topic Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop? in 3ds Max Animation and Rigging Forum

How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:55:59 GMT

I've got some mocap on a biped of a character 'pushing' and I need it to loop as it would were I able to apply the Out-of-Range-Type: Relative Repeat. How do I do this?
From what I have read so far, out-of-range-types do not work on Biped. I have also tried using biped motion mixer to loop the animation by repeating the animation clip multiple times within the mixer however it places the biped back at the starting location at the beginning of each clip like Out-of-Range-types: Cycle would do and that isnt a looping solution that will work for me in this case.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 11:18:30 GMT

Hi @Kidd_Kosmonaut ,

You are right about biped and Out of Range types; Out of Range are not applicable for biped.
You are on the right track with Motion Mixer, it is the tool for what you are describing.

In Motion Mixer, create a 'Transition track'.
This is the track to align animation clips one after the other so they are relative one to another.

Showing this in Max :
https://autode.sk/2VTxFwE

More information about Motion Mixer :
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-animation-and-rigging/how-to-biped-and-relative-repeat-loop/m-p/8654140

I hope this can help!

Regards,

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 15:13:57 GMT

Hey thank you very much for the response! I will give that suggestion a go today and update the post with my results. Thanks again!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 21:32:15 GMT

My characters' animation is now looping with relative offset! Awesome, thanks!
However, now I have a new question. How do I bake this mix into keyframes onto my biped character?

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 11:11:26 GMT

Great to read the issue is resolved for the animation looping! 🙂

To bake the animation to Biped:

. in Motion Mixer, select the biped in the view. It needs to be selected as there can be many bipeds in Motion Mixer.

. in the menus Mix > Compute Mixdown

. then, still in the menus Mix > Copy Mixdown to Biped

Done! 🙂

Regards,

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:32:20 GMT

OH WOW SUCCESS! You have helped me out tremendously, thanks! I was wondering why those buttons were always grayed out but I was missing the step of selecting the biped name as you showed in those images. Thank you thank you!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 09:59:13 GMT

🙂

Glad to read !

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 18:46:00 GMT

Ok so I have encountered yet another issue that I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on.

I have been using a Mixamo walk cycle animation on my biped character and that is what I used in motion mixer to extend the walk cycle to about 1500 frames from the original clips 53 frames. Somewhere in this process, im not sure if it is the original animation or if it is the transitions that are generated in motion mixer, but my characters walk begins to deviate from traveling in a straight line. I am not sure what is causing this or how to fix it. This deviation becomes worse with each loop of the clip until the biped look as if its going to complete a full circle when I really need it to be traveling in a straight line. Hoping you might have some suggestions.

So far i have been thinking I probably need to set the biped com to Euler and edit the key values in Workbench but in doing so I havent been getting great results and my deadline is quickly approaching so reaching out for help on this.

Thanks!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 11:06:08 GMT

Hi @Kidd_Kosmonaut 🙂

For the looping to keep going in a strait line is driven by the Bip001 first and last rotation keys; they must match.

As the animation is relative, if the end key rotation values are not the same as the first one, the animations will slowly get an offset.

To fix that.

1. Load the animation itself on the biped.

2. using the transform type-in in rotation mode (in World coordinate)

3. copy the x, y and z rotations of first key onto the last key, making sure they are both exactly the same.

4. re-save the animation.

Now in Motion Mixer, the animation should loop in a strait line.

See in Max :

https://autode.sk/2ukh0Xt

I hope this can solve the looping on your side ! 🙂

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:28:12 GMT

Hi again!
So the problem you are describing is exactly what I am seeing on my end. After that first loop the character just starts gradually going off course.

I am following along with your video instructions, however my first and last keyframe are showing that they are the same value in world rotations so I have not been able to solve the problem on my end yet.

I went ahead and attached a max file with a biped and the animation applied to it. If you could possibly take a look at it and see where I am going wrong it would be very much appreciated, thank you!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:55:53 GMT

Hey there just wanted to provide an update. Still trying to follow along with your example but I am really stuck at the part where you mention to copy your world rotation values from first keyframe to the last keyframe because my values are the same. I have tried looking at other bones as well but their first and last keyframe rotation values are all the same too so I am not sure how to move forward with this. Anyway, I did provide max file in last post and if you have any time I would really be thankful if you could take a look at it and see if you can see what is going wrong. Thanks again for all you help!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 17:51:20 GMT

Hi @Kidd_Kosmonaut ,

sorry for latency!! 😞

I was a little hocked up ...

Thanks for your file!! 🙂

I've looked at it and it seems to be super perfect from what I have tried :
https://autode.sk/2CGS550

Also attaching the files I updated, your Max files with the biped and Motion Mixer, and the bip animation from your biped animation.

As usually rotation is the issue, I totally forgot to say to check for the position too, sometimes it can be the position that is the issue too. In your case, the position is also perfect, only on a single axis (forward) there is a difference, both other axis are identical. This is perfect.

If this does not help, would you have the data that still causes the issue, motion mixer and its .bip animation file ?

Regards,

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

Kidd_Kosmonaut — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:38:18 GMT

Hi again!
Thanks a ton for the follow up! It looks like I was missing the step where you edit the small transition track that occurs between the main copied tracks in motion mixer. After making the edit my animation is now working how I want it to! Thanks again for all your time and detailed responses it made solving this issue very easy to follow!

Re: How to Biped and Relative Repeat loop?

ads_royje — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:40:19 GMT

Happy to read you were successful! 🙂

Thank you for your feedback!