Hi, all:
Well, Shaggy went and founded a swing dancing school, but someone forgot to tell him there's more to swing dancing than just movin' to the music. The audience doesn't seem to mind, though.
http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/reusables...SwingSchool.mov (1.2 MB, 0:35)
Here's the baked action that I used. It currently only works well with characters of Shaggy's height, but I'm working on fixing that.
http://www.hash.com/users/zachbg/reusables...kyBaked.act.zip (1 MB)
Enjoy!
*EDIT*: Scroll down to get a version of the .act which should work for all 2001 rig characters.
Full Version: Shaggy's Dance Concert
Hash, Inc. Forums > Technical Direction and Development (Learning Animation:Master) > A:M Tutorials and Demonstrations > Animation > Reusable Motion
So coooooooool!
We're starting to see more and more of these BVH-to-A:M conversions. This one looks particularly awesome. If this process gets a little more streamlined, with the huge number of free BVH files floating around out there... We could be looking at one huge boon to Hashers.
Out of curiosity, how much keyframe cleanup did you have to do once the rig was set up?
We're starting to see more and more of these BVH-to-A:M conversions. This one looks particularly awesome. If this process gets a little more streamlined, with the huge number of free BVH files floating around out there... We could be looking at one huge boon to Hashers.
Out of curiosity, how much keyframe cleanup did you have to do once the rig was set up?
| QUOTE (luckbat) |
| Out of curiosity, how much keyframe cleanup did you have to do once the rig was set up? |
Very little; in fact, none at all on Shaggy. The other characters (except Thom) had a problem because they weren't Shaggy's height but the BVH file was; so their hips were translated to Shaggy's height and it looked like they were dancing on their knees.
The fix was ridiculously easy, though; I changed each character's Chor Action blend method to "Add," then translated the hips upward until their legs were in the proper orientation.
That only worked, however, because I had used the IK legs setup in the initial Action for Shaggy. FK legs, which is how the BVH has it, would have resulted in foot slippage in taller/shorter characters.
In fact, that's the problem I'm working on for the baked action I provided above; because baked actions are, by definition, FK, it don't look so good on characters taller or shorter than Shaggy.
Wow Zach!
You are so full of great ideas for experimenting and animating, and it seems every try you make turns out in a good clip with a subtle sense of humor. You have posted a very impressive number of excellent animations in just a few days. Hash will soon be able to advertise"Make a good clip every day with Animation:Master".
About BVH files; I learned about those for the first time when Martin started a thread not so long ago, and i think they are a great tool to study movement, weight shifts and timing.I personally have a hard time with making a walk cycle, and had my best try when i attached my character to a BVH skeleton and then reproduced it in my own action cycle.
Good luck with your entertaining work!
You are so full of great ideas for experimenting and animating, and it seems every try you make turns out in a good clip with a subtle sense of humor. You have posted a very impressive number of excellent animations in just a few days. Hash will soon be able to advertise"Make a good clip every day with Animation:Master".
About BVH files; I learned about those for the first time when Martin started a thread not so long ago, and i think they are a great tool to study movement, weight shifts and timing.I personally have a hard time with making a walk cycle, and had my best try when i attached my character to a BVH skeleton and then reproduced it in my own action cycle.
Good luck with your entertaining work!
"awwww, GAWHRSH..." -- Bashful, the Dwarf (my kids are very into Snow White at the moment).
I experimented a bit and have come up with a workflow to create a baked action which will work with the Hash 2001 rig regardless of height. The results aren't perfect by any means, but it does basically work with characters of different heights. I'll create a tutorial soon, but for now here's a revised version of the baked BVH which I used in this animation, which should work for all 2001 rig characters. Let me know if it doesn't!
I experimented a bit and have come up with a workflow to create a baked action which will work with the Hash 2001 rig regardless of height. The results aren't perfect by any means, but it does basically work with characters of different heights. I'll create a tutorial soon, but for now here's a revised version of the baked BVH which I used in this animation, which should work for all 2001 rig characters. Let me know if it doesn't!
Man, that's some good dancing. One of these day I'm really going to have to learn animation.
....help.... meee....
...I've fallen off my chair.... the laughter... tooo.... funny... can't breathe.... aackk...
------------------------------------------
Now, tell me honestly, that is way better then just ROTFL.
Thanks Zach. By the way, I don't think you have a fatwa.
Vernon "Jazzy Hands!" Zehr
...I've fallen off my chair.... the laughter... tooo.... funny... can't breathe.... aackk...
