3D Studio Max motion capture with a Wii Nunchuck

Technology

By passing Nunchuck data to a PC via an Arduino, Melka figured out a way to convert the accelerometer output into a MIDI stream that can be read directly by 3D Studio Max’s motion capture engine:

Here’s my setup under windows :

  • Arduino using a WiiChuck adapter from todbot (thanks kurt ^^) and the WiiChuck library from Tim Hirzel
  • Data sent to Processing via serial connection and translated to MIDI CC messages using the proMIDI library by Christian Riekoff
  • MIDI output from processing sent to midiYoke
  • midiYoke sends this data to Ableton Live
  • Ableton re-sends the CC messages to midiYoke
  • Using Float Motion Capture controllers on 3D Studio Max to rotate the objects according to the pitch and roll of the wiichuck

It’s a little complicated, but from the looks of the video the payoff is worth it. You could adapt this to use data from a number of accelerometers, or turn other measurement data into a MIDI stream that can be used by any application, 3DS or otherwise.

Arduino to 3D Studio Max [via MAKE]

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