Forgive my noob-ness, but if you have a bunch of BVH files from the same source, (like bvhfiles.com) and they all have the same naming scheme for their bones, and if the TSM2 rig for a normal human has a consistent naming scheme for its bones, isn't there a way to come up with a single relationship that would work (more or less) with all BVH files from that source and any TSM2-rigged model that had the standard bone setup?

If I understand correctly, most of the "dancing" animations here were made similarly only using the 2001 rig instead of the TSM2 rig? I did try to follow William Sutton's tutorial, but it didn't quite work like I expected it to, especially with the "like two" constraints.

Apologies for my ignorance,
Sev

Sev-

My dancing monkey(see earlier post) is rigged with TSM, so that part is not a problem. If I get your question right you want to know if there is an automated way to drop bvh file on your skeleton. Short answer is no. Though probably it would be possible to create a plug-in that would do something like this ala TSM itself. However there are other issues in using mocap. The Bvh itself needs to be scaled to your model beacause it is the relationship between joint positions in that specific bvh and that specific model that affect the movement. BVH files are not all alike, they are specific to the performer in the suit. For instance capturing wth the Gypsy suit, which is how the files at freebvh.com were created, it takes about an hour to fine tune the suit to a performer. Mostly just measuring and remeasuring the the exact lengths of the performers limbs and adjusting the position of the sensors (yes, I've been in the suit). As a result each bvh file has different proportions. The files on that site are from a number of different performers, and you will notice that as you change bvh files you will need to rescale the bvh skeleton a little to refit it to your character skeleton.
Hope that helped a little.

Ben

Yeah I agree with Ben, Getting the BVH to work with TSM2 rig is not a problem, but trying to do as Will explains and 'export your action to a pose' for reusability is hit-or-miss...mostly miss. I just got to a point where if I want to try a different BVH action I'll just go thru the process of attaching my TSM rig to it...again and again. Once you get the hang of it it takes less than 10mins.

You'll want to do it that way anyways because as Ben said...the BVH files vary in size...bone namings...bone orientations. One BVH may be generated from a petite woman while another from a fat man or child...

John

Hey! Cool trick! I'll give it a whirl!

Now that's clever! I'll give it a try. Thanks!