PINOC from viggle.ai is an online single camera Video to Mocap application. Currently it is completely free to use and hopefully it will stay that way.
My tests with this app so far have been quite positive.
Here is an interesting test I did. The original footage has a lot of less than ideal properties: it was shot from a low angle, and there is a lot of lens distortion. Also, it is almost a minute long and many similar services struggle with footage beyond 30 seconds. But PINOC handled it without a problem.
The fall at the end also worked out well. I’ve tested this exact footage with many similar solutions and most of them usually struggle with that part.
Here is another mocap I made for a real project I was working on. I wanted to get the best possible result so I uploaded the same footage to several Video to Mocap services, including some paid ones like Autodesk Flow Studio. In the end, I chose the result from PINOC to use in my work.
Keep in mind that these results are not conclusive. Single camera mocap is a “guesstimation game” so some apps will work well on some videos and not so well on others.
Getting Started
PINOC mocap is extremely easy to generate. Just go to PINOC, and click New.
A window will pop up, asking you to “Drop video here”. You can literally drag and drop your footage into that window to upload it.
Then click the Extract button and the process will start.
Wait a couple of minutes and your mocap data will appear in the app’s interface.
If you like the result, you can choose between FBX or GLB and, then the Export button in the lower right corner. Then import your FBX/GLB into Blender, Maya, Unreal, etc!
Root Motion
An interesting feature of PINOC is the Root Motion toggle. It is enabled by default which means that your character will move around in the scene exactly as the app captured it.
If you disable it, that will immediately place the character firmly in the center of the scene. This is great for creating walk cycles in place. Also, since Video to Mocap data can be a bit floaty, removing the root motion may help with the motion clean up. You may have to add the motion back in in your 3d app.
Limitations
Like all single camera solutions, PINOC is far from perfect. Common problems include slight or even pronounced floating, leg sliding, as well as incorrect capture of occluded body parts.
Only one person per video is supported. If your footage contains more than one person, PINOC will extract the motion from only one of them at random. While I have not experienced it, it may even fail to produce a mocap if the footage is too confusing.
Facial performance is not captured.
Hands and fingers seem to be captured but the result may not be perfect since the fingers are usually a small detail in your footage and they are easily occluded by other body parts.