MANUS Core 2.1 | Record & Export
Note: This article applies to both Prime 3 Haptic XR Gloves and Prime 3 Mocap Gloves
Note: This article applies to both Quantum Mocap Metagloves and Quantum XR Metagloves.
Recording
Pressing REC in the top right corner will open the control panel as well as the recording side panel for additional options.
Control Panel
Frame Backwards: Go back one frame.
Play: Will start and stop playback of the current recording.
Record: Starts and stops a recording.
Frame Forwards: Go forward one frame.
Stop: Stops recording or playback and goes to the in-point
Loop: Toggles looped playback.
Set-In: Will set the starting point of the clip to the current frame.
Set-Out: Will set the end point of the clip to the current frame.
Framerate: Sets the playback framerate. Supported options are 24, 25, 30, 48, 60, 90 and 120 fps.
Frame Position: Shows the current frame and the amount total frames in the recording. This is dependent on the selected framerate.
Main Time: Shows the current time during playback. Time is shown as HH:MM:SS:FFF by default. When the recording has timecode available, this will be shown as HH:MM:SS:FF
End Time: Indicates the total length of the recording
Keyboard Shortcuts
Side Panel
Open
You can also load previously saved files. Simply click Load and select the recording you would like to open.
Save
To save the currently loaded recording you press "Save" and a file dialog will open to select where to save the file and with what name.
Files will be saved as .MREC which is a MANUS Recording file and can be loaded in MANUS Core.
By default, a recording will be saved once you stop recording.
If you are using triggered recording, the files will be saved in the folder you configured in Motive or Shogun.
Clear
When you stop recording, the recorded animation will be loaded. Youcan clear the current recording to go back to live data. Please beware that any unsaved recording will be lost.
Export
Export your recording to a different file format for use outside of MANUS Core. The current recording will be exported using the specified in and out points.
Batch Export
For exporting multiple .mrec files using identical settings. Pressing "Batch Export" will open a popup window with all "Batch Export" settings. These .mrec files will then be converted to a different file format.
Current
This shows the name of the currently loaded recording.
Auto save recordings
When enabled this will automatically save your recording to a .mrec file afterrecording. To the specified folder. When triggered recording is used the file willbe saved using the name and location specified by the software sending out therecording trigger. If no location or name are specified these settings will be usedas a fallback.
Make sure Auto Save Recordings this is toggled on when using triggered recording
External timecode
This will show the status of your timecode signal. When a recording is loaded it will show the recorded timecode data. When the data is live it will show the live timecode signal.
Export Settings
Filename
Here you can choose the name of your exported FBX file.
Files
For Batch Export only. This will list all files you have added (with the ‘Add Files’ button) for batch exporting.
Location
Specify the folder where the exported file(s) will be saved to.
Suffix
For Batch Export only. The exported filenames will be copied from the original .MREC files. These filenames will be appended with the suffix set here.
Skeleton Structures
You can choose different skeleton structures depending on your use case for the exported FBX file.
- MANUS
- Polygon Avatar
- Autodesk
- HumanIK
- Xsens
- MVN Avatar (Mo)
- Unreal 4
- Unreal Default
- (external) Mannequin Male
- (external) Mannequin Female
- Unreal 5
- Unreal Default
- (external) Mannequin Male (Manny)
- (external) Mannequin Female (Quinn)
- Metahuman
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Overweight
- Mixamo
- X Bot
- Y Bot
Settings
Framerate: Setting the exported framerate to 24, 25, 30, 48, 60, 90 or 120 frames per second (fps).
Units: Sets the equivalent to 1-unit in the exported FBX. Options are: millimetres(mm), centimetres(cm), decimetres(dm), meters(m), kilometres(km), inch or foot.
Include SMPTE timecode signal: This will timestamp the frames of the FBX file using the timecode time (if available).
Include meshes: This will include the character and tracker meshes in the exported file.
Use wrist rotation: When only exporting glove data, we could use the wrist rotation setting to select if we want to include the orientation of the hand in the export.
Export hands individually: : Checking this will export separate files for each hand and user using the suffix _L and _R.
Use full skeleton: Will export the entire full body skeleton. When only hand data is provided the skeleton will be in a t-pose.
Include tracker transforms: This will include the original tracking positions and rotation when trackers were part of the recording.
Use first frame bind pose: This will swap out the first frame for t-pose bind pose in the exported file.
Use keyframe reduction: This will remove redundant keyframes in the animation curves. This can drastically reduce file size with minimal loss to accuracy.
Keyframe interpolation mode: Can be set to Cubic or Linear.
Linear will linearly interpolate between keyframes resulting in absolute curves with no overshoot.
Cubic will smoothly interpolate between keyframes with a small risk of overshooting absolute positions.
Scale skeleton: Scales the skeleton using the calibrated hand and body dimensions.
Recording Triggers
In the settings panel there is a section for Recording Settings. This sections lets you set a variety of Triggered Recording options.
MANUS Core has triggered recording functionality for OptiTrack Motive, Vicon Shogun, PeelCapture and Qualisys QTM.
Motive
Trigger: If you are using OptiTrack Motive software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Port: For Motive you will need to enable the Remote Trigger functionality inside Motive.
Then in the Manus Dashboard enable the Motive trigger and set the port 2 higher than your command port.
By default, this means your trigger port number will be 1515.
PeelCapture
Trigger: If you are using PeelCapture software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
You will also needs the PeelCapture Plugin for MANUS Core 2. You can download this from our resource center.
Port: Here you can set the PeelCapture port.
Vicon Shogun
Trigger: If you are using Vicon Shogun software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Port: For Shogun you will need to enable the Triggered Capture functionality inside Shogun.
You can set your trigger port to a specific number, by default it is set to port 30.
Then in the Manus Dashboard also enable the Vicon Shogun trigger and set the port to the same number as in Shogun.
Qualisys
Trigger: If you are using Qualisys software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Port: By default, your trigger port number will be 8989.
Timecode
Timestamp data using timecode: This will use the timecode provided time to timestamp the data. This applies to both recordings and data streamed out to plugins.
Interface: Select the input audio-interface your LTC and Sync/Genlock signal is being sent to. Generally, this will be a line-in interface. The left channel will be the Sync/Genlock signal and the right the LTC signal. The button on the right reloads all currently available audio-interfaces.
Genlock: Allows you to specify if a Sync/Genlock pulse signal is used. This signal should be sent to the left channel of the above specified interface.
Keep interface alive: Keeps the interface available even when the audio signal islost, or the cable is removed / replugged.
