Importing BVH into MB

#1

Okay… I’ve got a BVH file from Mr. Bones that I was able to get working in MB (6 standard.) The problem is… I can’t seem to duplicate how I accomplished this.

First, I brought in my character mesh with bone system in place and characterized - no problem.

But after importing the BVH file I’ve not found a clear procedure that will plot the BVH animation to the imported character. I know that you don’t need to characterize the BVH file (by starting it in a T-stance) since it already worked once without having to do this.

I’ve checked throughout this forum and haven’t found any step by step procedures. There’s nothing in the manuals or in any video tutorials I’ve found. I REALLY hope that Gnomon or Digital Tutors (or SOMEONE) does a CD or DVD tutorial that will cover the various ways BVH files can be used in MB.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! :slight_smile:

#2

http://www.maidee.com/v/3JXN35dn35dn.auto.swf

#3

Thanks LotusArt… but the video says it’s 12:34 and it only goes to 5:12 and then says it’s loading. I’ve tried several times and waited but it continues to stop at 5:12. I’ve followed what is there up to that point. Is there a way to get the rest of the video?

#4

what language is that in? Chinese?

#5

I would guess it’s Chinese.

So… no one adds BVH files to Motion Builder?

After all of these views?

#6

I thought they showed this in the video called “MB_characterizing”. I didn;t use
any imported BVH yet, but I did make the "woody’ character do some walking.
I don;t see why you couldn;t use an imported BVH file in the same manner.

#7

I’ve reviewed all of the Characterizing videos I could find from v4, v5, v6 and v7 - as well as LOTS of other tutorials from 3DBuzz, on the CD’s and elsewhere. I have yet to find ANY clearcut uses of taking a BVH and plotting the motion onto a characterized figure.

If you could point me to the tutorial I will gladly review it and test it out right away. I would really like this to work since I’ve got hundreds of BVH files I would like to use.

#8

I haveto dash off to work right now, but when I get home in the morning (er,
after I get some sleep…) I will get out my notes about it. I’m suspecting that
it’s probably not what you want, but I’ll give it a try. I went through the video
and wrote it out step by step for myself.

#9

That would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

#10

Ok, here we go, but this is just for how to do it with included clipart and bvh files:

  1. go to asset browser
  2. go to: templates
  3. click on: characters, then drag the character icon to the viewport.
  4. a pop-up menu will appear, titled: characterize.
    5.the character definition and character settings tabs/sections will appear.
  5. click the check box next to: characterize, under: charcter definition.
  6. go to: character settings tab next.
  7. click the: “input type” down arrow. click on: control rig input.
  8. click on the: activate check box.
  9. go to the character controls box.
  10. In there, select a body part. Then you can move that body part on the rig.
  11. go back over to the Navigator, click on Scene, then on Reference.
  12. Then you can transform (move) the character.
  13. Go to Asset Browser to import a BVH file.
  14. Import all takes.
  15. Go over to input type under Character Settings tab.
  16. Uncheck the Activate box.
  17. Change Input type to: Character Input.
  18. The “Input Source” is BVH.
  19. Click on: “Active” check box again.

It’s too many steps! Anyway, it seems like that could easily be applied to
any imported BVH file too. You’d just have to know where to go to find it,
I should think.

#11

Tyler,

I went step by step, but a couple things don’t work.

Starting with an empty scene…

  1. go to asset browser
  2. go to: templates
  3. click on: characters, then drag the character icon to the viewport.
  4. a pop-up menu will appear, titled: characterize.

Dragging the character icon does not pop up the characterize dialog box. Did you start with a T-Stance character in the scene first? And then characterize it?

#12

3a. Go to layout view.
3b. Go to “character controls” box.
3c. Click the down arrow.
3d. Click the name of the character. I used “aragor”.
3e. Now in the Navigator, the “character Definition” and
character settings" tabs will appear. Click on the box next
to “characterize” under the “character definition” tab.
3f. Go to the “character settings” tab. Choose “control rig input.”
Put a check mark next to the “active” box.

Ok I guess that cuts out steps 4-10.

#13

Tyler,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately some things just don’t want to work as described. It’s too bad that no one else reading these posts use BVH files since no one else has responded.

