Open Mocap vs XR Animator

Open Mocap is a free, open-source Blender add-on for AI-powered motion capture. It captures full-body movement offline from video and tracks hands both offline and in real time. Captured motion can be retargeted to a 3D character rig, with the workflow staying inside Blender and requiring no external software. The maker describes it for artists, animators, and researchers seeking motion capture in Blender. The add-on runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, but compatibility is limited to Blender 4.0.0 and earlier. Recommended compatible components include Blender’s bundled Python 3.10, MediaPipe 0.10.14, OpenCV-Python 4.11.0.86, and CVZone 1.6.1; newer versions may cause runtime errors. The project uses the MIT License and welcomes bug reports, performance improvements, feature work, documentation contributions, and pull requests. Help is available by emailing [email protected] or opening a GitHub issue. There is no facial tracking or API access.

XR Animator is a free tool for driving MMD or VRM 3D avatars from pose input. It uses MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js to detect poses from webcam video, and supports face, full-body, and combined face, body, and hand tracking. Full-body tracking can use a webcam or an image or video file. Face tracking supports 52 ARKit-compatible blendshapes. Users can record motion capture, export VMD, BVH, and glTF motion, and load VMD, FBX, and BVH motion files; FBX or BVH motion can also be exported to VMD. The scene can include 2D images or video, 3D panoramas, and .x or .glb objects. The web app works in major desktop and smartphone browsers, while Electron apps are available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Android Chrome supports augmented reality. VMC protocol support and a frameless transparent background for capture apps are limited to Electron mode. The project notes that smartphones with limited processing power may be better suited to face tracking alone.