Can anyone explain how to import/use a .BVH file for motion for a model? I've looked far too long on the net. Found the site TrueBones.com and they say they are compatible with Hash A:M, but not how...

Thanks!

Tim

There's a thread here:
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=259866

Will's original tutorial appears to be down, but it does explain very well here. I just had Thom's right arm doing ballet movements.

Thom is probably a good model to practice with. Basically when you import a bvh file it has targets that you constrain your model's bones to, using Translate to and Orient Like constraints.

One thing I noticed (I have version 15) was that for each constraint I had to set the Translate or Rotate offsets to zero.

But there are other people who have had experience with doing this who may care to comment?

Caroline,

This is because in v15 the compensate mode button is defaults to "on" when you apply a new constraint. In earlier versions it defaulted to "off". You can emulate the behavior of earlier versions by turning off the compensate mode button (red and grey rectangles next to the magnet mode button) before you pick the target of your constraint.

Thanks - I thought there might be something like that.

Thanks Caroline! Definately led me in the right direction... Once I played with it for a bit, I'm wondering why people either don't use this feature very often *or* why there isn't more blatant documentation on it... Even the above 'snippet' isn't exactly 100% helpful. It leads me down a road though that I never would have found otherwise.

Anyone have a copy of the entire tutorial out there?? It would be even more helpful... now that I have some animation and can export it for use with my XBOX 360 programming using XNA - I'm pretty excited!

Thanks again!

-Tim

The biggest problems you will encounter are, that the rig they used to capture something (better to say the points where they captured something) arent at the same positions as the bones of your rig. So you have three possibilities:
- Build a rig which is exactly the same as the one they used (you can modify the one of your character or even better built it from scratch)
- accept that it wont look totally right...
- Record by yourself.

I made a small videotutorial here where you can see how it would be working, but I only got a sample-bvh-file and the rig on the thom-model for example is not nearly the same as the one they used.
But the principles behind it are the same.

The BVH-File can be found here: Sample BVH-File
Video-Tutorial: BVH to A:M Action(mp4, playable with vlc or quicktime, 50 MB)

If your interface isnt looking in the same way, have a look at my website at www.patchwork3d.de and go to the "what&how"-section. You will find some (video-)tutorials there and one will tell you how to set it up.

See you
*Fuchur*

Has anyone seen this? http://www.image-metrics.com/

Pretty amazing stuff.

I couldn't find a price but I can imagine.
The blurb says that it accurately captures tongue motion as well as facial features. Pretty amazing!

That gives Luuk something to aim for. Actually I know that he has some very exciting things in development but I am sworn to secrecy.

Hi,

I was fooling around with this stuff and for whatever reason all I can see of the BVH object in the chor is the square around it and the one bone I have selected. This is in Anyone run across this before?

Thanks,
Rusty

Edit: I'm using the latest release of V14

I am not sure if anyone has helped answer your question but I do have an essayer and simple way of setting up a model with a BVH file. I might make a video tutorial and uploaded it to yt. I have a few other tutorials that might be of use to you.

All of my old tutorials are online (yay!) on my blog.
Here is the link to the A:M mocap tutorial:
http://zandoria.wordpress.com/tutorials/am-mocap-tutorial/

Very very cool!
Thank you Willl!

Very good to hear from you
*Fuchur*

Bookmarked this one! thanks Will!

wow, thx folks for this thread!

ok, total noob mentality:

1) what does bvh stand for?
2) how do you create an original bvh file? could you do a "shoestring budget version" of what hollywood types appear to do in the "behind the scenes" dvd commentary and have a model dress in black, tape a bunch of balls on them, film them w/ an HD camcorder, and use the raw footage to create the motion capture file?
3) does anyone know if the version of a:m that was sold at san diego comic-con 2005 has the motion capture feature already? i'm at work and can't wait that long to go home and find out. (o:

this is the first thread where i found some really cool and useful info on a:m motion capture, so hopefully these questions are appropriately placed.
AFR

1) BioVision.....uhmmm.... uh.....not sure of the "h"
2) You could indeed use something like ZineTrack/AMTrack or Syntheyes to track a video of yourself. You need to understand the limitations and work creatively within those bounds.
3) I haven't a clue, sorry.

I followed the tut and I get to the resizing stage and it wont resize or reposition.

I believe it's BioVision Hierarchy.

Okay. By following the instructions on one of the tutorils, I found out how to make the models become controled by the bvh files (with constraints). My only issue is with the model (Thom), his legs dont fully move right with the bvh animation. There dragging. I think this is because of the "target bones" at his feet.
Can anyone help me find a solution that will make his feet properly move with the puppet effect of of the bvh file? Please anyone...

I've never actually tried this stuff. When you say "dragging" you mean sliding?

post a clip of what you have so far. It might clue someone into the exact problem.

This is just a guess, but if the mo cap set up is expecting to be moving FK legs and your legs are set to IK or vice versa, that might be a likely problem.