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Very interesting! I am planning to export my models/characters from Daz to blender because of it's advanced animation capabilities. So this seems to work pretty flawlessly you say? :)
Oh, that's quite nice.
That's awesome, Wolf!!! Rock On!
Hi Wolf
So this is a straight export? I'd never had any luck with fbx in blender.. Could you share the fbx settings used for import?
Thank you Wolf, I was able to bring in the fbx from motionbuilder, however, I noticed some things. Gen8 is causing issues (due to the roll bones, the arms are bendy.. hahaha, looks really funny), and some blendshape animation doesn't seem to come through. I tried with a different character, and it comes in fine, but morph animation doesn't come in. I'm going to test from studio directly to see if it is something in the mobu fbx file.
But this is much further than I ever got before..
Wow, the green & black color scheme for DAZ looks like old time CRT. Didn't realize it's that much easier to read as well.
do other people posting animations on YouTube get constant questions about the purpose/reasons behind you doing it?
Accusations of not having a life etc?
I actually don't spend a lot of time by my computer, it is on, rendering but I am AFK doing other things,
when I worked it rendered while I was at work
why is it considered a time wasting pointless activity yet the plethora of crap by others on youtube doesn't get this sort of judgement.
I do waste far too much time browsing on my iPad at home but I see others doing it in public on their phones.
I don't play Candy Crush or Wordscapes like they all did at work every break, I usually read a book
better quality than mine
I do render a pile of fly arounds and walk around scenes set to YouTube Audio Library music with no real purpose other than to use my sheer volume of content for something and provide something more interesting than a single image lifted from the internet such as many of those music videos do.
People often just want to listen to music and I want to at least render some of my content once
I just dabble in animation but I did these and saved them as Anim blocks which are attached to the posts. The link is to the first post of four consecutive posts including videos of them in action. You are welcome to use them and change them as needed.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/4257856/#Comment_4257856 ;
Yes I get those dumb questions as well . My reply is always None-ya , I learn to not to pay attention anymore. My yotube channel is not connected to my main email so trolls = block I got one person with like 15 youtube accounts I swear its rediculous because it so easy to it tell its the same person they keep making the same typos and using the same internet slang. The best I can do is put them accouts on block, I do get some good comment as well so its pretty balanced. I have talked to a lawyer about how to post animated videos on the internet & youtube, and not have to worry about being hit with Coppa it did cost me a $300 fee for a hour , but i have a legal work around which is if Youtube accepts it or not only time will tell
Something I released tonight
@Wolf3d,
Nice!, and yes, it doesn't work with Gen3/8, thanks to the twist bones.. facial mocap works ok, it is just the body that doesn't work (at least in my tests)
Ok, I have something I wanted to share with everyone in this group, which I found out while going through some stuff for the upcoming tutorials that I'm making, so I wanted to give this to you first, so you can play around with facial mocap yourself if you want. (long post warning!)
What you need:
1.- Trial version of Motionbuilder up to version 2019 (I haven't tried this with Maya, but it might work) or if you are a Cinema4d user, you can use that too
2.- 30 day trial of Dynamixyz Performer, which you can request here http://www.dynamixyz.com/free-trial/ When you get your response email, you will have links to the online license files, tutorials, etc. This trial is complete for 30 days, and normally are amenable to extending. If you want to get a leg up first with the tutorials, those can be found here https://vimeo.com/showcase/1894568 They are for Maya mostly, but if you get stuck in Mobu, I can help. I recommend watching them first so you get the gist of how it works before requesting your trial, so you know what you are doing beforehand
3.- a good quality webcam that can capture at least 30fps at HD or better yet at 60fps if you can
4.- This resource file that I built for you https://www.dropbox.com/s/9u7yihxux8q77l1/facemocap.zip?dl=0 Which is a 54 expression set I built for Gen8Male (will work on gen8f too, and with some modifications, gen3m/f,) and it also includes the range of motion PDF for actor recording that you will use.
The process:
Performer works by training the software to recognize facial movements of an actor that will then be retargeted to a 3d character. The ROM I'm sending is a compilation of the most frequent expressions used to train Performer to be able to do live performance and covers 90% of so of the expressions people use. You record a video making those 52 expressions which will then be mimicked in the 3d package you are using.. subsequent videos then can be tracked using these 52 expressions and with a few clicks put on your character. I've pre-built these expressions (plus 2 more that I use) in this duf file to make the process simpler. You will export this out as an FBX using ONLY bones, not morphs, therefore bypassing the export bug and use this to connect the expressions in Performer to your character
So the general instructions:
1.- Record a video with the 52 expressions in the ROM (I add 2 more at the end, puff cheeks and crosseyed), bring that into Performer, and select the frames that match those expressions (when you start the project, make sure you use "head free" which will then add head movement and it tells the software that you are using a static camera) and use "guided" rom, 52 expression. The process of annotating (which is moving the virtual markers on the face) for the 52 expressions is very tedious, but once you do this once, as long as you record any other videos in roughly the same conditions (lighting and position of the head vs the camera) you don't have to do it all over again, just bring in, track and export.
2.- Export out the animation from Daz studio as an fbx (would probably work with Collada too if that is your pipeline), checking animation, unchecking morphs and creating a rule for export with "Gen8xxx." and set that to IGNORE (this is very important, as this forces Studio to export the animation as bone animation)
3.- Open this file in your 3d app (I tested in Motionbuilder, but should work too in Maya, 3dsMax or Cinema4d), invoke the bridge plugin for that app (which connects the 3d app with Performer) and then basically go frame per frame, saving the link between the performer expression you chose, and the corresponding one in the file (each expression is on a key, in order of the ROM). If you feel that the basic expression is not close enough to what you recorded, you can move the bones around before you save it in Performer.
This is the basic workflow, I know it sounds like a lot, but it is not that difficult really, just rather tedious at first. I'd recommend looking at the tutorials first, record several videos while you are at it (in addition to the rom), so you can play with those too and see how everything works.
And if you get stuck, I'm glad to help (at least in Motionbuilder, Maya and others I can only give you basic instructions, but the tutorials do cover Maya quite well) Hope you all like this and enjoy!
Ahh, I forgot, to bring it back into Studio, just import the fbx file (don't worry about the clothes and whatnot, which never come in right), making sure you are using fbx version 2014 or earlier when you save it in your 3d app) and save the animation as a pose preset, then you can reapply it to your character
Here's a really quick raw retarget (no tweaking) of what you get using this method.. https://bryan_steagall-hotmail.tinytake.com/tt/NDAxNDQ4OV8xMjM0NzUxNQ screenshot in studio of the animation saved and used on a base gen8m
Hi Bryan, not only do the G3/8 twist bones corrupt my FBX animations in blender ,but their ultra low poly teeth shrink when I subD the mesh for rendering.... So it's G1/2 for me.
I have an animation that I made and would like to put it here.
I think I need to upload it to YouTube first.
But how do I make a link here so people can view it?
I have an animation that I made and would like to put it here.
I think I need to upload it to YouTube first.
But how do I make a link here so people can view it?
OOPS I posted this twice, sorry about that.
Here is a short animation I did.
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