Step-by-Step

Post-Processing

Overview

Once you have captured all your data, then you only have a few steps remaining before you can export it to be used in MotionBuilder.

  • Load into Post-Processing
  • 3D Reconstruction (and automatically label)
  • Fill Gaps
  • Apply a Kinematic Fit
  • Export

Load into Post-Processing

If the capture is the last capture, you can use Reconstruct under Capture; if you wish to load a previous capture (either from a previous time, or previous recording) we can go to Data Management and double click on the recording's 2D data icon (blue circle with a cross through it.)

3D Reconstruction

As we have already labelled the markers, we can use a pipeline process. Go to the Pipeline tab and under the drop down menu, select Reconstruct. This should reconstruct all of the recorded 2D data as 3D marker positions, automatically label all the markers (i.e. you will see them colour coded), and determine the trajectories of those markers over time (colours remain as we scroll through the time-line).

Fill Gaps

By clicking on the view Continuity Chart we can see each marker, a gap (black section) indicates that the trajectory for that marker is missing over time. In order to fix most of the small gaps, we can use "Fill Gaps" pipeline process. From the drop down menu, under Pipeline select Fill Gaps. Under the continuity chart, you will see the gaps that can be filled under this automatic process disappear.

Note: If you find that there are large chunks of data missing you have two options: (1) if the chunks are very large, and many markers are affected, then you should consider recording that animation again - no amount of guessing will help you if there just isn't sufficient data. (2) you can manually go in and fill in the gaps either using a manual fill gaps method, or actually creating/editing/adjusting the trajectory curve itself - please see ViconIQ --> Tabs --> Post-Processing for more information about this step

Kinematic Fit

Once we have sufficiently filled the gaps, we can complete the process by applying a kinematic fit - this essentially takes the 3D marker data, uses the subject's skeleton, and provides us with joint rotations (which can then be used in other programs). To do this we simply go to the Pipeline tab, and then select Kinematic Fit. If everything worked out correctly you will now see the subject's skeleton in the 3D view window following the positions of the markers

Export

Currently all the data is stored in the trial file, but we really want to export it for use elsewhere, so we export a V file (and a C3D which is a standard file type, but only containing the marker positions). In order to do this, we simply go to the Pipeline tab and under the dropdown menu, select Export. This will save a V-File and C3D file in the session directory.