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FizixRichard
11-12-2009, 02:20 PM
Hi everyone,

I've been learning about animation recently and have created keyframe based animations. Today I decided to toy with Motion Capture animations.

I downloaded some animations from the CMU Animation Database, the Max friendly versions (http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/3dsmax-friendly-release-of-cmu-motion-database).

I imported the BHV format and converted it to a BIP animation and then applied the BIP animation data to a biped and it works perfectly.

I am now in need with some help though, I thought it would be nice to toy around with an animated character in Unity (http://www.unity3d.com), to see how the mocap based animations look.


Now I have two seperate questions:

1. Editing the sequence so the biped is stationary
The motion capture sequence I converted is a run cycle, in the animation the biped is actually moving forward as well as animated in a run cycle. In order for the animation to work correctly, the biped needs to be stationary in Max.

So my question to the more experienced out there is this... how do you edit the animation sequence so that the biped (and thus character if its been rigged up) is stationary while the animation plays?

I tried selecting each keyframe and moving the character to a fixed position (x,y,z coordinates) but this didn't work and also would be cumbersome if I were using motions like a jump sequence.


2. Can you append more motion capture cycles to a biped?
Lets say I have a walk cycle, run cycle and jump cycle (each as seperate samples), can I append them to eachother, so on the timeline the walk animation comes first, then afterwards the run and then the jump at the end?
thehive
11-12-2009, 02:56 PM
what ive been doing is loading 2 bipeds one to edit an one to reference the animation from the original

hope that helps
FizixRichard
11-12-2009, 04:32 PM
So you mean keyframing, using a motion capture animation as a reference. I guess thats one way, but as I am trying to learn so I can animate in a commercial environment I'd like to figure out how to achieve what I asked.

Importantly, how can I edit the animation sequence so that the biped is not moving forward during the animation squence.

Here are the files I am working with:

Raw BVH (which I have converted to BIP and applied to a Biped):
http://www.fizixstudios.com/mocap/walk_cycle.bvh

The BIP format which I've assigned to a biped:
http://www.fizixstudios.com/mocap/walk_cycle.bip


If you load the BIP sequence onto a biped, you can see, not only does the biped have a run animation sequence, but its actually moving forward.

What I want is to retain the animation sequence but the biped to remain stationary.
thehive
11-12-2009, 05:31 PM
oh oh, well in the motion tab there is a drop down called modes an display youll see two circle looks like a target that's the "In place mode" that will keep biped from moving forward
FizixRichard
11-12-2009, 05:47 PM
I see, thanks :)

I don't know if you'll know the answer to this as it could be quite specific to game engines but, does the mode only take effect in the 3DS Scene or would it be maintained when you import into game engines (i.e. Unity, Gamebryo, Unreal etc.)?
thehive
11-12-2009, 05:54 PM
hmm let me look into it,
fael097
11-12-2009, 08:19 PM
let me ask you people something...
first, how did you convert from bvh to bip your mocaps?
second, i loaded a mocap into my biped, but i need to sequence the animation, like loading another mocap after this one, but whenever i load a mocap, it replaces the current animation. how to sequence 2 mocaps?
thanks guys.
FizixRichard
11-13-2009, 07:59 AM
I'm still a beginner (hence this forum topic) so my advice may not be the best way, but it is a method.

To save a BVH animation to a BIP animation is quite simple.

1. Create a biped
2. Select the biped, go to "motion" and under the "motion capture" rollout select "load animation".

The BVH animation is now applied to the biped.

Then to save this out as a BIP:

1. Select the biped
2. In the "motion" section, under the "biped" rollout, select save animation and save it out as a BIP.

The bvh is now converted to a bip :)


To answer your second question, I asked the same thing in my OP. I honestly don't know, I'm thinking maybe you need to create a BVH sequence (so join the BVH animation with motion builder?)

Now, for me that wouldnt be ideal as a newbie, for me I would prefer to sequence them within Max; which I am sure there must be a way.


Thanks thehive for your replies. I will probably experiment with Unity to see what happens with the import to the game engine later :)


I have another question though:

I grabbed a mocap sequence from Animeeple and tried to import it but get a load of errors about tracks not matching, the sequence wont even load.

Is this because the tracks don't match the biped components? (as in the BHV data needs to be edited to make it max friendly)?

If so, how does one do that?
thehive
11-13-2009, 11:21 AM
you can use motion mixer to bring the to animations together
zecas
11-23-2009, 01:17 AM
thanks...............
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