Blendshapes in the Time Editor

[pixerati]

I'm trying to edit a facial animation that has both bones and blendshape animation and I want to use the NLE features of the timeline to cut sections of mocap out and blend together.

Am I missing something, or is there no way to get blendshape animation into a track on the Time Editor timeline? If not, it seems like an odd omission. I can write a script to feed the animation into dummy bones and then put them in the timeline, but that's a whole lot of work and a bit of crazy for something that should be a default function.

Someone please tell me I'm just missing something obvious...?

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @pixerati,

in order to have the keys on the blend shape node displayed in the timeline, you need to have the blend shape node selected by clicking Select in the Blend Shape window.

Regards,

[pixerati]

OK, Great-I'll give that a try. Not very acquainted with the new Blend Shape editor; is there a way to select more than one blend shape at a time?

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @pixerati,

These are the steps to select multiple nodes:

• Highlight the first node in the Shape Editor window with a left click of the mouse
• Highlight any other node with Ctrl+left click
• Right click on one of the highlighted nodes and select Select Blend Shape Node

I've created also a short screencast.

91972941-7f37-4c4c-8dbc-b9eb44b5ca68

Regards,

[pixerati]

Sorry-should have clarified. Is there a way to set all the shapes to Edit mode? Seems like you can only set one to edit at a time which would make for a very tedious transfer to the Time Editor if you have a lot of animated blend shapes...

[stephenkmann]

edit is for editing the shape using sculpt brushes or similar. 

 to affect the keyframes, just select the blendShape node. 

you can also select it from by selecting your base geo( the one being deformed)  and then selecting the blendShape node from the channel box, or attribute editor. 

hth

[pixerati]

OK, that makes sense. But then I guess back to my original question: How do you get those shapes animations to show up as track clips in the Time Editor? No matter what I do they don't transfer into the Time Editor...?

[stephenkmann]

select the blendShape node

open the time editor

the second button is for "create clip from selected" 

press that button .

you should then see a clip show up in the time editor

hth

[pixerati]

Not working here. Can I send you a sample file?

Steps to reproduce:

1. In the Shape editor, right-click the shape and choose, "Select blend shapes node". Keys then appear in timeline

2. Do one of the following: a) Click Add selected content from scene, b) Click the Create Clip from selection button, or c) Choose File>Add Animation from scene selection

3. The screen then flashes, "anim_Clip1_AnimSource has been created as an Animation Source"--see image below--but nothing is created in the Time Editor. I even tried creating a track ready to receive the clip, but it makes no difference.

[pixerati]

OK, so the reason the clip didn't appear in the timeline was because "Create Animation Source only" was checked (not sure it this is the default)

Nevertheless, I still don't see the blend shape data transferred to the time editor.

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @pixerati,

sorry for have kept you waiting for so long. We investigated some more and I would like you to try something on a simple test scene.

1. Create a sphere
2. Open the shape editor
3. With the sphere selected, click Create Bland Shape
4. Click Create Target
5. Grab some verts and move them and make some animation with the blend shape, adding 2 or 3 keys
6. Windows > animation editors > time editor
7. In the shape editor, highlight the target node (in this case its pSphere1)
8. In the Time Editor click “Add Selected Content”

When I did it, a track was created and it displayed the keys. Please let me know what happens when you follow the steps.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

I am having a similar problem. When using Maya 2017, I could create a working animation clip by selecting blendshape node. Now with the 2018.3 time editor creates blendshape clip but the animation is gone. Scrubbing timeline has no effect. No matter what I tried, I couldn't find a solution 😞

[pixerati]

It might be more helpful if I sent you a sample file...I'd rather see it working with real-world facial blendshape animation...but I will try it out.

[pixerati]

OK, so I followed your exact steps and I get the error, "Nothing is selected."

If I select the pSphere in the Outliner in addition to the target in the Shape editor I do get an animation track created, but it doesn't transfer the keyframe data (even if I select the option to "Move animation to Time Editor from scene"). This is clear from the fact that I can shift the clip in the Time Editor and it doesn't affect the timing of the keyframes.

I'm using 2018.3

[Anonymous]

Thank you for quick reply. I suppose this is a bug in 2018. I create the blendshape then select the "blendShape1" input from the channel box. This way I am able to create clip and can do everything in time editor. The problem is I am loosing blendshape animation. The object shape stays static and reflects the frame of animation at the moment of clip creation.  With Maya 2017, this process seems flawless.

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @pixerati and @Anonymous,

would it be possible to send me a screencast showing what you exactly do, so that I can reproduce it locally and, possibly, create a ticket?

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hello again. I attached a simple screencast to demonstrate the problem. As I pointed out earlier, this works flawlessly in 2017. I checked again today. Thanks..

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/7cbab551-d85e-46d4-91fa-a91a09233cb4

[pixerati]

And here's mine attached.

[francesco.torchia]

Thanks a lot to the both of you, @pixerati and @Anonymous!

[mspeer]

Hi!

I can confirm that selecting the blendshape node and adding this animation to Time Editor works in Maya 2017.4, but not in Maya 2018.3.

A clip will be created and the connections seem to be correct, but the keys will not be evaluated.