------------------------------------------
Now, tell me honestly, that is way better then just ROTFL.
Thanks Zach. By the way, I don't think you have a fatwa.
Vernon "Jazzy Hands!" Zehr
I'm sorry for this total newb question but what is a BVH file? 
It's a motion capture file format.
thanks for the file looks like it could be fun to play with
Hey Zach,
Is this BVH file something you found? Or was it on the AM disk?
See, I have an idea... don't yell at me okay?
Poser has this walk cycle generator, it also comes with a bunch of motion capture files... I have never used them at all.
It would be nice if these things could be "repurposed" in AM.
See, I believe in recycling. This would help conserve the rapidly decreasing resources of our planet. It would make the air cleaner, and save the limited space available in landfills...
... I am sensing some skepticism...
Vernon "!" Zehr
Is this BVH file something you found? Or was it on the AM disk?
See, I have an idea... don't yell at me okay?
Poser has this walk cycle generator, it also comes with a bunch of motion capture files... I have never used them at all.
It would be nice if these things could be "repurposed" in AM.
See, I believe in recycling. This would help conserve the rapidly decreasing resources of our planet. It would make the air cleaner, and save the limited space available in landfills...
... I am sensing some skepticism...
Vernon "!" Zehr
OMG, LOL! Have you seen those walk cycles!?!? ROTFLMAO... I never saw such unintentionally hilariously ridiculous walk cycles in my life! Those women (and they always are women who are the victims of most Poser crimes) are so indescribably "sexy." 
Now if one of your critters is gonna adopt a walk cycle like that you may have a seriously funny idea on your hands!
Now if one of your critters is gonna adopt a walk cycle like that you may have a seriously funny idea on your hands!
| QUOTE |
| I'll create a tutorial soon... |
Zack,
Simply amazing ...
| QUOTE |
| I'm working on a project right now which uses reusable actions in a major way. I'm no guru, but I get by, and I'll be producing a tutorial when the project wraps (mid-January, probably). I don't know yet if I have the capacity for video capture, but if so, that'll be the way I go. Hopefully, that will help. |
BTW, is this still on target? (hope hope hope) ...
| QUOTE (heyvern) |
| Is this BVH file something you found? Or was it on the AM disk? |
I found it via this amazing tool, you may not have heard of it, called "Google."
Do a search for "free BVH." You have to do a lot of digging, far more than with your typical Google search, to find good links, but they are there. Content-based searches like "BVH dance" also work, too.| QUOTE (vf124) |
| BTW, is this still on target? (hope hope hope) ... |
I think so. I was talking about my Soap Opera project, and I need a wee break from it for the time being.
The workflow for getting the BVH files to work regardless of character height has hit a bit of a snag. I can get it to work OK for actions (like this one) in which the character's feet are basically on the ground the whole time. But I tried it on a BVH which contained a karate-type kick, and the kick didn't go high enough on a character taller than Shaggy... working...
Thanks, there file always seem to help me along a little further in my learning.
Mike C
Mike C
| QUOTE (ZachBG @ Jan 9 2005, 06:11 AM) |
| ...and I need a wee break... |
Yes Zach,
You should take a lot of those. Don't hold it. It isn't healthy. I think you should probably be taking those more than once between projects... you might explode.
As I always said to my coworkers when I worked in an office...
Excuse me, I have to go wee, "WEEEEEEE....!"
Vernon "!" Zehr
| QUOTE |
| Excuse me, I have to go wee, "WEEEEEEE....!" |
Hey Vern,
Zack doesn't need a weeee weeee break, after all he's the "creator" of Indiana Shaggy, Super Shaggy & a host of other cool cool stuff ...
Therefore ... Super Zack don't take no breaks
Well, maybe he should take just one
(Still scratching head over how the letters fall in Oscar vs. FBI ....)
| QUOTE (vf124 @ Jan 10 2005, 07:11 AM) |
| (Still scratching head over how the letters fall in Oscar vs. FBI ....) |
Hand-keyed, baby, hand-keyed. Accept no substitutes.
(garwsh...!
)
oh shoot! I think I remember a site that has free BVH files, but I can't remember the name! That's gonna be bothering me a lot
That's the one! Yes...thanks
SO---Do these BVH files work with any rig? I don't see how...
Okay, that looked so cool I had to give it a try. Two questions:
1) When I do it, Gala looks like she's got a broken ankle, even before I add the action to her. I remember reading something about that somewhere, but I'm not finding it with Search; what's the fix for that?
