DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL
To run KinectToPin, you first need to download and install the correct OpenNI Kinect drivers for your OS. Driver bundles are available from either SimpleOpenNI (OSX/Win/Linux — find your relevant link(s) in the “Downloads” menu on the lefthand side of the page) or Brekel (Fully automatic, Win-only).
Note: If you’re running Windows, Microsoft may attempt to overwrite the OpenNI drivers with their own. Plug in your Kinect and check its Device Manager settings in the Control Panel to make sure that hasn’t happened, and change them back if it has.
Then, click here to download KinectToPin from GitHub. Unzip the app (no installation necessary, but keep it inside its folder structure), edit settings.txt to your liking, plug in your Kinect, and you’re ready to go!
To install the UI Panel add-on for After Effects, find KinectToPin UI.jsx in the program folder and drop it into AE’s Scripts/ScriptUI Panels/ folder. Relaunch After Effects, then select it from the Window menu to run.
If you want to run the uncompiled Processing sketch instead of the compiled app, you also need to download Processing, as well as SimpleOpenNI and/or OSCeleton.
FAQ
What hardware can I use?
– KinectToPin works with the standard Xbox Kinect, as well as the Xtion, a generic Kinect by Asus. Note: if you’re using an Xtion with Windows and USB3, you’ll need this firmware update. Has not been tested with the Kinect for Windows as far as we know, but it should work anywhere OpenNI does.
Is this 3D/can I use it with Maya etc.?
– KinectToPin records tracking points in 3D, but is primarily designed for working with 2D and 2.5D puppets. If you want to use your Kinect with a 3D model try BreckelKinect (Windows only). K2P points are actually just raw XYZ position data; most 3D applications require the more complex BVH format, which is based on rotations from an original start pose.
How does this compare to a 2D IK rigging system like Duik?
– IK rigs like Duik (which, incidentally, is free and highly recommended) calculate the angle and position of your character’s limbs based on the position of the hand or foot, which gives you a much more rigid look, like a marionette. KinectToPin uses the Puppet Tool for deformation, which results in a much softer, squishier sort of motion. No reason you can’t use both!
Help! My character is upside-down and scrambled!
– We think we’ve fixed this problem, but if you run into it let us know! Here’s what’s going on if it happens to you: it means the mocap data imported backwards, so that the head data ends up where a foot should be and vice-versa. Try renaming the 3D Point Controls so they’re listed in the opposite order, then re-enable the expressions on the control nulls. It’s hacky, but it works.
Help! I recorded a really long track and I can’t get it converted from XML!
– If you have an xml file that is more than a couple of minutes long, KinectToPin may crash when you try to turn it into AE keyframes. Nick has an older converter-only tool for Processing called FlaePin that may work where KinectToPin fails.
Help! After Effects is giving me grayed-out puppet pins!
– This is a known bug with the Puppet Tool. If you’re not using a template, you need to create dummy pins for all fifteen points before you paste in your tracking data or you’ll get these weird unusable pins.
Help! Microsoft’s Kinect drivers keep installing themselves automatically and taking over for OpenNI!
– You can fix this in Device Manager. Follow David Menard’s instructions here.
110 comments
andreas h. says:
Nov 29, 2012
i`m running on win7 64. kinecttopin freezes everytime i push cam or rec.
i cannot get it run. any suggestsions?
Victoria says:
Dec 3, 2012
Are you using a Kinect or an Xtion?
VVV says:
Dec 3, 2012
HI, does KinectToPin work with ilustrator layers?
Thanks
Victoria says:
Dec 3, 2012
Yes, but you should rasterize or precompose them first. The Puppet Tool can get wonky with vector layers.
Andreas h. says:
Dec 4, 2012
I’m using the Kinect. I tried to instal it on several computers but I always get the same result.
Victoria says:
Dec 5, 2012
Hmmm. In your settings.txt file, try changing “Load SimpleOpenNI at Startup” to true. Sometimes SimpleOpenNI is VERY slow to load at first.
andreas h. says:
Dec 6, 2012
a friend of mine got it running. took him 1 hour. but not even he can tell what the problem was. finally it runs on my desktop pc. but on my laptop it still does not work.
anyway. thax.
