Dance Motion Capture Database

Frequently Asked Questions

Formats

Video format: Dance recording using an HD camera. Data saved in .MP4 (MPEG-4 part 10 H.264) or .FLV (flash) format.
.C3D format: stored 3D coordinate information, analog data and associated information as it is recorded from the motion capture system. More info can be found here.
Actor (.FBX) format: the motion of the performer is saved as an actor. Any virtual character (avatar) can be incorporated to perform the dance. This format is compatible with Autodesk MotionBuilder, 3Ds Max, Maya, Unity3D etc.
Character (.FBX) format: A virtual character has been incorporated to the actor. The character cannot be removed. This format is compatible with Autodesk MotionBuilder, 3Ds Max, Maya, Unity3D etc.
.RPD format: The PhaseSpace .RPD format that is stored 3D coordinate information, analog data and associated information (including cameras, rigid bodies etc) as it is recorded from the motion caprue system. The .RPD files are available upon request.

License

Software Copyright License for Non-Commercial Scientific Research Purposes

Please read carefully the following terms and conditions and any accompanying documentation before you download and/or use the DanceDB data and software, including but not limited to 3D meshes, images, videos, textures, software, scripts, and animations (hereinafter referred to as "Data & Software"). By downloading, cloning, installing, or using the Data & Software, you acknowledge that you have read these terms and conditions, understand them, and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, you must not download or use the Data & Software. Any violation of the terms of this agreement will result in an automatic termination of your rights under this License.

1. Ownership and Licensees

The Data & Software and any associated materials are proprietary and developed by the University of Cyprus (hereinafter "UCY" or "Licensor"). All copyright and patent rights are owned by UCY.

2. License Grant

The Licensor grants you ("Licensee") a personal, single-user, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to:

Install the Data & Software on computers owned, leased, or otherwise controlled by you and/or your organization.

Use the Data & Software solely for non-commercial scientific research, non-commercial education, or non-commercial artistic projects.

Prohibited Uses: The following uses are strictly prohibited:

Commercial purposes, including incorporation in commercial products, services, or artifacts.

Pornographic, military, surveillance, defamatory, or libelous applications.

Use for creating misleading, fake, or malicious content, except for analyses in peer-reviewed scientific research.

Reproduction, modification, or sharing of the Data & Software with third parties without prior written permission from UCY.

Reverse engineering of the Data & Software.

Training Restrictions: The Data & Software may not be used to train methods, algorithms, neural networks, or other models for commercial, pornographic, military, surveillance, or defamatory purposes.

3. No Distribution

The Data & Software may not be copied, shared, distributed, sold, resold, transferred, or sublicensed, in whole or in part, except for creating a single archival copy.

4. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Data & Software is provided "AS IS" as a result of basic research and may contain errors. Use is at your own risk. UCY makes no warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to:

Fitness for a particular purpose or merchantability.

Non-infringement of third-party intellectual property rights.

Freedom from defects, whether known or unknown.

5. Limitation of Liability

The Licensor's liability is limited to intentional or gross negligence. Licensor is not liable for:

Loss of data; Licensee is responsible for regular data backups.

Any damage resulting from the use or inability to use the Data & Software.

Issues caused by modifications or extensions made by the Licensee.

6. No Maintenance Services

UCY is not obligated to provide maintenance, updates, defect corrections, or notifications of latent defects. UCY reserves the right to update, modify, or discontinue the Data & Software at its discretion.

7. Publications Using the Data & Software

If you use the Data & Software in your research, projects, or publications, you are kindly requested to acknowledge and cite the creators of the dataset. Proper attribution helps support the continued development and maintenance of this resource.

Acknowledgment: The motion capture data used in this work were obtained from the Dance Motion Capture Database of the University of Cyprus, accessible at "http://dancedb.cs.ucy.ac.cy".

@article{Aristidou:2019:JOCCH,
							author    	= {Aristidou, Andreas and Shamir, Ariel and Chrysanthou, Yiorgos},
							title 		= {Digital Dance Ethnography: {O}rganizing Large Dance Collections},
							journal 	= {J. Comput. Cult. Herit.},
							issue_date	= {January 2020},
							volume 		= {12},
							number 		= {4},
							month 		= nov,
							year 		= {2019},
							issn 		= {1556-4673},
							articleno 	= {29},
							numpages 	= {27},
							url 		= {https://doi.org/10.1145/3344383},
							doi 		= {10.1145/3344383},
							acmid 		= {},
							publisher 	= {Association for Computing Machinery},
							address 	= {New York, NY, USA},
						}
						

@Inproceedings{Stavrakis:2012:DanceDB,
							 author 	= {Stavrakis, Efstathios and Aristidou, Andreas and Savva, Maria and Himona, Stephania Loizidou and Chrysanthou, Yiorgos},
							 title 		= {Digitization of Cypriot Folk Dances},
							 booktitle 	= {Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Progress in Cultural Heritage Preservation},
							 series 	= {EuroMed'12},
							 year 		= {2012},
							 isbn 		= {978-3-642-34233-2},
							 location 	= {Limassol, Cyprus},
							 pages 		= {404--413},
							 numpages 	= {10},
							 url 		= {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34234-9_41},
							 doi 		= {10.1007/978-3-642-34234-9_41},
							 acmid 		= {2426307},
							 publisher	= {Springer-Verlag},
							 address 	= {Berlin, Heidelberg},
							}
						

8. Subjects' Consent

All data shared by subjects have been obtained with informed written consent. Licensee agrees to:

Comply with any restrictions specified in the license or download section.

Delete data or adjust usage if a subject withdraws their consent.

9. Commercial Licensing Opportunities

For any commercial use of the Data & Software, including but not limited to integration into commercial products or services, training of commercial algorithms, or any use beyond the scope of this license, please contact us to discuss licensing options.

Contact: graphics@ucy.ac.cy

10. Governing Law

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws and regulations of the European Union, without regard to its conflict of laws principles.

AMASS Dataset

SMPL (SMPL Body Data .npz) and SMPLr (SMPL Body Rendered .mp4) files are under the terms and conditions of the AMASS Dataset.

Before downloading these files, you need to be registered and logged in to AMASS, and agree with the AMASS license.

AMASS Tutorial: https://github.com/nghorbani/amass/blob/master/notebooks/01-AMASS_Visualization.ipynb

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the data motion captured in your Lab?
We have a Phasespace Impulse X2E motion capture system consisting of 24 cameras that are able to capture 3D motion using modulated LEDs. These cameras contain a pair of linear scanner arrays operating at high frequency (960Hz) each of which can capture the position of any number of bright spots of light as generated by the LEDs. Motions are captured in a working volume of approximately 5m x 8m. The capture subject wears a mocap suit of 38 markers and a stylish black garment.

How can I use this data?
The motion capture data may be copied, modified, or redistributed without permission. Please read the copyrights statement before downloading.

Disclaimers

Disclaimer 1: We do not guarantee the quality of the data.
Disclaimer 2: Data classification is provided to assist users. The sincerest efforts have been to describe and categorize our motion data, so as to be generally helpful to all motion capture data seekers. However, as all motions are subject to individual interpretation, we cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies or mispresentations of data, arising from our classification.

Contribute!

If you have any dance motion captured data, dance-related information or mocap/animation code that you think would be useful to other people, please contribute. We will be happy to link to it, or host it.