FBX rig. Am I wrong, or is my cleint wrong!?
polycounter lvl 5
Hey, there!
I just got a freelance job that should have been a simple process, but it's starting to turn into a total failure.
My cleint sent me a FBX with a simple dummy mesh, and a rig (already posed into an squatting and aiming with a double handed weapon), now, he wants me to animate that rig into other animations. But of course I requested either a fully rigged (by which I mean a 3dsmax/maya file with all the ik solvers and manipulators) but his reply was, "any animator can do that without any of that... even I can do that in two clicks in unity".
Therefore, he won't be willing to pay for the extra hours I have to put in setting up Ik solvers and manipulators into that rig myself...
Now, this is the very first time I animate from an already made group of bones, I have always made my skeleton, and then apply weights into geometry, I am open to find out the theories in my mind are totally wrong... But is it so?
Does FBX have some ultra deep secretly encrypted Ik solvers treasure chest that im not importing correctly into max?
Is it possible that a bunch of bones with an already baked animation have a way to just repose everything into T-pose?!
Should I just get a job as a bartender, or should I keep hunting for that gaming job I seem not to deserve anymore?!
Thanks in advance my dear mates!
Lkz
I just got a freelance job that should have been a simple process, but it's starting to turn into a total failure.
My cleint sent me a FBX with a simple dummy mesh, and a rig (already posed into an squatting and aiming with a double handed weapon), now, he wants me to animate that rig into other animations. But of course I requested either a fully rigged (by which I mean a 3dsmax/maya file with all the ik solvers and manipulators) but his reply was, "any animator can do that without any of that... even I can do that in two clicks in unity".
Therefore, he won't be willing to pay for the extra hours I have to put in setting up Ik solvers and manipulators into that rig myself...
Now, this is the very first time I animate from an already made group of bones, I have always made my skeleton, and then apply weights into geometry, I am open to find out the theories in my mind are totally wrong... But is it so?
Does FBX have some ultra deep secretly encrypted Ik solvers treasure chest that im not importing correctly into max?
Is it possible that a bunch of bones with an already baked animation have a way to just repose everything into T-pose?!
Should I just get a job as a bartender, or should I keep hunting for that gaming job I seem not to deserve anymore?!
Thanks in advance my dear mates!
Lkz
Replies
AFAIK any time you bake and export animation into FBX, you remove all controls and solvers, because:
a) they are not working with baked animation at all
b) they can cause trouble, because they clutter the hierarchy and may confuse your engine. Countless times I was given such files that not work in Unity unless I clean up all the shit in source FBX.
That said, if you're lucky, there's probably a reference pose (t-pose) in there somewhere - the animation needs a reference point after all. If you remove all the keyframes from the bones, it might snap back to it. If you're unlucky, it's considering frame 0 of the baked animation to be the reference pose.
I seems to recall that I saw something like this in one of the tutorials about Mecanim, where some other monster animation, which had four arms, was used to drive animation of some other moster which had also four arms plus middle eye sticking out on top of head. For the eye movement another object animation was used.
Yeah, he says he can do that.. but I bet he understands Ik solvers and T-pose as something else... Anyhow, he can not animate, so that's why I had my doubts about his '2-clicks'.
So, at the moment if I import the FBX (bones and geometry) with the 'no animation' setting, the rig is posed as in the frame 0 in the animation. Then, my guess is that there is no T-pose or a way to get out of this file.
Only perhaps if I set off the 'skin' modifier in max (so the dummy geometry goes back into its T-pose, without weights applied) and then I repose a rig already made in cat( so I dont spend time in IK solvers and such) into that T-pose...
But that would mean guessing size of bones, re-applying weights and ufff... damn... I can't find a way that wouldn't add hours and hours...
Yeah, I think I know what you mean... I'm thinking to do that too... just use my own rig.. let him repose, retarget or code or whatever into his magical version of Unity...