3ds max >> motion capture and freeform animation
polycounter lvl 12
Hello everybody again! 
I need to know how can I import (load) mocap animation into a biped that already has animation (freeform) without losing that freeform animation??
Cause when a mocap is loaded into the biped, what happens is that the total amount of frames that exists in the mocap overlapps the existing animation on the timeline...
How can I control in which frame the mocap will be placed without erasing and overlapping what I already have in my scene??
Thanks :poly142:
I need to know how can I import (load) mocap animation into a biped that already has animation (freeform) without losing that freeform animation??
Cause when a mocap is loaded into the biped, what happens is that the total amount of frames that exists in the mocap overlapps the existing animation on the timeline...
How can I control in which frame the mocap will be placed without erasing and overlapping what I already have in my scene??
Thanks :poly142:
Replies
You might need to first load the mocap onto a biped and then save out a .bip file from the biped menu. I'm not sure what other formats Motion Mixer imports besides .bip for biped objects.
thanks Vig!!
I'll try that out tomorrow!
Vig is the most helpful man alive...
yes, he is
One other thing, I'm animating my biped with quaternion curves, using only FK animation, but I can´t see the animation curves of the bip01... what's wrong?
Only what is in motion mixer will be applied. If you have keys on the biped that you want added to the mix you'll have to save it out and add it to motion mixer.
The tutorial in help is pretty good, probably about as good as it gets anywhere online. Make sure to use F1 and Help > Tutorials > Character Animation Tutorials > Biped Quickstart > Combining Motions with the Motion Mixer
It walks you through up until you need to mix and apply. You don't always need a transition clip but they're helpful when blending from one motion to another, like walk/run/idle, walk to walk crouch bla bla bla...
To mix: SAVE your 3dsmax file, then right click the biped label in motion mixer (bip01 normally) and click "compute mixdown" the default settings are normally fine.
To Apply it: SAVE your 3dsmax file, then right click the newly created mixdown track, and choose copy to biped. You can then turn off mixer mode and edit the keys/curves as normal.
You can filter out the motion of pieces like arms and legs even the root node, on a per trackgroup basis. This is handy when you need to do a bunch of walk cycles but the character might be holding different weapons.
To filter, right click the trackgroup name (All) and choose filter. If you want to combine two set of filtered animations like the legs from one animation with the torso of another, you need two track groups with the filters set accordingly.
You MIGHT be able to have one trackgroup and filter out specific pieces and it will mix with the animation keys that are already on the biped (but haven't been added to the motion mixer) but this is inviting trouble and prone to crash.
about the motion mixer, I just read the help files on that, but I will check out the tutorial you mentioned, thanks!
when I was talking about the animation curves on the bip01, I wasn't talking about that on motion mixer, but on the normal freeform animation mode... Why aren't the curves appearing on the curve editor? With the right transform selected and all that... Even If I switch it to quaternion mode, still doesn't appear... :S
I need tweaking on that!!
UPS! I mean, euler curves here! with the tangents (which I love :P)
If you're in the workbench be careful of the biped piece your clicked on and what curve its set to. If you've selected a hand or a foot and you're on the Position Curve, only the planted keys will show up with no curves, only dotted lines.
If it looks like this, its normal. You can't really edit the position of hands and feet unless they are planted in the world. But you should be able to access their rotation curves normally.
workbench, that's what I was missing.... Much better then curve editor, thanks!!
just one more thing.... Why do some keys do not have tangents when ALL of my biped links are on euler mode?? And, how can I distinguish translation curves from rotation ones, except for the axis which is distinguished by color??
In the upper right corner you can filter out XYZ curves if there is too much overlap and you want to work on just one curve. There are times (and this is a bug) you need two curves on the screen in order to select anything, its super annoying, they know about it it should be fixed next version.
The curves are always using local pivot values, so if you set your viewport gizmo to local you'll be able to see the gizmo correctly as it relates to the curves. If you have it set to view or world then the gizmo is going to point different directions and it will be a bitch of a time trying to figure out which curve is what.
I don't have any planted keys cause I'm using FK animation only... so they should all appear there.
And what about my missing bip01 animation curves? I have animation on it, but still can't see the curves on the workbench...
The bip01 is a special case, you need to click the "controllers tab" to get at its rotation (turning), horizontal and vertical tracks. There are a lot of weird reasons why they did this I can get into them but its crazy boring...
YES, yes, yes!!! The dropdown menu , choosing, pos curves, showed the missing curves on my bip01! Thank you sooo much for pointing that out...
this last paragraph I didn't understood... related to what, some missing tangents?? Cause i haven't changed the pivot... Not sure I even know how to do that.:shifty:
If its set to anything else but local and you rotate it on X it might move on Y and Z in the curve editor, but with it set to local, if you move it on X, it only moves on X.
It lets me interact a little easier in the viewport. I rotate the gizmo in the viewport and spend less time nudging a curve around trying to get the object into position. It saves a little bit of time and lets you interact with specific curves in the viewport.
Since the curves you're editing are local space, it just helps to have the viewport gizmo set to the same thing.
Only one question remaining yet:
about the missing tangents on some keys?? As I said, my whole biped is on EULER mode, and all the animation is being made only with rotation of the links (FK). Why (on the curve editor and on workbench) some keys don't have tangents although there is a animation curve between those keys??
It depends on the curve you're looking at and the biped object you have selected. If its hands and feet and you're on Position, it will show dotted line curves. White dotted line curves are behind the scenes curves and should be ignored. I think they're IK curves and only active when you plant a key.
But yea would have to see the workbench to be sure.
ha-ha!!
From left to right:
Auto: Each handle effects the other, good at getting rid of pops. It tries to give you a smooth curve.
Custom: This allows each handle to be manipulated independently, it breaks your curve. Instead of clicking the button you can also hold shift when manipulating a Auto Tangent and it will break it into a custom tangent.
Fast: Gives the curve a sharp peak. No handles.
Slow: Gives the curve a wide bell shape. No handles.
Step: This will carry one key until it encounters another one, then it will pop/step to the next one. This is great for blocking out pose to pose animation, and blocking in your timing. No handles.
Linear: This flattens out curves by drawing a straight line from one key to another. No handles.
Smooth: This attempts to give you as evenly smoothed out curves as possible. No handles.
I'll keep that in mind about max, thanks Vig!
Anywho...
I think those few keys ended up set to slow because that is what your default curve is set to. Down in the lower right corner of the main menu between Set Key and Key Filters is the default curve button, this looks to be set to slow, so any keys you created would default to slow.
And by the way, do you have any list of the different colors of the keys and why they are so different between animations modes, or why does that happen? Cause I find it a bit confusing to have all those keys with different colors, surely they mean something that I am missing...