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]

Thank you for the confirmation, @mspeer!

[francesco.torchia]

@pixerati and @Anonymous thanks again for your screencasts! I have created a ticket for the developers.

[mspeer]

Hi!

@francesco.torchia

Here a simple scene-file, created in Maya 2018.3, but works only in Maya 2017.

This confirms my assumption.

[francesco.torchia]

Thanks a lot, @mspeer!

I'll add the info to the ticket!

[Anonymous]

@francesco.torchia Hi, is there any update on the status of this ticket? Or any way for us to see the status? This is a critical issue for our workflow and hopefully is a high priority.

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @Anonymous!

The Dev Team is aware of this issue and they are working on a solution. Unfortunately they don't share their agenda with Customer Support team, so I cannot say when it will be fixed.

What we can do is to start an escalation and request an hotfix.

If you are interested in this procedure, please write me a private message, so that I can give you additional information and collect data from you.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Is here any solution to this issue where blendshape keys in the time editor are not evaluated.

I'm confused to say the least. Maya is an animation software and blendshapes are essential in so many circumstances, but am I correct as I am experiencing that in Maya 2018 we literally cannot use blendshapes in the timeline editor because they just dont evaluate lol? : )

Isn't this one of those issues where Maya devs should be like "ok everyone stop what you're doing because this animation software we made can no longer animate so we gotta prioritize this"

[Anonymous]

I'm scared to scroll up and see how long this thread has lasted without this issue being fixed lol.

But ya, while i hope you're wrong. It's crazy isn't how something like this could go on.

I mean, ya I guess you gotta use retired maya animation tools instead of the timeline editor, but wow. Makes me wonder what's happening behind the scenes at Maya HQ.

[Anonymous]

@francesco.torchia

Can you let me know if this fix made it into the 2019 release? I looked through the list of fixes, but don't see anything related to it. Would be sad if this was still an open problem.

[francesco.torchia]

Hi @Anonymous!

I can confirm that the fix is not in this version. I don't have any data about when it will be released.

Regards,

[BenediZ]

Following this thread...  Same problem here 😞

Please update when it is fixed!

A Time Editor with Blendshape bug makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

Reply - Subscription. Autodesk does not have to do anything and earns money anyway. Otherwise they would have to sell the new version. Then they could do something.

Ignorance is so advanced that even the basic tools have errors, for years.

Maya 2019, the error is still.

[BenediZ]

Even blendshapes lead to crashes in maya2019, when I apply them to animated geometry, that is not 100% perfect.

I need to do it in Maya2018... there the blendshapes work!   tested now 3 days   😞

So it seems that it all got worse, despite Maya2019 was an "animation update"? 

There are some bevels in my mesh, that worked fine, but then after some time it tells me sometimes "cannot bevel because of nonmanifold vertex".  I can't solve it with clean-up this because it destroys the animation.

Stupid that the Maya can't solve this on its own. And that is is so picky about small geometry issues.

You really need to enhance as a complete workflow:

history, poly-modeling (stability, ability to solve small issues without destruction....), blendshapes, timeslide/trax editor (which should be the same.)

All these topics belong together... A small bevel problem causes in Animation blendshapes crashes, and for the Time Editor don't help (the needed) Blendshape Keying, if blendshapes don't work because of often crashes.

[tj.galda]

Hi gang,

We're aware of the issue but won't be fixing it in the short term.  We plan on fixing a large number of things with the time editor in our next phase so this will get done at the same time.  Our time editor has a lot of great ideas but also a lot of rough edges.  The design team is actively bringing in feedback to understand and refine it, and I'd like to do that all at once.  

So while that process is happening I have the team focused on cached playback, graph editor, timeline, and even some audio workflows for lipsyncing.  Those will definitely help a lot of animators and you're welcome to give feedback for that on the beta forums, we'd love to get more input.

I know that's a hard choice but it's one I'm making.  There's no magic there, we're just prioritizing in this fashion:

* animation performance overall

* core animation workflows in Graph Editor, Timeline

* prioritized bugs

* time editor phase 2

Happy to talk to anyone on the phone if you want more information and want to have a discussion, just DM me since to go much further then that I have to get an NDA in place etc.  The beta forum is a great place to do so as well.