Victoria says:
Dec 7, 2012
How odd… I’m trying to think of other things it could be. Maybe you need to update Java? Glad you got it running on one machine though! If you figure out what was wrong, do let us know — we’ll do our best to fix it if it’s something on our end.
andyo says:
Feb 12, 2013
Hi there. I’m trying to run kinect_to_pin29.exe (it’s the exe in the beta download kinect_to_pin129beta_win32) on Windows 7 64bit. It barks out, “windows cannot find javaw.exe”. Don’t tell me you have to have java for kinect-to-pin… that would… well.. suck. Is a 64bit issue? Am I just completely lost? All the openNI 1 and 2 and Brekel stuff is working with Kinect 4 xbox and a Primesense Carmine. -Andy
Nick says:
Feb 12, 2013
Yup, you’ll need to install Java to run KinectToPin; it uses the cross-platform SimpleOpenNI Java library. By the way, you can disable the infamous web plugin and still run the desktop version of Java–they’re separate things. If there’s enough community interest we may make native versions someday. (If you absolutely can’t have Java on your machine, it’s worth checking out a few alternatives–NImate, Ethnotracker, and Synapse for OSC streaming; Brekel and iPi Studio for BVH recording. Last I checked, though, we’re the only GUI app with a built-in joint coordinate recording feature.)
andreas says:
Mar 31, 2013
Hello,
I have a problem importing bigger files. Could you give a few hints on how to import the keyframes with the pin2kinect templates with FlaePin.
Also how can I make the keyframes for each regular imported capture visible? there are a few wonky ones I would like to manualy delete.
Victoria says:
Mar 31, 2013
The keyframes are on the template’s “mocap” layer — hit U to show all, and you can delete the problematic ones.
Are you currently importing via the AE plugin or via copy and pasting exported files from the capture app? FlaePin currently only generates puppet pins, not 2D or 3D point controls, but we can look into adding support for that if it’s needed.
Tudor says:
Apr 16, 2013
Hello, i’m a newbie at this and have some setup problems…i’m hoping you can help me. I have a kinect for windows and I found a nice tutorial (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/kinectsdk/thread/bae80fb0-fce5-468e-a292-fe46381af3e5/) that helped me install OpenNI + Nite + Kinect SDK on my win7 x64 and get the kinect working with OpenNI. What else do I have to do/install to make the kinect work with KinectToPin? When I open the application and click on cam/rec it just freezes, black screen and does nothing no matter how much I wait. Hope you can help, thanks in advance.
Nick says:
Apr 16, 2013
@Tudor Sorry–if you’ve got a Kinect for Windows (and not an original Xbox Kinect) it does _not_ work with OpenNI 1 as far as I know–only OpenNI 2. KinectToPin hasn’t been updated to support OpenNI 2 yet. (It’s written in Java, and the Java library that provides Kinect support, SimpleOpenNI, needs to get updated first.) In the meantime you could get skeleton data with another app and talk to KinectToPin over OSC…
Victoria says:
Apr 16, 2013
We got K2P working fine with a Kinect For Windows at the workshop I did a couple weeks ago, but I don’t think the MS SDK was installed simultaneously…
TUDOR says:
Apr 17, 2013
@VICTORIA – Do you perhaps remember what setup was (software/drivers/OpenNI version or package) installed at the workshop to get it working and if the MS SDK was installed or not? I would be very helpful…thanks.
Victoria says:
Apr 17, 2013
I’m pretty sure the ms SDK wasn’t installed. I think we got it working with the simpleOpenNI driver bundle? But I’m totally fascinated by where your setup is crashing now — first I’ve heard of that happening! Once the skeletal tracking is calibrated and running everything should just work, so it may not be an OpenNi issue now. I wonder if you’re missing your data folder or something? Did you perhaps move the app out of its folder structure?
TUDOR says:
Apr 21, 2013
Ok…solved it :D…I ran K2P through proccessing and when the countdown gets to 3 it throws a NullPointerException and complains about a method “…beep…” something, I can’t remember…anyway the problem is that the computer I was working with doesn’t have a soundcard (it’s a multiprocessor server used for renderings, it doesn’t need a soundcard…:D)…so I tried it on a PC with a soundcard and everything works just fine 🙂
@NICK – Kinect for Windows works just fine with OpenNI 1.5.4.0 and K2P, no need to update K2P to support OpenNI2…just download ZigJSOpenNI, plug in kinect, start K2P and go!
Cheers…
Victoria says:
Apr 21, 2013
Awesome! Super good to have more confirmation it works with Kinect For Windows. I would never have guessed you were on a machine with no sound card…
TUDOR says:
Apr 17, 2013
After some reading on a couple of forums, I uninstalled MS SDK and installed ZigJSOpenNI package from http://zigfu.com/en/downloads/browserplugin/ and my Kinect for Windows is finally recognized as a PrimeSense device, OpenNI 1.5.4.0 works just fine, Brekel works and another mocap app. I open K2P, I press “cam” and it works, then I press “rec”, the countdown starts, 8,7,6…I can see the white circles (joints) move as I move, and when it gets to 3…it freezes and that’s it, I can’t do anything anymore. Do you have any ideea why?(…and thanks for the quick response before.)
