed to fix this problem by being immune to magnetic distortion because of a new mocap engine.

All of MVNs solutions are said to be based on inertial technology, using gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers rather than digital cameras, volumes and markets to capture movement.

Watch it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0hSQFbt67U

Xsens believe that MVN Animate 2018 will democratize motion capture, “While other inertial motion capture solutions promise a world of “‘mocap for everyone’”, Xsens delivers on the promise with superior data under all circumstances, meaning more people can use it in entirely new markets, from indie devs, to live-entertainment, biomedical students, and big studio productions.”

MVN Animate 2018’s said to also get rid of previous iterations found with inertial motion capture like drift, foot slide, contact handling, and distorted height tracking and 3D position. Pretty much, it seems with MVN there is less need for clean-up, which could be expensive.

“There’s a certain level of understanding and knowledge required to extract the best from an optical stage- that’s not the case for Xsens. The barrier or entry is much lower; and not just the costs. It’s actually a joy to use Xsens,” says Matt Stoneham, Principal Technical Artist at Ninja Theory.

Xsens MVN Animate is available right now. If you are currently a Xsens customer with a valid support contract, you can upgrade for free. Visit Xsens’ site for more information.
 

Sean Berry is Videomaker's Managing Editor.