koobas.hobune.stream
how to make animations using fbx or bvh files
Hi
I am starting up now with Unity and would like to know how to animate my rigged character in unity.
I have few fbx and bvh files that i have found online for free, and would like to use them on my rigged character (made in cheetah3d); but i cannot find any info about how to do so.
The only relevant topic that i have found was mentioning something like deleting the original skeleton rig and replace it with the one in the animation; but then you gotta rig again the mesh all over? It doesn't seem right so I am sure that someone more knowledgeable can in fact tell me how to do this.
I tried Mixamo but is too expensive; and is also a waste of resources since i already have both the mesh rigged and the animation file, so I just gotta put them together, so i can have a character like the one used for the bootcamp demo.
Anyone can please help? I have got Unity last weekend and would love to start to use my creation (i am still a beginner in CG, so is not that great :D) into Unity!
Thanks a lot folks!
wow, i am impressed that nobody replied....basically i am on my own if I don't wanna buy the content sold online.....is this how I should take this silence?
They told me that this community was the most helpful and friendly, but maybe this changed since when the asset store opened.
Thanks anyway for stopping by, check the post and leave.
Actually, I think it's just really complicated. I've spent about 20 hours trying to apply BVH data to a rigged character in Blender. There are plenty of tutorials out there, but none of them seem to be working at the moment. I suspect that the software packages involved have been updated and are not compatible with each other. Blender gives some weird errors, etc.
So don't take silence as an insult. It's just a lack of information available.
Thanks wccrawford for the reply. I understand that is a time consu$$anonymous$$g operation, and that's why I am surprised that we have 100 software that allow us to make models and rig them, but when it comes to animations, you are basically stuck like people in the 40s, doing interpolations and animating by hand, since it takes quite a while to master motion retarget with any software.
I've seen the blender project from Benjy Cook, and looks promising, but is really involuted and require quite a bit of tinkering....If people at $$anonymous$$ixamo are able to do a rig and animation set on the fly on a custom model, i don't get how other bigger companies don't make a module or an add on to do the same...
Glad that i am not the only one that is painfully trying to get some results.
Motionbuilder is one of the best at dealing with Mocap. I'd do a search on Ebay/Amazon for an older or 2nd hand verson if you want a cheaper solution. There is a also a Biped Editor prefab/package available in the asset store for editing inside unity, but I don't have any experience with it.
Either that or look into ipisoft's desktop mocap software and make your own mocap the easier and currently cheapest way.
Thanks for the reply Pilot.
I know about $$anonymous$$B, but I do not have money to buy it, plus I don't wanna get it cracked like many do; is just a matter of principle. It looks great, and their tutorial using the model from deus ex on youtube looks great, but I wish that also other software houses decide to make something for the masses; simple and straightforward; that does not require hours to learn how to do the retargeting....we already spend hours modeling and then rigging, so at least on that aspect I wish that someone decide to do something to speed up the process.
I will check this biped editor, but it sounds like 3dsmax related, and if i could afford 3ds max I would probably get motion builder at this point :) but is worth the try.
If i do mocap on my own, i am still in the same situation....I must make a model with the rig structure based on the one of the mocap files, and then rig one by one :) I don't $$anonymous$$d to do it once, if then i can just load another animation and seamlessly attach it to the same mesh, but so far i haven't seen anything like this except mixamo online service....wich not only is expensive, but very limited for the motion that they have.
Yeah, I know what you mean. When I started of with mocap I tried using Poser which for mocap only has a basic plugin called BVH Helper available for purchase (it's about $20 think). I used this in conjunction with the free app BVH Hacker. But editting mocap inside Poser alone I found to be a little nightmare; these tools helped but weren't as easy to use as $$anonymous$$otionbuilder.
The only other option I can think of is the free Daz Studio which has a plugin called ani$$anonymous$$ate. The tools are limited obviously but may be enough depending on your needs.
The issue with both of these though is character rigging. Poser has a plugin for rigging obj files which works great (Obj2Cr2) but the issue then remains getting the character into Unity. At the moment, only Daz can do that effectively with its fbx plugin ($100 or so) unless you go down the road of PoserFusion for which you'd need a high end app anyway like Cinema 4D, $$anonymous$$aya, $$anonymous$$ax etc. also, have you tried Gmax? It's the free version of 3ds $$anonymous$$ax intended for games.
There also seems to be quite a few tutorials now on adding mocap to Second Life sculpties. I'm not sure what apps are used but since Second Life users aren't generally all 3D wizards my guess is that it wouldn't be that difficult to use, and most likely free also. Do a google search and see what you come up with.
Hope this info was helpful.
I have poser pro too, and is absolutely impossible to use for animations other than ones used for rendering....you gotta import the mesh and rig it in poser to get good results, and i hate to do the same job twice :)
The problem is that even if i get these software that you mentioned, there is no way that i can just load my mesh, load the fbx with the animation and save the resulting as mesh+ animation, without doing heavy reposition of the motion by hand; so the problem here is not that much the fact that i can load a mesh and the fbx with the bone structure animated, but something that can actually help me to get the fbx animation file on top of a mesh in an easy and quick way....I would invest in $$anonymous$$B but i will not have the need to do this too often; I am pretty realistic about the fact that this is a project and will not make hundreds or thousands, so before wasting too much money I would rather go for something that is cheap.
C4d has nothing for retarget motions like $$anonymous$$B?
In my experience, when importing mocap files bvh or fbx, all that is needed is for the skelelton bone names of both the mocap and the rig you are using to match, and they will apply without needing to retarget. You can rename these quite easily without paid software, and then use the above mentioned apps to blend multiple mocap together seamlessly. Rarely will you find a piece of software that can do completely everything you want and be free at the same time. Even high end software doesn't solve every problem an artist may encounter. Compromises and problem solving is always needed, you may not be able to achieve exactly what you want, but will definetely be able to find a similar result. Do a bit of googling and I'm sure you'll find a solution that will suit you. Gd luck :)
Indeed that is what i am looking for....someone that can tell me how to start from the animation in fbx and a mesh rigged and end up with the animation, because when i try to apply the animation to the mesh, even if they have the same name, the result is all off; with pinching and mesh deformation all over...so is not just a matter of loading a file and apply it, like you would do with a poser pose (i wish :D)
Googling gave me $$anonymous$$B and the retarget project from a student for the google summer of code on blender; i was expecting more but not that much came up , hence my decision to post here, since most of the Unity users are mainly artists, so they must have done this over and over and can suggest me what to do :)
Thanks again for your help!