Kathleen says:
Aug 3, 2013
Hi Nick,Victoria,
Is NI MATE the same as OpenNI? I have NImate installed, not sure I have OpenNI (if they’re different). Everytime I open Kinect to pin recorder it crashes when I select CAM or RECORD.
Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? I’m on a macbook pro OS 10.8.4.
Thanks
Victoria says:
Aug 3, 2013
There are a lot of layers of software involved in getting this stuff running. OpenNI is the natural interface framework the hardware runs on, and you need NITE/SensorKinect/PrimeSense middleware on top of that to get OpenNI working with the Kinect in particular. NI Mate and KinectToPin both run on top of those (I think NI MATE automates some of the installation? Don’t know what it requires to run, though.). Sounds like you’re missing some of the drivers, though. You also need Java.
A couple other people have had problems and are on 10.8… We’re trying to figure out if there’s a bug there.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
How do you install SimpleOpenNI? on OSX?
Victoria says:
Oct 28, 2013
There’s a new version of SONI that claims to work out of the box on OSX, no installation necessary. I can’t guarantee this is true, or that K2P will work with the new version. We’re looking into updating.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
So kinect travel utility seems to work fine, but when I open K2P nothing at all shows up. Should it show atleast something? Or does it need to have a full body infront of it before it will even show anything at all?
Victoria says:
Oct 28, 2013
Nothing at all as in it isn’t tracking, or as in the app is just a blank screen? You need to calibrate in Cam mode to get it tracking before you start recording — we’ve turned off autocalibration, as it’s a little too prone to thinking things like desk chairs are people.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
So I’ve tried it in 10.8 & 10.6. And both computers work with the utilitiy but when you click Cam it just freezes its completely black. Basically the Cam button turns brighter yellow then it just sits there. It’s almost like it’s not even recognizing the camera. When you run the software with or without the kinect actually connected it responds the same.
Victoria says:
Oct 28, 2013
Ah! That’s a SimpleOpenNI issue. We still need to update a few things before it will work with the latest version of SONI. For now you’ll need to download and install the older version. Instructions are here.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
So I’ve tried it in 10.8 & 10.6. And both computers work with the utilitiy but when you click Cam it just freezes is completely black.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
@Victoria Tried that. Same result. Now I’ve even tried it on windows 7 and get the same problem. Just freezes upon clicking cam. I’ve changed settings.txt to “load SimpleOpenNI atStartup” to true, and instead of getting to the black screen where it will eventually freeze, it stays white and does not load the application. It seems it is stuck in the loading phase of SimpleOpenNi.
Adam says:
Oct 28, 2013
Gave up on Mac installation, on windows it worked like a charm. I installed the Brekel “All-in-one OpenNI Kinect Auto Driver Installer,” (Must be that download, the others do not install everything required) installation was automatic, then I just downloaded the KinectToPin program and ran it. No problems, calibration worked great too. Thanks!
Victoria says:
Oct 28, 2013
Oh, glad you got it working! Sounds like you were missing something else on the Mac side, maybe OpenNI or NITE or SensorKinect. So many moving parts. 🙂
Crys says:
Dec 2, 2013
Victoria/Nick,
I was wondering if there is any update on getting KinectToPin working with the latest versions of OpenNi/SimpleOpenNi? Its running just fine on OSX 10.8.4 w/ Open Ni version 0.24 and Simple OpenNi version 0.27 but breaks when I update the latter.
Also, I haven’t updated to Maverick yet, but I hear everything will work as long as you update the PrimeSense drivers.
I’m a former student of Nick’s at NYU. Hi Nick!
Victoria says:
Dec 2, 2013
There are some bugs with the latest version of SimpleOpenNI that we need to work around. Stay tuned!
Michael says:
Dec 3, 2013
Hello! After some fiddling around, I was able to get K2P working on a Win7 machine with a Kinect for Windows. However, when I try to record some data, all values are 0.
The device is working correctly, and I get the expected feed when I press the ‘cam’ button.
Also, when I click on the OSC button, nothing really happens…
I suspect that the depth sensor is not receiving data or perhaps a driver foul-up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Victoria says:
Dec 3, 2013
Are you seeing a calibrated skeleton when you’re in Cam mode? You need to do the cactus pose and get tracking started before you hit record.
