Get free Blender add-ons BlendArTrack & BlendArMocap

Technical artist Denys Hsu – aka cgtinker – has released BlendArMocap, a promising free markerless motion capture add-on for Blender.

The software, which is currently in beta, can extract facial, hand and full-body pose data from webcam footage of an actor, and transfer them to a Rigify rig within the open-source software.

Updated 30 May 2022: BlendArMocap has now been officially released.

Free Blender add-ons for camera tracking, and for markerless face, hand and body capture
The new tool builds on the technology used in BlendArTrack, Hsu’s existing free augmented reality camera tracking and facial motion capture add-on for Blender.

Whereas BlendArTrack exports a limited range of animation data – either Empties, or an animated face mesh – BlendArMocap is a far more rounded motion-capture app, capturing facial, hand and body position.

The latter is limited to the torso: the add-on doesn’t currently transfer leg position, so you’re restricted to an actor moving on the spot, rather than walking around or doing anything more athletic.

The pose data can then be transferred to a Rigify rig within Blender, as shown in the video above. It looks a quick way to capture reference animation that can be refined to final quality with some manual clean-up.

Licensing and system requirements
BlendArMocap is available for Blender 3.0, on Windows, Linux and macOS. The source code is available under a GPL licence.

BlendArTrack 2.0 is available for Blender 2.9+, on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Download Blender add-ons BlendArMocap and BlendArTrack from the cgtinker Gumroad store
(Enter a figure of $0 to download them for free, or make a voluntary donation)