2) How'd you get them to vary their timing slightly and still finish their actions at the same time? By keying the Ease slightly off its default value at various points throughout the action?
1) When I do it, Gala looks like she's got a broken ankle, even before I add the action to her. I remember reading something about that somewhere, but I'm not finding it with Search; what's the fix for that?
2) How'd you get them to vary their timing slightly and still finish their actions at the same time? By keying the Ease slightly off its default value at various points throughout the action?
| QUOTE (Godfrey @ Jan 23 2005, 07:02 PM) |
| 1) When I do it, Gala looks like she's got a broken ankle, even before I add the action to her. I remember reading something about that somewhere, but I'm not finding it with Search; what's the fix for that? |
Honestly, I'm not sure... I would suggest turning off Animate mode and rotating her foot to the correct angle, and seeing if that fixes the problem.
| QUOTE |
| 2) How'd you get them to vary their timing slightly and still finish their actions at the same time? By keying the Ease slightly off its default value at various points throughout the action? |
No, I just started the actions at slightly different frames (IIRC, they were at most six frames apart, first to last, with the others in between). They don't actually finish at the same time--they just appear to.
My ode to ZachBG and his animation efforts can be seen to the left. Thanks Zach!
Sorry if the Chunking is to big right now. I'll fix that. I couldn't wait to see it in the forum. This will also serve as my victory Dance for the next image contest. That is unless I come up with something better.
Thanks again Zach. And for those that don't know it.. that is Zach in the outfit doing the dance.
C
Sorry if the Chunking is to big right now. I'll fix that. I couldn't wait to see it in the forum. This will also serve as my victory Dance for the next image contest. That is unless I come up with something better.
Thanks again Zach. And for those that don't know it.. that is Zach in the outfit doing the dance.
C
ROTFLMAO!
Thanks, Colin! That made my day.
Thanks, Colin! That made my day.
on a more serious note Zach. I noticed that when he twist around that the legs just collide through each other. I saw it on the original movie you did, but not as much. Is that to to motion smoothing? or could it be because I applied this and had IK legs turned on?
Thanks again,
C
Thanks again,
C
| QUOTE (cfree68f @ Jan 30 2005, 10:51 PM) |
| I noticed that when he twist around that the legs just collide through each other. I saw it on the original movie you did, but not as much. Is that to to motion smoothing? or could it be because I applied this and had IK legs turned on? |
Hmmm... I'm not entirely sure without looking at the project again... but my guess is that it could have to do with the height difference between your character and the motion. I don't think the "translate scale" function works very well with mocapped actions.
It also looks to me like it could be a question of where the knees are pointing, though it's hard to tell with such an extreme angle and small size.
finally got him rigged for MOCAP. I'll save yours for my victory dance Zach.
C
C
Colin...Zach---- EXCELLENT samples!
I want to learn more about these BVH files and A:M...
Do they work with any rig?
What kind of pre-rigging/compatability issues are there?
Can you run me thru the process of getting a BVH into A:M and onto a character?
You's guys rule!
I want to learn more about these BVH files and A:M...
Do they work with any rig?
What kind of pre-rigging/compatability issues are there?
Can you run me thru the process of getting a BVH into A:M and onto a character?
You's guys rule!
AY! Neveryoumind! I took your advice and googled for it and found Will Suttons tutorial...I'm on my way! And away I go...
http://www.zandoria.com/motioncapture.htm
http://www.zandoria.com/motioncapture.htm
John,
Yes it will work with any rig.. But you'll have to rerig or edit the BVH files if they are setu up differently.
A few pointers that are different from Williams Tute. I noticed that the Aim at Two constraint wasnt working spot on.. So I just used Orient like constraints on all the leg bones , arm and neck and head bones.. This worked pretty well. but only because I was able to match up the Mocap to my rig pretty closely.
A tip. Not that you need to but it might help if you add more constraints than just orients. You can actually scale the bones in the BVH files with no effect on the animation. You can move them as well if they don't have a motion channel allready.. That is.. when you open the bones you can see which channels it has. If it doesnt have Motion .. then you can add your own. I used this to make the BVH fit my skeleton very closely. That helped allot.
The other difference is that you cant drop poses on actions anymore.. But you set the pose and.. all I can figure to change the bvh motion is to reload it into the original action. It didnt seem to copy across when I set the pose in the action.
Zach did you have this same problem?
C
Yes it will work with any rig.. But you'll have to rerig or edit the BVH files if they are setu up differently.
