The Kinect, with its motion tracking technology, has been adapted by many animators as a tool for motion capture. Some of those “kinectimated” (yeah, we just invented a new word right now) videos have been featured in the site and generated a lot of interest from all the hackers out there.
If you’re interested in starting a “kinectimation” (boom! 2nd invented word right there) project of your own, here’s a software you can try out from Finnish startup Delicode – The NI mate.
The NI mate is software that takes real time motion-capture data from a Kinect and turns it into two industry standard protocols: Open Sound Control (OSC) and Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). This makes NI mate a very flexible tool as its usage of standard protocols allows it to be easily adapted to different scenarios and situations.
NI mate is available for both Windows and Mac OS X and features support for Blender, one of the most popular open source 3D suites available right now. For more information, we’ve provided a link to Delicode’s NI mate website. The good folks at Delicode have also put together a video featuring the Kinected Bunny to explain the tool better.
Good luck with your kinectimation projects. Don’t forget to spread the word!
