Loading Motion Capture Files ?

[bernhard]

Hi there,

I have my character characterized, plus control rig.

I drag & drop a motion capture file from my assets browser to the action field.
The animation transfers perfect to my character.

Now I want to make adjustments on the animation.
To do so, I select my Adjustment Animation Layer, and get sure that my character is set to the Control Rig.

I do so.... but when I try to change an effector in Full Body Mode, it just doesn't do anything.
Something is blocking the adjustments, I can't move any effector.. and so I can't make any adjustments.

it just sticks to the motion capture file.

Even after plotting, same thing...

What do I have to do that I can make adjustments ?
Which step do I miss or what am I doing wrong ?


thank you very much for any little help

Motion Builder 2012

[keepitloki]

Are you still in story mode?
Not the story window but a button on the extreme left, halfway down the screen. I got to where you seem to be and got hung up on that one for a whole day!
The mocap is plotted to the control rig right?

Hope this helps.

[bernhard]

Thx for your reply... got you.. yes.. I was still in story mode, so I couldn't do anything... fixed it.. thank you very much.

Do you maybe know, how I can load different .bvh files on one character ?
I just can't get this done....

thx

[keepitloki]

Er... I think you need to:
1. open your rig .fbx
2. click and drag the .bvh file onto the hips
3. plot the animation to the character rig.
4. save it out as an .fbx
5. re-open your character in the t-pose
6. click and drag the new action .bvh into the story window... I think.

I had big problems trying to solve this one too. The main one being that different .bvh files seem to have different naming conventions for their rigs. meaning you have to manually characterize the control rig (see intro to MB 2012 tutorial course on this website).
I believe there is also some stuff here on digital tutors under the 2009 courses on working with mocap data.
Also you might find this helpful (especially the first one) -
http://www.spafi.org/iso-8859-1/animace-obecne/motionbuilder-tutorial-bvh-t-poza-za-minutu
https://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture

[bernhard]

Thank you very much for your reply and the really good links. I really appreciate that.

Creating a template takes a bit time, but you can re-use the template and you don't have to characterize over and over again.
This is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, it doesn't get rid of the T-Pose, which is always mandatory.

On the other side, the tut describes very nice how you can create a T-Pose very fast.

I don't know what you prefer .. I mean the way you want to go to build up a useful mocap library.
But I guess what ever you do, it has to be the following:

1. Create your T-Pose
2a. Characterize individual or
2b. Characterize through a Template

I was just wondering, if there is a script or any automated process, that brings your imported motion capture data automatically into the T-Pose.

One more thing... did you every characterize the fingers ?
When ever I try to do that, the rig get's crazy... I can't get the fingers done...

Do you have any link, video tut or help for this ?


thx for posting & till later

[keepitloki]

No, I didn't do the fingers. I'm just learning how to work with mocap data. I found .bvh files from the internet. Mainly the site recommended on the tutorial here on DT. Once you have a T-pose for a particular site the naming conventions tend to stay the same, so you can process alot of .bvh files to .fbx very quickly (-ish). Once they are .fbx files you can just drag them onto other rigs.
The "Mia" rig for example has individual fingers so you can key them on an animation layer (or do something else I will explain next) you don't have to have fingers on your characterized t-pose to transfer the data to other rigs which DO have fingers, extra joints/bones etc.. I havn't found any .bvh files with data for fingers anyway (yet) have you?

I have found that a great way to use mocap data is to use it as a base for keyframed animation:
1. Add an extra character track in the relevant window and make sure its set to your character (e.g. Mia)
2. Set key frames on this character track using "full body" keys by scrubbing through your mocap and finding your key poses(i.e. antics, take off, action, landing whatever).
3. take this new character track (without the millions of keys set by a mocaped track from a .bvh file) and work on it as you would a "traditional" 3D animation, but without the work of setting all your key poses for each action.

- much cleaner and more task specific than mocap, much faster than setting your own poses.

Mind you, I'm no pro... just a student. This may not be perfect advice, but it works for me.

[bernhard]

Hi,

yes.. you are right.. if you find mocaps from one source the naming connections tend to stay the same.

@fingers:
ohh.. I didn't mean that I can't find mocap files with fingers.. or that I am in need of... no no... what I meant is, that when I try to rig and skin the character, with the builit in characterization tool... I can't get the fingers characterized....

When ever I do that, I am getting pretty odd results .. the skinning breaks.. try it, try to characterize the fingers in your skeleton .. through you characterization process inside maya.. I can't get it done. like I said, I am getting really odd results.. the skinning breaks...

@animaiton:
yes.. on top of the Control Rig I usually create an adjustment layer.. so the base mocap file stays at the base layer, and on top of it I adjust in FullBody mode my animation.
I do the same and I guess, that's the right way to do it.

I am really curios about the fingers....

[keepitloki]

Sorry, I don't know anything about Maya. I'm a Max user. Maya is something I have to learn in the future. Plus I'm even more amateur at rigging than I am at Motion Builder.