Kinect4 Skeleton
Method #
This node controls the Kinect Skeleton tracked from a Kinect 4 camera sensor.
To set up the Kinect 4 skeleton, follow the instructions here.
If this node is hashed out with red, this means the node isn’t active for some reason. Usually :
- Kinect isn’t on or hasn’t been connected to Notch.
- Kinect Skeletons have not been enabled in the project settings window.
- A suitable skeleton hasn’t been found yet.
The Kinect 4 body tracking library is based on NVIDIA CUDA, therefore an NVIDIA GPU is required for body tracking.
A skeleton stream (*.skel) file imported into resources can be applied for playback to the skeleton node with no active sensor required. Capturing a skeleton stream file during sensor playback is performed from the Devices/Capture Kinect1/Kinect2/Kinect4 data menu or by using Alt+K (once to start, once to end recording).
To visualise the tracked skeleton joints and their orientations, make sure to enable bounding box visualisation “BB” in the Nodegraph and this node is selected in the scene graph.
You will need to activate the Kinect camera you want to use by going to Devices > VideoIn/Camera/Kinect Settings and enabling it. Otherwise, it will not be initialized by Notch. This is by design, so Notch does not lock the device from the use by other software when you are not actively using it in Notch
Parameters
These properties control the 3D transforms of the node. Transforms will generally be inherited by child nodes, although they can be ignored through the Inherit Transform Channels attributes.
Parameter Details Position X Move along the local x-axis.
Position Y Move along the local y-axis.
Position Z Move along the local z-axis.
Rotation Heading Rotate around the local y-axis.
Rotation Pitch Rotate around the local x-axis.
Rotation Bank Rotate around the local z-axis.
Scale X Scale along the local x-axis.
Scale Y Scale along the local y-axis.
Scale Z Scale along the local z-axis.
Control the inheritance of the transforms from the parent.
Parameter Details Position Toggle inheritance of the Position from the parent.
Rotation Toggle inheritance of the Rotation from the parent.
Scale Toggle inheritance of the Scale from the parent.
World Position Only Inherit the world position from the parent only, rotation and scale will be ignored. Overrides above properties.
Inherit Time Toggle inheritance of time from the parent.
These properties control the core behaviours of the node.
Parameter Details Kinect Skeleton Stream Kinect Skeleton stream (*.skel) resource for playback
Use Active Skeleton When enabled, automatically select the currently active skeleton.
Sensor Index The index of the Kinect4 sensor to use.
Avatar Index Select which Skeleton to use from the avatar index. Only functional with Use Active Skeleton is disabled.
Input Skeleton Scale Scale the size of the input skeleton.
Smoothing How much smoothing is applied to the output skeletons motion.
Derive Rotations (Don't use Kinect SDK Rotations) Use internally calculated rotations instead of rotations from the Kinect SDK.
Mirrored Mirror the movements of the incoming mobcap data along the x axis.
Flip Z Flip the Z axis of the skeleton, to match a model with a flipped z axis.
These properties control the playback properties of recorded Kinect 4 data.
Parameter Details Stream Start Frame Start frame of Kinect Skeleton stream playback
Stream End Frame End frame of Kinect Skeleton stream playback
Stream Frame Rate Kinect Skeleton stream playback frame rate
Inputs
These properties control the 3D transforms of the node. Transforms will generally be inherited by child nodes, although they can be ignored through the Inherit Transform Channels attributes.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Position X | Move along the local x-axis. |
| Position Y | Move along the local y-axis. |
| Position Z | Move along the local z-axis. |
| Rotation Heading | Rotate around the local y-axis. |
| Rotation Pitch | Rotate around the local x-axis. |
| Rotation Bank | Rotate around the local z-axis. |
| Scale X | Scale along the local x-axis. |
| Scale Y | Scale along the local y-axis. |
| Scale Z | Scale along the local z-axis. |
Control the inheritance of the transforms from the parent.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Position | Toggle inheritance of the Position from the parent. |
| Rotation | Toggle inheritance of the Rotation from the parent. |
| Scale | Toggle inheritance of the Scale from the parent. |
| World Position Only | Inherit the world position from the parent only, rotation and scale will be ignored. Overrides above properties. |
| Inherit Time | Toggle inheritance of time from the parent. |
These properties control the core behaviours of the node.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Kinect Skeleton Stream | Kinect Skeleton stream (*.skel) resource for playback |
| Use Active Skeleton | When enabled, automatically select the currently active skeleton. |
| Sensor Index | The index of the Kinect4 sensor to use. |
| Avatar Index | Select which Skeleton to use from the avatar index. Only functional with Use Active Skeleton is disabled. |
| Input Skeleton Scale | Scale the size of the input skeleton. |
| Smoothing | How much smoothing is applied to the output skeletons motion. |
| Derive Rotations (Don't use Kinect SDK Rotations) | Use internally calculated rotations instead of rotations from the Kinect SDK. |
| Mirrored | Mirror the movements of the incoming mobcap data along the x axis. |
| Flip Z | Flip the Z axis of the skeleton, to match a model with a flipped z axis. |
These properties control the playback properties of recorded Kinect 4 data.
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Stream Start Frame | Start frame of Kinect Skeleton stream playback |
| Stream End Frame | End frame of Kinect Skeleton stream playback |
| Stream Frame Rate | Kinect Skeleton stream playback frame rate |
| Name | Description | Typical Input |
|---|---|---|
| Hierarchy Root | Connect the skeleton root node to drive the rest of the skeleton from. | 3D Scene |
| Transform Modifiers | Apply the transforms of another node to this node. | Null |
| Target Node | Modifiy the rotations of the node to always direct the z axis towards the input. | Null |
| Local Transform Override | Apply the transforms of another node to this node, relative to its parent. | Null |