The OSC button requires a separate app (OSCeleton) running simultaneously — it’s basically a deprecated feature at this point, since OSCeleton hasn’t been updated in ages and the data stream isn’t as good.
Michael says:
Dec 4, 2013
Success! Sorry, I must have missed the step on calibration.
Thank you for the quick response… and looking forward to experimenting with it.
As an aside, have there been any tests with the newly released next generation Kinect? I managed to get my hands on the beta hardware, but haven’t hooked it up yet due to it requiring a Windows 8+ OS (I believe…)
Thanks again!
Victoria says:
Dec 4, 2013
Glad you got it working! We disabled autocalibration by default because it was a little too eager to decide that non-human things were people. You should be able to enable it in the settings if you want to skip that step.
The Kinect 2 uses entirely different tech inside, which unfortunately means none of the OpenNI-based Kinect tools are compatible with it. There are people working on some open source libraries for it, but they’re in VERY early stages. I’m very excited for the possibilities though… I mean, muscle force and weight distribution estimation? Facial expression recognition? That stuff is going to make animating with it so much faster and more accurate. The tracks look way less jittery, too, and the torso is no longer just a static rectangle.
Heidi says:
Dec 12, 2013
Hello! I use K2P on a Win7 machine with a Kinect for Xbox. However, when I try to record some data, there are no values for the head (for the “Effects Point Control #1”) for the 2D-points and no values for the Effects Point Control #1,#2,#3,#4 for the 3D-points.
Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?
Thanks.
Victoria says:
Dec 12, 2013
Can you open up the raw XML file and let me know if there’s data for those points in it? If the data’s there but not exporting, you need to increase the export delay in the settings and re-save for AE — sometimes slower hard drives can’t keep up with the speed of output and points will come out blank.
Heidi says:
Dec 13, 2013
Thank you. You´re right. Increase the export delay was the solution.
Thank you very much for your quick answer.
Heidi says:
Dec 18, 2013
Hi, it´s me again. I have just one more question.
In your introduction video you have captured two people. Did you put the characters together in After Effects ore did you capture them at once?
And if you capture both character at once, how did you do that?
Thank you
Victoria says:
Dec 18, 2013
The tracks were recorded separately, performing to an audio track. It’s not currently possible to record multiple characters simultaneously, but reference audio makes it easy to keep everything in sync.
Heidi says:
Dec 18, 2013
Good to know, thank you very much.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 1, 2014
Hi!
I’m trying to use K2P on a X360 Kinect hooked onto my computer, but whenever I run the app, it crashes before launching and generates an error report I cannot understand.
I am somewhat frustrated, as I already have Brekel and Java install the necessary components on my 64-bit Windows 7.
Did I miss anything?
Please advise, thank you very much. 😀
Victoria says:
Jan 1, 2014
I think Brekel now works with Microsoft’s drivers. You need to use OpenNI/SimpleOpenNI for K2P.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 1, 2014
Happy New Year, by the way
I looked up the Windows installation for OpenNI/SimpleOpenNI, turns out it requires installation of Microsoft’s Kinect SDK and drivers. K2P’s installation guide mentioned of a driver overwriting by Microsoft on Windows, but how do I get about to ‘make sure that hasn’t happened’ ?
Sorry to be such a bother,
but thanks a lot for the speedy reply 😀
Victoria says:
Jan 1, 2014
Make sure you’re using the older version of SimpleOpenNI — there are a few bugs we need to squish with the more recent one. You can grab a package installer with all the drivers here: http://code.google.com/p/simple-openni/downloads/detail?name=OpenNI_NITE_Installer-win64-0.27.zip&can=4&q=
There’s a link to how to fix the driver overwriting issue (which is very likely also happening!) in the last question of the FAQ above.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 2, 2014
Thanks for the link Victoria, but after installing all the files in the zipped package, I’m kind of stuck in the driver override step as mentioned in the FAQ.
If I recall correctly, the drivers should be located in the “C:\Program Files\OpenNI\Driver” folder. And after choosing the folder to install as the default drivers, the device should now be listed as an “OpenNI Device”, right?
Yet after choosing the driver folder from OpenNI, I get the message “The best driver software for your device is already installed”. The devices Kinect Audio, Kinect Camera and Kinect Motor are all listed under a “PrimeSense”.
Should I uninstall the PrimeSense drivers too to prevent this conflict? I noticed that in my Program Files folder, both OpenNI and PrimeSense have driver folders inside them. Could this redundancy be causing this conflict?
