I'm looking for a free command line tool under Windows to convert
back and forth between marker based motion capture formats and 
heirarchical joint angle formats. There exist tools which convert
within each of these classes, but between classes is less available.

Marker based formats include TRC and AOA.
The most common joint angle format is BVH.

In the case of marker to joint angle, I should mention that I only
really care about the special case in which markers are collocated with
the ankle,knee,hip,shoulder,elbow,wrist joints. So somewhat simpler than
the full general case.

Since I set the price cheap, I'll accept as a valid answer any tool
or sequence of tools which run under Win2K and do any of the following.
Its not necessary to find all of them. (Although that would be nice)
Its also ok to include command line tools that ship with Maya, 3dSMax,
or Poser, since I have access to those tools.


AOA->BVH
TRC->BVH
BVH->AOA
BVH->TRC

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Request for Question Clarification by blader-ga on 31 Jul 2002 23:15 PDT

Dear jamesdavis:

Lambsoft Promotion does the following:
Conversion: Input one motion capture file format, export to another!

Import Formats:

    * OPTICAL: Motion Analysis HTR, Motion Analysis TRC, Adaptive
Optics AOA, Biovision BVA & BVH, Acclaim ASF/AMC, C3D, CSM
    * MAGNETIC: Ascension, Polhemus
    * MECHANICAL: Virtual Technologies

Export Formats:

    * OPTICAL: Motion Analysis HTR, Motion Analysis TRC, Adaptive
Optics AOA, Biovision BVA & BVH, Acclaim ASF/AMC, C3D
    * MAGNETIC: Bird

But it's not free. You'll have to purchase it. Hope this helps!

Best Regards,
blader-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by blader-ga on 31 Jul 2002 23:15 PDT

Oops! You can find Lambsoft Promotion here:
http://www.metamotion.com/motion-capture-software/motion-capture-software-promotion.htm

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Clarification of Question by jamesdavis-ga on 01 Aug 2002 07:42 PDT

Thanks. I was aware of LambSoft Promotion. I have not had the opportunity to
try it, and while I haven't checked to price I assume its in the $2-5K range
since this is what similar tools sell for. I've also been told that the
commercial tool Diva from House of Moves will do the job and I've requested
a trial version from them.

My suggestion would be Motionbuilder. It supports a wide variety of
motion formats, and has the ability to retarget from one skeletal
hiearachy to another. Check it out here http://www.kaydara.com/

Cheers,

TheCook