Rokoko launches Smartsuit Pro II, an Even Better Indie Mocap Suit

When Rokoko launched in 2015, our affordable motion capture tools quickly became the secret weapon of thousands of indie studios and creators. Now, over 30,000 people use our Mocap suit and software to create high-end games, animated advertisements, Hollywood-level films, and all manner of VFX in between. And we’re excited to announce that in January 2022, we’re back with the next generation of motion capture tech, the Smartsuit Pro II (pre-order here).

“Although we have many of the world’s biggest studios as customers, more than 60% of our user base is made up by one-man-army creators. There’s no better feeling than enabling them to punch above their weight.”

<p class="quote-author">- Rokoko CEO Jakob</p>

What can you do with the Smartsuit Pro II?

As Apple teased in their release of the new Macbook Pro (where the Smartsuit Pro makes an appearance), endless creativity is on the cards. Our mocap suit gives you, your work-at-home team, and even solo creators the ability to animate characters in real-time, at studio-quality, via a simple wifi connection. Creators can record, clean, and edit motion data in seconds and stream it live into dozens of tools, including Unreal, Unity, Blender, Maya, and iClone for instantaneous feedback. The animation pipeline has never been this streamlined. Rokoko fully supports a real-time pipeline for your character animation. Motion recorded by the Smartsuit Pro II is sent over WiFi connected to your computer or smart device. As your suited actor moves, you can control your recordings in Rokoko Studio and stream the movement data directly onto your models with any popular 3D program.

What’s been upgraded in the Smartsuit Pro II?

Rokoko’s original Smartsuit was built to be a robust multi-purpose mocap machine. It’s durable, accurate, and affordable. We prioritized ease of use and a simple yet sophisticated setup, so much so that Wired Magazine said we were “bringing motion capture to the masses”.  And with Smartsuit Pro II, we’ve kept that simplicity while massively upgrading performance. In the next generation, we’ve listened intently to users’ feedback and focused on significantly enhancing characters with richer movement while speeding up the entire workflow. One thing that’s stayed the same; a lightning-fast one-minute calibration setup.

Key performance upgrades include:

• Ready for Multi-Level Tracking, so you can track elevation movement on stairs, ladders, and along the y-axis.
• Optimized for high impact use so punching, fighting, and falling doesn’t compromise data quality.
• Better locomotion accuracy over time, catering for a significant reduction in drift, meaning more reliable and longer streaming times.
• Native integration into the Rokoko Smartgloves, so only one portable USB-C battery is required to power your entire motion capture system.
  

“We’ve spoken with thousands of our users to identify what matters most and I’m confident that Smartsuit Pro II is improved on the points that add the most value for them and take their motion capture to the next level,” says Jakob Balslev, CEO and Founder of Rokoko. “Reducing drift, allowing for more high impact tracking, and unlocking multi-level tracking might not mean a lot to the outside world, but will mean the world to our users.”

As the cherry on top, we’ve extended general performance all around. Sensors have been upgraded, bringing the maximum recorded frames per second up from 100fps to 200fps, which results in more accurate data when performing fast paced motions. 

Spoiler alert: Mocap isn’t just for movies

Previously, you needed a studio, specialty cameras and rigs, a suit, advanced software to translate the data, and hours of animation time to clean it up into usable movement. Rokoko’s put all that in one simple, affordable suit that you can set up in your bedroom. And a change that big is opening new and exciting industries. More emerging creators live off their channels, contributing to the ever-booming creator economy. And we’re dedicated to supporting creators by making animation and mocap faster, cheaper, and of a higher quality than previously thought possible. From VTubers to Patreon artists, streamers to independent filmmakers, to Hollywood, the variety of uses for mocap is incredible. Jakob elaborates:

“Every day we’re seeing new use cases of our tools. Especially the rapidly growing segment of “internet creators” who are just finding such creative ways to tell their stories. We’re proud to be their tool of choice.”

Twiddling thumbs with Smartgloves

Hands. They just take so much time to get right. But when you use Rokoko’s Smartgloves, you’ll never have to set keyframes for hand animation again. Just pop the gloves on, calibrate them in one minute flat, and twiddle those thumbs! Like the Smartsuit Pro II, the motion data is instantly streamed to your software of choice and applied in real-time to your characters. 

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Rokoko Studio: a powerful free motion capture and animation software

Rokoko Studio is the best tool out there for real-time mocap and character animation. Inside you’ll find the world’s largest library of motion capture animations (and you can download 150 assets for free). From Rokoko Studio, you can stream animation into a variety of integrated 3D software. These include: 

• Unreal Engine
• Unity
• Blender
• Cinema 4D 
• Maya
• Motion Builder
• And more….
  

Click here to download Rokoko Studio for a free 30-day trial.  Or learn more about how Rokoko Studio works and can fit into your current pipeline.

So how much does the Smartsuit Pro II cost?

The Smartsuit Pro II start shipping in January 2022 for just $2,745 (€2,745). The suit and gloves are available worldwide and come standard with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. The accompanying software Rokoko Studio is available for both Windows and Mac and can be downloaded for free here. Pre-orders open on the 27th of October and can be placed here.

About Rokoko

Rokoko’s innovative motion capture technology was first thought of when founder and CEO Jakob was still a student. He wanted to use motion capture for a short film but was shocked by the cost required to do even basic motion capture. Together with his fellow students, they hacked a rough prototype together that used gyroscopes and inertial motion capture. This prototype was quickly refined into a suit for indie creators that was launched on Kickstarter. Rokoko’s motion capture tools are used by 30,000 creators and studios worldwide.