A few pointers that are different from Williams Tute. I noticed that the Aim at Two constraint wasnt working spot on.. So I just used Orient like constraints on all the leg bones , arm and neck and head bones.. This worked pretty well. but only because I was able to match up the Mocap to my rig pretty closely.
A tip. Not that you need to but it might help if you add more constraints than just orients. You can actually scale the bones in the BVH files with no effect on the animation. You can move them as well if they don't have a motion channel allready.. That is.. when you open the bones you can see which channels it has. If it doesnt have Motion .. then you can add your own. I used this to make the BVH fit my skeleton very closely. That helped allot.
The other difference is that you cant drop poses on actions anymore.. But you set the pose and.. all I can figure to change the bvh motion is to reload it into the original action. It didnt seem to copy across when I set the pose in the action.
Zach did you have this same problem?
C
Well- things progressed rather smoothly, and I am now rendering a test! I use TSM2 rig and have to report that applying it to the BVH skeleton was pretty easy! I used Will Sutton's tutorial to get me started...then abandoned it halfway thru when I felt confident enough that I could mess everything up without his help. I basicly used translate-to, orient-like and aim-at constraints where I felt they should go and was done WAY before I thought I would be.
This is ANOTHER powerful feature hiding in A:M's wings.
As an animator, my first instinct is that MoCAP is an alternative to hand animating and that it is a BAD thing... but, lately I've been inspired by Zach and Colins work (more entertained than inspired) and became interested in learning more about MoCap for the sake of EDITING it. A:M's channels nest the MoCap keyframes thus making it very easy to 'take over' as it were. So, you could start a scene with MoCap and end it with your own hand animation. Or, if you like the MoCap smooth legs in a walk cycle, you can provide animation for the arms and torso...
There's a lot of possibilities here...
Now- who has or knows someone who has a motion-capture rig?
EDIT: I'll be posting the test soon...later in the day...fri feb 4
This is ANOTHER powerful feature hiding in A:M's wings.
As an animator, my first instinct is that MoCAP is an alternative to hand animating and that it is a BAD thing... but, lately I've been inspired by Zach and Colins work (more entertained than inspired) and became interested in learning more about MoCap for the sake of EDITING it. A:M's channels nest the MoCap keyframes thus making it very easy to 'take over' as it were. So, you could start a scene with MoCap and end it with your own hand animation. Or, if you like the MoCap smooth legs in a walk cycle, you can provide animation for the arms and torso...
There's a lot of possibilities here...
Now- who has or knows someone who has a motion-capture rig?
EDIT: I'll be posting the test soon...later in the day...fri feb 4
Cool John.. can't wait to see it.
The company that did Gollums Mocap is here in Atlanta. Not that I think I could get anything out of them. There used to be a guy who came to our Atlanta meetings who worked for a Mocap company. But I think he moved back to Canada.
Mocap is big in Games, Commercials, and some other commercial venues. Its a big time saver and many times looks more realistic than hand animation. My thoughts are that Mocap works for realistic models. but Hand animation seems better for cartoony models. I doubt Pixar will ever use mocap, but that might be a hedged statement since there model seems based on a stylistic look.
That said.. Anyone know where I can get the motion for the Citreon Transformer commercial? That dance rocks!
C
The company that did Gollums Mocap is here in Atlanta. Not that I think I could get anything out of them. There used to be a guy who came to our Atlanta meetings who worked for a Mocap company. But I think he moved back to Canada.
Mocap is big in Games, Commercials, and some other commercial venues. Its a big time saver and many times looks more realistic than hand animation. My thoughts are that Mocap works for realistic models. but Hand animation seems better for cartoony models. I doubt Pixar will ever use mocap, but that might be a hedged statement since there model seems based on a stylistic look.
That said.. Anyone know where I can get the motion for the Citreon Transformer commercial? That dance rocks!
C
| QUOTE (cfree68f @ Feb 3 2005, 12:02 AM) |
| The other difference is that you cant drop poses on actions anymore.. But you set the pose and.. all I can figure to change the bvh motion is to reload it into the original action. It didnt seem to copy across when I set the pose in the action. Zach did you have this same problem? |
I did, and I couldn't find a decent work-around, really. What I tried was, after importing and setting up the BVH file with the first BVH, I dragged the BVH Object (from the Objects folder) into a new Action, then copied the first keyframe (Key Model, Key Constraints, Key Etc.) from the first Action into the second Action. Because the BVH Action Object had the same name in both Actions, it seemed to work quite well.
