On Monday at FMX in Stuttgart, Vicon (www.vicon.com) announced the official release of Shōgun 1.2, the latest update to the leading motion capture software for film, broadcast and games. Shōgun 1.2 arrives with 11 new features and improvements, including SDI video support, custom prop and skeleton solving and an improved Shōgun Post workflow that will help users deliver unparalleled skeletal data in a matter of hours.
“Being able to solve and animate directly onto a game or film rig using Shōgun has been our number one feature request,” said Tim Doubleday, VFX product manager at Vicon. “Users want to be able to see their characters in real time, in engine, without the need of additional retargeting software.”
With Shōgun 1.2, mocap teams can add and record up to two HD SDI video camera devices for easy overlays of 3D footage. Blackmagic cameras and capture cards are now supported, with more options planned for the future.
There are a number of other new features, including the ability to create custom skeletons from meshes within Shōgun Post. Newly created custom rigs, complete with mesh and textures, can be loaded into Shōgun Live and applied to the capture pipeline, allowing game and film rigs to be driven directly using Vicon’s robust full-body solver.
Shōgun Live now supports prop creation with mesh and gives users the ability to modify the position and orientation, which ensures that elements like virtual cameras line up exactly. The Post workflow also now allows artists to validate skeleton solves in Maya and MotionBuilder, through seamless exporting of undistorted video and camera positions via FBX.
The release of Shōgun 1.2 coincides with the start of FMX 2018, and Vicon’s entertainment platform and optical systems will be on full display at booth 2.1. From April 24-27, Vicon will host two demonstrations per day, both powered by Shōgun 1.2. The first daily demo takes place each morning from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and features Epic Games’ “Siren,” a project designed to push the boundaries of what a digital avatar can be. In the afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the focus will shift to the Vicon Experience (VEX), an interactive multiplayer VR escape room created to showcase the possibilities of location-based VR. Both are open to all show attendees.
 announced the official release of Shōgun 1.2, the latest update to the leading motion capture software for){kind=link}