[Anonymous]

@tj.galda your response is remarkably forthcoming and honest. Thank you! TBH, I'm not used to it from Autodesk/Maya. As a Maya user it's all I feel I could reasonably ask for and hopefully the Maya community can agree.

Knowing that it's on the dev team's radar, acknowledging the rough edges and moreover that it's important to them is more than we've been able to get on this thread. You even offered a realistic time-frame for a fix (even if it's letting us know this fix isn't around the corner). Letting me know that this won't simply be a hot-fix likely released very soon is almost as beneficial to me as offering a specific soon to be released fix date, because it relieves project time management stress by providing me with realistic expectations.

In short, I really appreciate your update and hope you and the Maya team can provide these kinds of updates more often across the forum.

[RICCARDORUSSI9039]

Are there updates about this problem?
Softimage many years ago saved actions including blendshape animations.
Is it possible that in maya in 2019 this is not yet possible?
Does Autodesk plan to create new 3D animation software or will I have to continue to suffer with Maya?

[Anonymous]

I am a bit confused on what Autodesk expects users with character rigs setup in this manor to do. These issues makes work on previous characters and animated scene absolutely pointless. There is no work around, and it seems like there will not be a hotfix of any sort in the near future..... So now I have a couple questions.

1. What is exactly the issue ? - I have done some testing and it seems that this issue started around the same time of implementing the Cache playback feature. Worked flawlessly in Maya 2017. Now, it will not apply the clipped keys to the blends.

2. What is a suggested work around for the moment ? - I have characters rigs and animated scenes built with the process of animating via the time editor for blendshapes. All scenes are useless without this feature. Where do I go from here ?  Should I plan on working in 2017 till this is finally resolved ?

3. What are other studios to combat this issue ? -  I assume that this issue has been brought up by many users / studios, large and small. It is a highly used function when planning out the pipeline processes for character animation.  It seems like the needed dependability of this function would be cause for concern enough to address the issue asap with a hotfix.

Honestly, as an avid Maya user since Maya 2.0, I am very disappointed that 2019 was supposed to come with "enhanced animation features", and yet it was somehow overlooked that such a largely used feature such as blendshape evaluation in the time editor doesnt work correctly. 

After all this time with the knowledge of this issue, I hope that there is at least some answers on how to address it.

[Anonymous]

I am a bit confused on what Autodesk expect users with character rigs setup in this manor to do. These issues makes work on previous characters and animated scene absolutely pointless. There is no work around, and it seems like there will not be a hotfix of any sort in the near future.....

So now I have a couple questions.

1. What is exactly the issue ? - I have done some testing and it seems that this issue started around the same time of implementing the Cache playback feature. Worked flawlessly in Maya 2017. Now, it will not apply the clipped keys to the blends. Additionally, If I bake the clip back to the scene, it works just fine. So the clips are holding the key data, but just are not applied correctly to the blends while in clip form.

2. What is a suggested work around for the moment ? - I have characters rigs and animated scenes built with the process of animating via the time editor for blendshapes. All scenes are useless without this feature. Where do I go from here ?  Should I plan on working in 2017 till this is finally resolved ?

3. What are other studios to combat this issue ? -  I assume that this issue has been brought up by many users / studios, large and small. It is a highly used function when planning out the pipeline processes for character animation. It seems like the needed dependability of this function would be cause for concern enough to address the issue asap with a hotfix.

Honestly, as an avid Maya user since Maya 2.0, I am very disappointed that 2019 was supposed to come with "enhanced animation features", and yet it was somehow overlooked that blendshape evaluation in the time editor doesnt work correctly.

I would hope that after all this time with knowledge of the issue, that there has been some work done on it, and some way to combat the problem at hand.

[s.jantzen]

I've stopped using Maya for the time being and am using other software (starts with H and ends with ini), but here's a workaround I used way back when.

Create custom attributes on a controller to drive your blendshapes, and add the custom attributes to the time editor, not the blendshape attributes themselves. The custom controller attributes should work, and should be easier to animate anyway. Hope it helps. If you need to google creating custom attributes or connecting attributes together using the node editor or with set driven keys, there's lots of info on that.

[Anonymous]

Now that Maya 2020 is released, is there any improvements on this issue with the Blendshapes not working in the time editor ? or is this still an issue waiting to be resolved  ?....... This is still a large concern considering our pipeline was setup and used to animated character with in this manor.

Chase C