As before, I am still getting K2P crashes upon launching. Thanks again so much for the speedy reply, you’re awesome 😀
Victoria says:
Jan 2, 2014
It’s not about where the driver is located on your hard drive, but about which one Windows is going to refer to when you plug in your Kinect. Microsoft thinks you should be using their drivers (it’s their device, after all), so they’ve set things up to point to their own drivers. You want to use PrimeSense/OpenNI (don’t uninstall either one, you need both bits!). To choose those you need to change the settings in Device Manager, in your Windows Control Panel. It may throw a bunch of scary-looking warnings at you when you do so, but you can safely ignore them.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 2, 2014
I see… so to change these settings do I go through these steps?
1. open device manager
2. navigate to the PrimeSense tree
3. right-click on Kinect Camera
4. select ‘Update Driver Software’
5. choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’
6. locate the Driver folder where OpenNI was installed
7. click ‘Next’ (although at this step I still get the ‘The best driver software for your device is already installed’ message)
I tried clicking on the ‘Have Disk’ option, but I ended up lost looking for the .inf file required to install the files. If this step is it, I sure hope you could walk me through.
Thanks! 😀
Victoria says:
Jan 2, 2014
You are absolutely on the right track. It’s been a few months since I’ve looked at these settings, but there’s a button somewhere to get around the “best driver is already installed” issue (it might even be on that warning popup?)… It’s somewhere in those menus, and I think it has a confusing name. I think they make it a pain to deal with this on purpose!
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 3, 2014
I think I can get it right this time…
I used ‘Have Disk’ to install from a list of drivers in the OpenNI folder, but I’m still a bit confused.
I have the following options to install from:
1. PrimeSense PS1080
2. PrimeSense RD 1.28
3. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit 2.x
4. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit 3.x
5. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit 4.x
6. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit 5.x
7. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit NG 2100
8. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit NG 2200
9. PrimeSense Sensor Dev Kit NG Debug
I tried installing through them one by one (without system restarts), attempting to launch K2P after doing so, but I still get a crash and an error log from the Java runtime.
So if I go through the checklist of to-do before running K2P, I should have no problems:
1. I have the latest of both browser and desktop Java installed
2. I have the whole sensor driver suite installed (as instructed) including OpenNI, NITE, PrimeSense, KinectMod.
3. I have the latest K2P build from github.
Hmmm… anything I could be doing wrong?
Please advise, thanks 🙂
Heidi says:
Jan 4, 2014
Hi.
I tried to use kinectToPin with the DUIK IK rigging system, but I don´t get it work. Every time I try to parenting the hands and feet they get a wrong position.
Can you tell me what I´m doing wrong ore is there any tutorial for using K2P with DUIK?
Thank you.
Victoria says:
Jan 5, 2014
Hmmm. You’re just attaching the hand and foot points, right, not the shoulders or elbows? How off is it? Completely totally off or just slid over from where it should be?
Heidi says:
Jan 8, 2014
I wanted to parenting my character layers i.e l_arm is parent of l_forearm is parent of l_hand_layer. But every time i do this, the hand and foot layers get completely totally off.
Heidi says:
Jan 8, 2014
Sorry it´s me again. I don´t know why but I really don´t get it work with DUIK. I tried to use the official tutorial of DUIK but I am not able to assign the workflow to the K2P workflow.
So not just the hands and feet are totally off, the IK´s I tried to create don´t work either.
I really don´t know what I´m doing wrong.
I would be glad to have a short explanation, if this is possible.
Victoria says:
Jan 8, 2014
This sounds like a Duik problem. Try building your full rig before you link the hands and feet to K2P’s control nulls.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 5, 2014
Hi, it’s me again 🙂
Sorry to have bombarded this post with a lot of frustration, but I just want to leave a note here: YESSSS IT’S FINALLY RUNNING! ^ u ^
But this time around, I tried running an earlier version of K2P (1.33 beta). So I still have no idea what I was missing when I tried to run 1.37, but it’s finally off my chest, so thanks for making this!
Victoria says:
Jan 5, 2014
Awesome! I was trying to figure out what else might be wrong, very interesting to know the older version works…
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 6, 2014
Hi Victoria.
Sorry but I’ve ran into something again.
The older version managed to launch, but on clicking CAM or REC the application hangs indefinitely. I’m thinking this could be something with SimpleOpenNI, as it loads when I start these functions, but the older installer has already included a SimpleOpenNI32.dll in the root folder.
Should I be replacing this with a 64-bit version?
Or do I need another specific version of SimpleOpenNI for it to run?
Thanks again.
