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View Full Version : Retargeting Labels in Maya 6.5: "Other"

GeoffClark
07-05-2005, 11:28 PM
Hello,
I'm hoping someone can comment on this and help me. I have a 'master rig' file that other artists will use to animate with. The rig is complete with facial bones; eyes, eyebrows, eyelids, mouth,etc. Well in order to use the animation from one skeleton, you have to retarget the animation to another, identical skeleton.
The retargeting lables in the attributes of these bones have to be labeled in the category of 'Other', then a custom nametag like "eye" or "Mouth_L_Upper", you get the drift.
The problem is: anything with 'Other' as the lable doesn't retarget over to the new skeleton. It's frustrating because both skeletons are identical!

In the sample image below, You can see that the Target 'eye' joint has no keys. The source does.
Has anyone come across this and developed/discovered a workaround?
GeoffClark
07-06-2005, 06:04 PM
(bump)

Bueller?... :)
GeoffClark
07-12-2005, 06:02 PM
(bump)

surely someone has used maya's retargeting labels before??

:)
the_podman
08-04-2005, 01:30 AM
Damn! I've been having the exact same problem. The joints that are labeled with "other" do not retarget for some reason. My work around is to use the ones from the pull down but unfortunately, once you use up all the names, you HAVE to use other. I wonder why those don't retarget?! I may just use orient constraints for the 6 joints that won't transfer the data, however, I need to know how to "bake" the constrained motion into keyticks.

I with you, dude. Please help us!

-pod
GeoffClark
08-04-2005, 02:23 PM
Hey, Podman.

I'm glad someone finally has the same issue; I never found a solution and my theory is that alias is leaving the retargeting duties to Motionbuilder to sell some seats.
I left the company that I was working for on this issue so it's not a problem for me anymore.
You may know that you can simply cut and paste keys to and from the 'Other' bones. Yeah, it's a hassle but it will move the data.
I don't know if you can bake the constrained bones but give it a shot. it's under the Keys menu in the animation toolset.

Rock on,

GC
the_podman
08-04-2005, 04:19 PM
I've found a weird solution yesterday. When you use orient constraints from the keyed skeleton onto the new skeleton and then do another "retarget command", it'll work. Reason why is because it's dropping keys on every frame and on every joint, so when you delete the constraints, it'll maintain the rotations on the new skeleton because it took a keyframe on the rotational values, even though it was the constraint that originally drove it.
I really like Maya's retargeting feature because you can just duplicate the skeleton of the character you are working on, and/or create a proxy version of you character, then use multiple rigging solutions or even different apps and you won't ever "break" your original skeleton.


Although I like MotionBuilder very much, I still think .fbx is not totally glitch free when it comes to transfering motion data. With the introduction of FULL BODY IK's in Maya 7(a direct rip from MotionBuilder), I probably won't use MotionBuilder anymore. All they need to do in Maya now is make it possible to keyframe in layers and offer "realtime" playback on dense meshes and it'll be my only app I need. :) Oh, for the quick select Character Icon they have in MB, I use Keegan's "C3" (http://www.keegan3d.com/) plugin for Maya which does the same thing. Really speeds up the animation workflow. He's got lots of MotionBuilderesce like plugins on his site.


Here's a pic of one of my projects using C3:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/the_podman/C3_example.jpg

-pod :)
GeoffClark
08-04-2005, 05:13 PM
I, too, have wished for the easy selection of MB; thanks for the link to that site. I will check it out!


I'm glad you found a workaround for the retarget. I'm sure 7.0 will be better.

G
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