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jornp
08-10-2011, 09:30 AM
Does anyone have any tips on how to add a custom rig in Maya ontop of an animated skeleton exported from Motionbuilder?

One solution could be:
- Create the custom rig
- Import the animated skeleton to Maya
- Duplicate the animated skeleton and remove all keys (this will be the bind-skeleton)
- Group each joint of the bind-skeleton
- Parentconstraint each animated joint to each group of the bind-skeleton
- Parentconstraint each group of the bind-skeleton to the group of the custom rig-controllers
- Parentconstraint each joint of the custom rig to the bind-skeleton

This way the custom rig should follow the animated skeleton, and also be able to control the bind-skeleton. I havent tried this out yet, thought I should ask here first.


How do you guys work your way through this?
DruG
08-12-2011, 11:19 PM
Sounds like a scary plan;)

Wouldn`t be easier to just learn basics of Mobu and do everything there with no problem?

What do you want to do with your animation actually?
bclark
08-15-2011, 02:07 AM
Yes you can create a multi-layer import skeleton to load the data on as one way.
You can also just import the mobu control rig and animate with it in maya with animation layers.
You could create a bake system where you load the animation skeleton, snap/bake the rig controls to it and then animate with animation layers or an extra child control to do offsets.

You should watch the current masterclass
http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011/masterclasses

Live Animation Binding

Mark Jackson (http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011/masterclasses/mark?KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=600&width=600)
Lead Technical Supervisor, Eurocom Developments Limited
Products: Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® Human IK®
This MasterClass will outline a method of transferring character animations between any source data and a given animation rig using a binder template file. This method was originally designed to enable Motion Capture data to be mapped to our in-house rigging systems while allowing for easy manipulation, but quickly evolved into a retargeting system in its own right. In the most basic form it allows for MoCap fbx files to be dropped directly onto your animation rigs. However, expanding the technique allows you to transfer animations between characters even when their skeletal structures and proportions are completely different. Because it relies on a Binder File and isn't code based, it gives you the flexibility to manage any skeleton structure, allowing you to add custom bind nodes between any character specific joint and its relative Rig Controller. Finally because the bind is a preset file, it makes it very easy to bulk process animations, casting CharacterA's animation library straight to CharacterB.

VIEW MASTERCLASS (http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011/masterclasses/class2)
jornp
08-27-2011, 04:37 PM
I'm sorry for the late reply

Wouldn`t be easier to just learn basics of Mobu and do everything there with no problem?

What do you want to do with your animation actually?
I didn't know that that actually was the standard way to work with mocap. I thought the normal procedure was to do the cleanup in Motionbuilder, then layer a custom rig ontop of the baked joints.

The reason why I asked was that I wanted some cartoony feel to my mocap-data, so I thought there was some sort of easy way to implement your own rig ontop :)


Yes you can create a multi-layer import skeleton to load the data on as one way.
You can also just import the mobu control rig and animate with it in maya with animation layers.
You could create a bake system where you load the animation skeleton, snap/bake the rig controls to it and then animate with animation layers or an extra child control to do offsets.

You should watch the current masterclass
http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011/masterclasses

Live Animation Binding

Mark Jackson (http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2011/masterclasses/mark?KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=600&width=600)
Thanks a bunch Brad, I'll check that one out :)