Nick says:
Jan 6, 2014
1.33 is definitely the most-tested version; stick with that if it works. We’re in the process of getting K2P ready for OpenNI 2–as soon as the SimpleOpenNI Processing library supports exporting applications (it doesn’t currently!) we can bring out a new version that should be a lot less finicky.
Skipper Lee says:
Jan 6, 2014
Hello again 😀
Recently I’ve migrated to a Windows 8 machine, but this time I’m running into crashes upon pressing the REC or CAM buttons.
I’ve had OpenNI, OpenNI2, PrimeSense and Kinect for Windows all installed, but even if you mentioned that K2P needs PrimeSense/OpenNI drivers to work with, I can’t install them manually via Device Manager. I get an error message everytime I do so. Is this because the drivers don’t work on a 64-bit Windows 8?
If that is so, is there a way somehow for K2P to run on Windows 8?
Thank you very much for your patience with this troublesome user.
Victoria says:
Jan 8, 2014
I don’t know what the driver assignment process for 8 is like — still on 7 over here. I know people have managed to get it working on 8 though! Maybe something on this page will help?
Rafael says:
Jan 8, 2014
Hi everyone! I’m unfortunately not versed in the technicalities so I wonder if you coudl explain what is the difference of uncompiled to compiled app that you mention in the note: “If you want to run the uncompiled Processing sketch instead of the compiled app, you also need to download Processing, as well as SimpleOpenNI and/or OSCeleton.” Excuse my ignorance! 🙂 Thanks!
Victoria says:
Jan 8, 2014
The compiled app is the one you click to run. The other option is the raw code, which can be executed within Processing. You shouldn’t need to deal with the Processing version unless you’re having problems.
Rafael says:
Jan 8, 2014
Thanks for the quick reply Victoria! One last nag: when will we be able to see KinectToPin capture two bodies simultaneously and also recognise sitting poses? Ta muchly!
Victoria says:
Jan 8, 2014
The one-person-at-a-time thing is due to a limitation of the hardware: since the camera’s only viewing them from one angle, any time they interact physically/overlap it won’t be able to track them. There are commercial solutions like iPi Studio that use multiple Kinects, which helps a lot.
Sitting poses are a similar issue — it can’t see where your hip points are. Microsoft’s SDK has a specialized “seated” mode that will predict their location, but OpenNI (which K2P uses) does not include this functionality.
Rafael says:
Jan 8, 2014
cool! as long as I know the limitations, I’ll then plan workarounds. Thanks for the info!
matt chapman says:
Jan 17, 2014
Hello-
I downloaded and installed the kinect2pin in AE. When I use your capture app it immediately crashes (not freezes) if I press record or cam. It doesn’t seem to detect the Kinect.
I have the Brekel drivers installed and the Brekel software detects the kinect and creates motion capture data quite easily.
what am I doing wrong? I have some error logs that are made in the Kinect to Pin Win32 folder. Of course I am running 64 bit Windows 7, so perhaps I downloaded the wrong instance of the application but I didn’t see any others.
thanks, look forward to showing off your software!
Victoria says:
Jan 17, 2014
Check Device Manager, see if Microsoft overwrote the OpenNI drivers with their own. It’s an ongoing problem.
matt chapman says:
Jan 17, 2014
they did. where do I get the OpenNI drivers again? Is it the Brekel drivers?
Victoria says:
Jan 17, 2014
You should have them installed via Brekel — you just have to select them in place of the Microsoft drivers in Device Manager (ignore all the scary warnings!).
matt chapman says:
Jan 17, 2014
it worked! many thanks. here we go on to steps 2,3,4..
Heidi says:
Feb 5, 2014
Hey, I´m very sorry it´s me again.
I just wanted to ask if there is a way to edite the keyframes of the mocap-layer after rigging the puppet. To clean the data and delete defective parts and generate own keyframes. I tried it but every time I tried the track get worse.
Thank´s for your advice and your patience
Victoria says:
Feb 5, 2014
Yes, you can edit the keyframes directly on the ‘mocap’ layer. You can also adjust their smoothing settings in the expressions applied to the dataset, or keyframe the control nulls.
Heidi says:
Feb 6, 2014
Ah keyframe the control nulls was the solution i´ve missed. Thank you very much.
Pedro says:
Feb 17, 2014
Hi! I’m a motion designer and i recently discovered your program. I got my mac to work with the Kinect and Processing, but there is some problem with the KinectToPin 1.33 beta you suggest to use. When clicking on cam, it crashes and quits unexpectedly. I asked a colleague to install everything and give it a try and the same happens. Anyone having the same problem? i need it bad to use in a project and now im stuck :x. Cheers
Victoria says:
Feb 17, 2014
Sounds like you’re having issues with SimpleOpenNI — you may need to use an older version, one of the pre-OpenNI 2 ones. There’s a new fork of K2P that works with OpenNI 2 and the latest version of SONI, but you’ll need to run it within Processing instead of as an app because of issues with SONI and the compiler. I’ll get you a link.