I'm intrigued by your scaling of the individual BVH bones. Care to delve into that more deeply?
| QUOTE |
I'm intrigued by your scaling of the individual BVH bones. Care to delve into that more deeply? |
Well I looked at the bones channels. Just select one of the bvh bones and you'll see. Some move, but most just rotate. Since rotationis independant of scale. I figured.. great I can scale the back bone to make the neck, head, shoulders.. etc line up. Same with scaling anything really. Now the hips obviously move. But other than that its impossible for the other bones to move. That is unless the model being captured.. dislocated a bone. So you can move the other bones as well. It makes lining up the bones very easy. I might be wrong about it making the rotation go crazy. but it seemed to work.
C
http://www.campbellanimation.com/
I have a completed Mo-CAP sample up!
I could'nt get the bones to scale either, but I was just trying to highlight a particular bone and then hitting (s) scale... I'll have to look into doing it thru channels. This test, on my 'Gurly-Girl' features V11 hair on Mo-Cap motion. Colin, I think that realistic motion on a cartoony character is quite comical, but as I say on my site...I plan to mix mocap and hand animating on subsequent efforts... Your avatar just cracks!me!up!!!
Have a look!
http://www.campbellanimation.com/
I have a completed Mo-CAP sample up!
I could'nt get the bones to scale either, but I was just trying to highlight a particular bone and then hitting (s) scale... I'll have to look into doing it thru channels. This test, on my 'Gurly-Girl' features V11 hair on Mo-Cap motion. Colin, I think that realistic motion on a cartoony character is quite comical, but as I say on my site...I plan to mix mocap and hand animating on subsequent efforts... Your avatar just cracks!me!up!!!
Have a look!
http://www.campbellanimation.com/
Way cool John, I've got to get me some of the mo-jo-cap!
| QUOTE (cfree68f @ Feb 4 2005, 01:17 PM) |
| Well I looked at the bones channels. Just select one of the bvh bones and you'll see. Some move, but most just rotate. Since rotationis independant of scale. I figured.. great I can scale the back bone to make the neck, head, shoulders.. etc line up. Same with scaling anything really. Now the hips obviously move. But other than that its impossible for the other bones to move. That is unless the model being captured.. dislocated a bone. So you can move the other bones as well. It makes lining up the bones very easy. I might be wrong about it making the rotation go crazy. but it seemed to work. |
Still trying to get what you are talking about here to work...are you sure? I tried to lengthen a lower leg bone via channels...the result was not typical scaling...undo saved me. Need to figure this out as you can see in my test that I need to fit the 2 skeletons together a little better...
Hey Colin- I just noticed on the Hash 2005 upgrade your 'hero' by the return address...but no credit given! Denied! Snubbed!
Heads will roll no-doubt.
Oh well. cest la vi.. dammit where is that lawyers number? jk
you should be able to just select a Mocap bone.. then open its properties. go to the scale seciton and adjust those to make it scale.
Thats all I did.
C
you should be able to just select a Mocap bone.. then open its properties. go to the scale seciton and adjust those to make it scale.
Thats all I did.
C
Oh and Matt,
Check out my Avi.. All of my Avis
C
Check out my Avi.. All of my Avis
C
I've been trying to scale the BVH file/bones too but without success. Guess I could note the bone locations and go back and scale up my model and rig, but I think that's asking for problems.
give me a minute and I'll check it out.
C
C
Right. I was trying to scale the BVH in the Action but without success. If you scale it on frame 0 of the Choreography it does scale the whole BVH rig. The only trouble here is that it crashed A:M 11.1b. I may have dragged too much and forced it to scale below a reasonable amount so I will try again.
Ah!
I just got the BVH rig to scale in the Action. I had to turn on my TSM constraints. Don't know why but it worked.
I will continue to experiment. I noticed that some of these BVH files are capured at a much higher rate than 30 fps. Some are as much as 120 fps. Does A:M have to be set to receive at the correct fps? I know that there is an option for setting the Motion capture fps.
I just got the BVH rig to scale in the Action. I had to turn on my TSM constraints. Don't know why but it worked.
I will continue to experiment. I noticed that some of these BVH files are capured at a much higher rate than 30 fps. Some are as much as 120 fps. Does A:M have to be set to receive at the correct fps? I know that there is an option for setting the Motion capture fps.
you could reduce the keys somehow... Not sure what the best way to go about that is.
I've got some of those 120s also. They tend to be pretty short versus the others I found. That would be a good request for a feature. a Select every other key or a key selection filter for just such an occasion. You could just render it at 120 and then use a compositing tool like AE to retime the motion. the nice thing about that is its one more way to nuance the speed of the motion in spots.
