Hi have a few questions for you gurus. Click on link below to see my questions on video on you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxgUhVZFM9U
Motion builder script questions video
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morgan
- NaturalPoint Employee
- Posts: 199
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:01 pm
- Location: Corvallis, OR, USA
- Contact:
Re: Motion builder script questions video
Sorry for the slow reponse - this one slipped by
RE head motion not moving, if you are using Arena 1.6 or later, you'll need to make sure "Skeleton as Rigid Bodies" is checked." This was not part of the tutorial. Also make sure local marker position and Rigid Body Data are checked as these are not checked by default.
RE applying the mocap data to your own custom rig, you have several options:
1) Create a rig with constraints using the same naming convention as Arena/Cohen rig. You can eexamine the Cohen rig in detail by opening it in MotionBuilder and looking at the constraints it has.
2) Create a rig with your own constraint, and modify the python script to create the correct naming mapping.
3) This bone-based rig pipeline is strictly optional and is meant as a starting point specifically for people wishing to do bone-based rigs (typically for game pipelines).
You can always just use the standard MotionBuilder Actor/Character Face Pipeline (which is a blendshape approach) to do your face animation with live mocap data. The MotionBuilder help covers this in detail.
Re recording - yes this is a standard mobu device so recording process follows other devices:
- Check recording on the device panel
- press recording on the transport controls
- press play on the tranport controls
once you are done recording, you can use mobus key controls -> animation -> plot... to bake the animation in. You should then see the animation data in the fcurves window for a selected joint. Note the intention of this pipeline is to bake the animation into the joints, not the mesh itself, such that these animated joints would then animate the mesh in a game engine.
Refer to mobu for more info on recording from devices and plotting.
hope this helps!
Morgan
RE head motion not moving, if you are using Arena 1.6 or later, you'll need to make sure "Skeleton as Rigid Bodies" is checked." This was not part of the tutorial. Also make sure local marker position and Rigid Body Data are checked as these are not checked by default.
RE applying the mocap data to your own custom rig, you have several options:
1) Create a rig with constraints using the same naming convention as Arena/Cohen rig. You can eexamine the Cohen rig in detail by opening it in MotionBuilder and looking at the constraints it has.
2) Create a rig with your own constraint, and modify the python script to create the correct naming mapping.
3) This bone-based rig pipeline is strictly optional and is meant as a starting point specifically for people wishing to do bone-based rigs (typically for game pipelines).
You can always just use the standard MotionBuilder Actor/Character Face Pipeline (which is a blendshape approach) to do your face animation with live mocap data. The MotionBuilder help covers this in detail.
Re recording - yes this is a standard mobu device so recording process follows other devices:
- Check recording on the device panel
- press recording on the transport controls
- press play on the tranport controls
once you are done recording, you can use mobus key controls -> animation -> plot... to bake the animation in. You should then see the animation data in the fcurves window for a selected joint. Note the intention of this pipeline is to bake the animation into the joints, not the mesh itself, such that these animated joints would then animate the mesh in a game engine.
Refer to mobu for more info on recording from devices and plotting.
hope this helps!
Morgan
Re: Motion builder script questions video
Thank you for the your response on my questions. This really clears up a lot of things that were not covered in your tutorials. You may want to think about updating your tutorials for your new customers.
I do have one question on your answer to number 2
I am not a script writer and know nothign about python.
What do I open the script with? just a word doc or note pad?
could you give me an example image or video on how i would go about changing this script?
Is there someone there at Natural point that can recommend to me a person I could pay to set up this script to work with my rigs?
I do have one question on your answer to number 2
I am not a script writer and know nothign about python.
What do I open the script with? just a word doc or note pad?
could you give me an example image or video on how i would go about changing this script?
Is there someone there at Natural point that can recommend to me a person I could pay to set up this script to work with my rigs?
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morgan
- NaturalPoint Employee
- Posts: 199
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:01 pm
- Location: Corvallis, OR, USA
- Contact:
Re: Motion builder script questions video
You can edit, run, debug python scripts using Mobu's built-in Python editor (Window -> Python Editor, then drag a script from the asset browser to the editor).
A Mobu scripting tutorial is probably beyond the scope of this forum, but the Mobu SDK Help covers this in great detail.
To update the Face Constraint script to a custom rig, basically you just need to update the variable:
strTargetName
In the current script, strTargetName is the same as the optical name, and matches the correspondiong joint in the Cohen model.
You'll change the script to set strTargetName to your rig's naming convention. Refer to the routine:
def BuildConstraintSystem():
for more info.
You might also check the Autodesk Area Mobu forums. Plenty of python gurus in there who might be interested in some contract development.
A Mobu scripting tutorial is probably beyond the scope of this forum, but the Mobu SDK Help covers this in great detail.
To update the Face Constraint script to a custom rig, basically you just need to update the variable:
strTargetName
In the current script, strTargetName is the same as the optical name, and matches the correspondiong joint in the Cohen model.
You'll change the script to set strTargetName to your rig's naming convention. Refer to the routine:
def BuildConstraintSystem():
for more info.
You might also check the Autodesk Area Mobu forums. Plenty of python gurus in there who might be interested in some contract development.