Victoria says:
Feb 17, 2014
https://github.com/brendanmatkin/KinectToPin You can grab the code here — you’ll need to run as a Processing app due to the compiler bug.
Pedro says:
Feb 18, 2014
sorry, i couldn’t understand properly. I got the file you mentioned, and it comes filled with .pde files and other folders. Should i install them all in the processe’s library? the .pde files i mean. thanks
Victoria says:
Feb 18, 2014
Yes, exactly. Just drop everything in your Processing library folder, then open up Processing and run it from there. (You may need more than just the PDE files, so throw it all in there for now, you can try moving stuff elsewhere later.) This is for the later version of SimpleOpenNI + OpenNI, so you’ll also need to install those too if you haven’t already.
Pedro says:
Feb 19, 2014
tried to infall openNI in terminal and nothing. Throw it in processing’s library and nothing appears when you go to the sketch menu (unlike the simpleOpenNi that is there at the bottom). And run K2P from processing? how do you do that?
Sorry for all of this but im really interested in working with this, but as you can understand i’m definitely not a computer programming guy :\
Victoria says:
Feb 19, 2014
Follow the instructions here: https://code.google.com/p/simple-openni/wiki/Installation?ts=1377782923&updated=Installation KinectToPin goes in your Processing sketchbook folder. It should then be openable from inside Processing, and you click “Play” to run the app.
Pedro says:
Feb 20, 2014
Well, finally i managed to make it work this morning. Not through processing, that i couldn’t do, don’t know why :\. After i installed openNi as you mentioned, i went to processing/ sketch/ library and started it. Then i crossed my fingers, started the 1.33 beta version of K2P (that used to crash) and it worked just fine! So, problem solved 🙂 now i have to find where do i choose to save as .txt file, as well or instead of, a .xml file. I can work with the xml In After effects but sometimes just throwing de code directly to the pins is faster! Thank you so much for the help and great work, keep it up 😉
Victoria says:
Feb 20, 2014
Ah-ha, you were missing OpenNI. There’s a settings file in the folder with the app — choose your output formats there. You may also want to increase the delay setting if you find you’re missing data points. There should also be a /data/ folder in the app directory — that’s where your text files will output to.
ned says:
May 31, 2014
Hi,
On the motion capture stage, I have everything working, except for this little bug; I can’t save any of the data. The data folder remains empty, and the play feature won’t play back the ‘most recent mocap’.
Is it something in the settings file I need to change?
I am running Windows 8, with the Prime Sense drivers running the Kinect. Everything is working fine in AE with an XML file from a friend, just need to get my own mo-cap data working for my new project!
Thanks so much,
Ned
Victoria says:
Jun 1, 2014
That’s odd, is it possible the data folder is somehow read-only?
ned says:
Jun 1, 2014
Vic,
That was it, Thanks!
Ned
John says:
Jun 2, 2014
Hello, I’m having some trouble getting KinectToPin to work on Windows7. Basically, when I fire up the app, it’s blank. Just an empty application box. I’ve been able to record with iPi and I’ve installed the KinectToPin plugin into AfterEffects — but I have no data to import.
Can anyone share some of the importable data so that I can start off in AfterEffects and snap my character to the data? If I can successfully get my character animated, I will go back and try to figure out what’s keeping me from running KinectToPin or use a different computer.
Seems like my other option is go the OSC route but it’s proving way too diffcult for me. I’m an illustrator not a programmer, unfortunately.
Victoria says:
Jun 2, 2014
Sounds like you’re missing some drivers. There should be a sample mocap file or two in the /data/ folder. If not, I can send you something.
John says:
Jun 2, 2014
Thanks so much for the swift response! My friend and I are both exploring diff motion capture options, both on this machine. He’s doing 3d and I’m doing 2d. I LOVE the way KinectToPin looks!
Since he’s already gotten the 3d to work via iPi, I’m scared to override any of the drivers he’s set up.
My /data/ folder appears to be empty though. What I’m looking for is an XML file that I can copy/paste into AfterEffects, right?
Victoria says:
Jun 2, 2014
I suspect you’re missing SimpleOpenNI, which I don’t think iPi uses.