C
I've got some of those 120s also. They tend to be pretty short versus the others I found. That would be a good request for a feature. a Select every other key or a key selection filter for just such an occasion. You could just render it at 120 and then use a compositing tool like AE to retime the motion. the nice thing about that is its one more way to nuance the speed of the motion in spots.
C
I think that the TSM2 rig is too complex for this use, with lots of hidden bones and complex constraints. The Hash rig is much more suited, I would think.
Matt, what are you constraining the body bone to and are you constaining the BVH rig to control bones or are digging deeper?
Colin, I'm sure that you are right and there must be a way of scaling the fps, even if it has to wait until after it's rendered. I'll worry about that after I manage to get a rig properly constrained.
Matt, what are you constraining the body bone to and are you constaining the BVH rig to control bones or are digging deeper?
Colin, I'm sure that you are right and there must be a way of scaling the fps, even if it has to wait until after it's rendered. I'll worry about that after I manage to get a rig properly constrained.
Paul, you can use the TSM2 rig.. you'd just have to turn off all the control stuff. Same with Hash Rig. drop IK.. balance.. etc. constrain to the main bones the mesh is constrained to. So you'd probably be better off dropping the skeleton in.. only adding the hand controls for the rigging and then constrain to that skeleton. Save this and use it as your BVH rig.
I think.. Its been a while since I played with the TSM rig.
C
I think.. Its been a while since I played with the TSM rig.
C
| QUOTE (cfree68f @ Feb 5 2005, 02:53 PM) |
| Paul, you can use the TSM2 rig.. you'd just have to turn off all the control stuff. Same with Hash Rig. drop IK.. balance.. etc. constrain to the main bones the mesh is constrained to. |
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
TSM2 is a GOOD thing...turn it on...leave it on!
Sorry I was out for a while, just catching-up. The way I used TSM2's rig was exactly the opposite of how Colin said (see quote) If you read my earlier explanation...I read Will's tutorial HALFWAY until I got a solid bearing of what was going on... then I figured that since he wrote his toot back on v8.5 that the rest about the constraints was now 'defunct' info so I deviated... I flew on auto pilot... I figgered if this fails THEN I'll read the rest...
Once I had the BVH imported (using Will's tutorial) I knew I had to constrain my TSM2 rig to it. The 1st frame of the BVH animation is never gonna be in the 'T' pose, rather it's going to be in the pose that the actor was in when the motion commenced recording. I knew I had to 'nail' MY character to it. FIRST thing I did...turn the TSM2 constraints to the ON position, I also turned on MY intermediaries. I left the arms and legs in FK mode and turned on the legs knee pointer bones. Then I did what felt like 'un-nailing Jesus to the cross' ---starting with the feet I used translate to's and orient like's to make MY model conform to the BVH model. Once the constraints were applied I would use TSM's rig to reorient the foot and point in the same direction as the BVH file.
At this point I should confess: I do not understand 'compensate mode' , sure I think I know what it does, but never have I reached for it. Maybe I did once but I didn't see what it did for me. I think it was invented by the "department of redundancy department". There's a lot of things like that about A:M that I circumvent or avoid.
But enough about me.
I continued on up the body using translate to and orient likes...with exception of the knee/legs where I used an aim-at...aiming the TSM's knee pointer with the BVH's lower leg bone . The head only needed an orient-like to the BVH head bone. As I progressed, I would 'play' the animation to see how my constraints fared, then return to frame 0 to tweek. Mostly the tweeks were to adjust (move or rotate) the TSM bones.
In all there were the 2 feet...the 2 knees...the hips...torso...2 hands and head. Thats NINE (9) things to constrain...NOT brain surgury!
And when I say TSM bones, I mean TSM control bones...NOT TSM mesh bones. I'm not saying that the mesh bones won't work tho- just how I did it.
I should also mention that I did tweek some bones thruout the length of the animation. Mostly the knee bones when they would bend backwards or sidewards painfully. But unlike the BVH file which has keyframes on EVERY frame, I placed maybe a dozen keys over the entire seq...big whoop. Then was the 'fun part' watching realistic Mo-Cap on MY character...what a HOOT! Colin's avatar...just TOO funny! Am I the only one? Come on...
I apologise for the lengthy post. I did type slowly as I figure most of you can't read too fast... if that helps.
Want to hear something REALLY funny? Next year the SuperBowl is in Detroit!
Thanks for the explanation, Matt.
I will post something when I ahve something that works.
I will post something when I ahve something that works.
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