I have downloaded MANY tutorials (well more than a GB) and found one that I ended up adapting to BVH files. Someone created a video tutorial using CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) mocap files (AMC file type) that seemed to work well.

Following all of those steps today, I was able to import BVH files - as long as the bone/joint names are MB compliant - and everything worked fine. I just have to re-name all BVH file joints - although I can probably also create another template in MB. But then unfortunately not all BVH files have the same names for joints. BVH Hacker is a GREAT program to rename bone joints and I would highly recommend it.

Thanks for your time Tyler! VERY much appreciated!

#14

hey Mega,

On the 3DBuzz website, (3DBUZZ.com), go to the video tutorials area, scroll down to motionbuilder. In there, the video is under MB Issue 1, video tutorial #7, called “Characterizing.” You have to register to access it. I recall that they talk about
the issue of re-naming joints in that video. They also go over the steps I just wrote.
Thank you Buzz and Zach. Back to sleep, zzzz…

#15

Thanks Tyler - though, “been there, done that.” :slight_smile:

I’ve not had any problem renaming joints, it was the whole procedure of getting the BVH motion file to drive the character. I got it now - though it took MUCH web surfing to find the right tutorial. Now I can’t even remember where I got it from since I’ve downloaded so many. At least it now works AND consistently.

Thanks again (VERY much) for your efforts. I do appreciate it!!

#16

Hey;

Would you care to share the step I seem to have problem of characterise the motion data in fbx format . I too watch many tutorials video but no avail.

please help

#17

phonx,

Here’s what worked for me. Hopefully it will help you.

If you’re using Lightwave…

In LW:

  1. Figure T-Pose in LW with correct bone names
  2. Export to FBX

In MB:

  1. Import BVH motion into BVH Hacker, rename bones to MB convention
    (if possible, reshape at frame 0 into T-Stance)
  2. Drag BVH into MB (if not in T-Stance, make into T-Stance) and
    Characterize (if bones names are correct, it should sharacterize with no problem)
  3. Save BVH Characterized as a template in FBX to use later
    NOTE: This template can be used for ALL BVH that uses the same naming conventions.
    If you change the new BVH files to match the template, all BVH’s will work.
  4. Clear MB scene; reload the FBX template you just cleared
  5. Next, take the BVH mocap file and place it over the template
    and Replace animation
  6. The skeleton should now be showing animation when played
  7. Double-Click on the Character in Navigator and go to Character Settings
  8. Plot Character to Control Rig, select FK/IK
  9. Save file as FBX; Clear MB scene
  10. Load character from LW (if character is not Characterized - Characterize!
  11. Open Story window in Editing Layout and drag motion file (step 11)
    into lower Story window - character should now show animated
  12. Double-Click Character in Navigator window; In Character Settings tab
    click Plot Character and select Control Rig; then FK/IK
  13. Click on Plot AGAIN and plot to skeleton
    16.Export Character to FBX

In LW:
17. Load original T-Stance character
18. Select Merge FBX and load the character exported in step 16
19. Character will be rotated weird; simply zero out pitch and bank which
are at 90 degrees (if you created a character Null, this is the
object which must be “unrotated”)

You can get BVHacker here: http://davedub.co.uk/bvhacker/

I haven’t had a chance to play around with this setup because we’ve been too busy. I tried to write this down so that when I went back to it I wouldn’t have any problem whereby I forgot a simple stupid step. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.

And Tyler thanks again for your help - I appreciate you taking the time!

Good Luck!

#18

yer welcome :slight_smile:

#19

Hey guys;

Thank for the walk through, my problem is that I was given many fbx format motion capture but I could not chracterise the animation because there are many naming conflict with motion builder so I have to try to rename manually but the character is twisted and bend! To make matter worse I have to transform about thirty files - OUCH!! Is there any faster way to make this translation automatically? I only have access to motion builder 7 PLE and Kaydara 5.5.

Many thank in advance

Phonx

#20

If all of the motion files have bones that are the same, you should be able to drag their names into the character list of bones and they should work fine. Then you can save this as a template. Of course if all of the motion files have different names for the bones, then there’e pretty much no way around manually changing all of them.

BVHacker is a great tool to easily change the name to the MB convention, but it IS the manual way of doing things. Check out the PDF of the PLE you have and eelve into the characterizing section. I’m sure there must be an area that explains what I’m talkinig about above.