You have two options for importing: raw XML via the AE plugin (which takes foreverrrrrr to load), or copying and pasting exported AE keyframe data generated by the capture app. There are a couple XML samples on the K2P GitHub: https://github.com/N1ckFG/KinectToPin/tree/master/data/savexml
John says:
Jun 2, 2014
Thank you for your help!
John says:
Jun 2, 2014
When you import the raw XML via the AE plugin, is there any indication that it’s loading? Or will I know it’s done when the keyframes fill out?
Victoria says:
Jun 2, 2014
AE shouldn’t be able to do anything else while it’s loading.
cameron says:
Nov 4, 2014
Hi, whenever I open Kinect to pin recorder it crashes when I select CAM or RECORD. I have read through the comments and tried their solutions but it didn’t work. I get this error message as seen here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mzafn0evvc4ezjk/hs_err_pid10508.log?dl=0
Hope you can help me figure out this frustrating problem.
Thanks in Advance!
GAO XU says:
Jan 20, 2015
Hi, I am wondering whether the TXT file could work in AE puppet. I am using Mac AE CS 6, and everytime I copy the code, then I open AE, it shows that some lines is invalidate, which means ” Effects Puppet #1 arap #3 Mesh Mesh#1 Deform Pin #1 Position” cannot be recognized. Could anyone tell me why?THX~
Victoria says:
Mar 12, 2015
Sorry, just saw your comment! Which text file do you mean?
Ashok says:
Mar 14, 2015
Will this also work with the new Kinect? or the ps4 eye?
Another question, what about motion capture from the side view (for a walk cycle for example)?
Victoria says:
Mar 14, 2015
I have good news and bad news for you. First the bad news: KinectToPin only works with the original Kinect. The new model uses a different type of camera that is incompatible with the tracking library we use.
And now the good news: side view (and even rear view or sky/floor view) is totally possible! This is what the 3D features in After Effects are for: you record your track facing the Kinect, then import into After Effects and rotate the “mocap” layer in 3D space to position the points to match your character’s position.
Ashok says:
Mar 21, 2015
thanks.
Melanie says:
Nov 29, 2015
Hello, I’m having some trouble getting KinectToPin to work on Windows 7. When I fire up the app, it’s blank. Just an empty and white application box. I’ve installed OpenNi and Nite according to this instruction: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/bae80fb0-fce5-468e-a292-fe46381af3e5/how-to-install-openni-22-nite-22-kinect-sdk-18-windows-7-3264-bit?forum=kinectsdk.
I also tried it with processing, but I can’t load it.
Probably I have forgotten something to install or do I have the wrong Version, which isn’t compatible with K2P? Thanks!
Ginnie says:
Jan 9, 2016
Hi Victoria,
Does it work on Processing 3? I keep running into problems :/
Victoria says:
Jan 13, 2016
Alas, K2P does not yet support Processing 3.
Joel says:
Apr 15, 2017
Hi there,
Thank you for this little plug-in, I can’t wait to use it! I’m having difficulty getting a result from the camera though as when I hit record, it always crashes with this error:
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
# EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x2db21f35, pid=2944, tid=0x000006cc
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_121-b13) (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (25.121-b13 mixed mode windows-x86 )
# Problematic frame:
# C [OpenNI.dll+0x11f35]
#
# Failed to write core dump. Minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows
—————————-
Am I missing something or have not loaded some middleware? I thought I had everything covered.
Also, I had changed”Load SimpleOpenNI at Startup” to true but then that would crash the program when it started each time. By setting it to false then it crashed only when I hit the record button each time.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards,
Joel
Skote says:
May 21, 2017
Hi, I can’t get KincetToPin to work on Sierra, any ideas on how to fix this?
Ghandchi says:
May 12, 2018
Hi I have trouble with install osceleton and prossesing please help me to install these . I see your video and I cant undrestand about osceleten who instaled. Tnks.
Simpleman says:
Jan 4, 2020
I have Kinect v2. The number of questions show that we need a way more detailed explanation which version of processing do we need, how to install it, how to install OpenNI, how to install KinectToPin and etc. In the tutorials it is just like puff – ready!
Halembakov says:
Jan 27, 2020
Hello there! The tutorials look nice but I still can not install the Kinecttopin on my PC. When I press the REC or the CAM button It says “UnsatisfiedLinkError: SimpleOpenNI.SimpleopenNIJNI.swig_module_init()V”. I use Windows 10 and Kinect for windows v1. Up in the comments Nick sayed that this sensor works with OpenNI2, and Kinecttopin does’t. Is this the problem and do I have to buy Kinect for xbox 360 now?