1. Use the same file which you have exported your animation to re-import your animation in Max.

2. Make sure you get the T-Pose right.

More details coming soon.

http://www.brekel.com/?page_id=170

Capturing with Brekel

to be written…

Load the .bvh file in 3ds Max

1, Create a biped in Max (Create -> System -> Biped)

2, Load motion capture .bvh file onto biped

3, Save as .bip (before this step, check the frame rate of your targeted scenario)

4, Open your target biped

5, Load .bip file onto your biped

2, Download the BVH files here.

3, A video tutorial for using BVH file in 3dsMax can be found here.

3.1 Open 3dsMax, Create ->Systems ->Biped

3.2 Turn on figure mode, save the figure as .fig file

3.3 Turn off figure mode, Motion-> Motion Capture -> Load Motion Capture File, select the .bvh file

3.4 The animation is loaded, but the biped might look different. If this happens, turn on figure mode, reload the .fig file, and then turn off figure mode  (or maybe here we should use the .fig file from the targeted biped?)

3.5 save the animation as .bip file

3.6 Open your target character, make sure you have a saved .fig file for this biped.

3.7 Load the .bip file

Quick start:

1, Select the central of mass on the biped, and adjust the position/rotation to where you want the footsteps to start.

2, Turn the footstep mode on.

3, Create Multiple Footsteps or Create Footsteps (Append) or Create Footsteps (At Current Frame)

4, Graph Editor -> Track View – Dope Sheet  to adjust the timing

5, Create Keys For Inactive Footsteps:

Slicing footsteps:

The only way I found to insert footsteps between existing footsteps is through Slicing. Sometimes my Max crashes while doing it. The way to get around is to turn the buffer mode on, or try to select a different set of footsteps. I haven’t found a stable way to avoid crashing while use slicing.

1, Select Odd number of footsteps in the middle (say 4,5,6)

2, Click Copy Footsteps (you can then edit them in buffer mode , under “Modes and Display”)

3, Click Paste Footsteps

4, Drag the pasted footsteps to footsteps 4 (the first foot step you have selelcted)

5, The following  footsteps then become inactive, now drag them to append them on the last foot steps. The position of where you drag the footsteps to is not important, the new position will replace the footstep which turns red.

Adjusting Balance:

With most of the balancing problem, there is a key that’s placed wrongly or there are gaps between keys (can be find out with Dope Mode). Fix these problem and re-activate all footsteps normally solves most of the problem. However if the body balance issue still exists, try to following:

1, Select Centre of Mass (this will switch off footsteps mode)

2, Go to the key frame you want to adjust balance (find a place where this is key frame already)

3, Expand Motion -> Track Selection

4, Turn on AutoKey

5, Click to adjust Body Horizontal or Body Vertical.

var posizione = CameraGetPosition();

glTranslate(-posizione – [0,0,-10]); //works

glTranslate(-posizione – [0,0,-10]); // cannot use the mouse to move along the z dimention

glTranslate([0,0,10]); //works

Avatar.ExeActAt(avatar, animation, inTime, outTime, weight, lock, startTime)

inTime = startTime + LocalinTime

outTime = startTime + LocaloutTime

starTime = -(StartTime)

weight = MUCH SMALLER THAN CURRENT ANIMATION if you don’t want it to interfere with your current one.

Ex: say you have an animation you currently have with ExeAct:

Avatar.ExeAct(avatar, animation, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0);

now you want it to start only after “current_duration”:

Avatar.ExeActAt(avatar, animation, 1.0+current_duration, 1.0+current_duration, 0.1, 0, -current_duration);

Why Using Motion Mixer:

- Motion Clips can be cross-faded, stretched, layered, and finally mixed down to a single clip.

- Simply, it allows you to edit Animation Clips as Audio Clips!!

- Comparing to Motion Flow: “Use the Motion Mixer when you want to create a specific animation for an object from several clips, or you want to specify that some motions be applied only to specific body parts. If you want to work with biped crowds or create random motion, use Motion Flow.”

Instructions:

1， Before using Motion Mixer, prepare the animation and save them as .BIP (biped animaitons) or .XAF (3dsmax, non-biped animations) files. In my case I used .BIP files.

1.1 In this method, each .BIP animation is then loaded as a clip. And you can add many clips to one track, or add the same clip many times.

2, Select a biped and turn on Mixer Mode (Mixer mode must be on for the biped in order to see the mixed motion on the biped before mixdown)

3,  Click Mixer (under Motion->Biped Apps)

4, Because a biped has been selected, a trackgroup is automatically assigned to the Mixer for this biped:  a clip track, and a balance track.

4.1 Clip track: where you add your clips. There are two kinds of tracks: Layer (by default) or Transition.

4.1a Layer: a track of a seriers of motions that do not need transitions between them

4.1b Transition: a tall track with room for two rows of clips. You can put clips that overlap with each other.

4.2 Balance track: to control the balance of the biped, you can only edit the parameter of the balance control for all over or part or the animation. It’s set to 1.0 by defaut)

5,  You can then add another track, or convert the current track to Transition Track, or load New Clips on the track.

6, Just do whatever you want with the track! Remember, when editing time, if the Trim Clips is on, you are trimming the clip. Otherwise you are scaling it.

7, To view the animation on the biped, remember to have the Mixer Mode on.

8, There is a lot you can explore with the Motion Mixer. But finally, before you can export the animation, you need to perform a mixdown by:

8.1 Select the Motion Mixer by clicking the biped name (upper left)

8.2 Motion Mixer -> Biped -> Computer Mixdown

8.3 Click the Mixdown to make it active

8.4 Biped-> Copy Mixdown to Biped

8.5 Turn off the Mixer Mode

Now you have your animation!

(a) Check the rigging – making sure it is well rigged: i.e. each mesh is associated with the correct bone. (In my case, I only had rigid vertices)

(b) Because you are changing the size/position of the biped, turn Figure Mode on.

(c) Select the whole skeleton

(d) Right click “Scale”, and put the targeted percentage.

(e) All the mesh should “scale” together with the bones. So we are done! You might have the Centre of Mass still looking big, which seems to be a bug….so just reopen it the problem will disappear.

If you have VS2008 installed, all you need is to install the Qt library (for VS2008) as well as the VS add-in. After that you can try to create a simple project and build it.

(to be continued)