How to bake/plot relation constraint to skeleton?

[Anonymous]

Hey there,

I'm having issues baking a relation constraint to my character's skeleton. My relation constraint has the pelvis bone sending its X and Z position over to the root bone, which results in the root bone following the pelvis bone. That's also what I'd like to achieve, but I can't seem to bake this effect onto the skeleton, which is needed to import this animation into a game engine.

This is how the default animation looks like, with the root bone staying in place, not following the pelvis bone.

This is how the default animation looks like, without any constraint.

This is how the animation looks like with the relation constraint applied. This is also how I'd like it to look like, the root bone follows the pelvis bone's x and z movement.

This is the desired result, with the relation constraint applied.

This is how the animation looks like after baking to the skeleton and the relation constraint being checked as inactive. The root bone follows the pelvis bone with a delay and the character is swaying in place as well, destroying the original movement. When I activate the relation constraint again, the root bone follows the pelvis bone again, but the character is still swaying in place.

This is how the animation looks like after baking to the skeleton.

So my question is, is there a way to correctly bake the relation constraint to the skeleton?

My goal is to get the root bone to follow the pelvis bone so I can import this animation into Unreal.

I have also attached a video showcasing my problem.

Would love to hear any input on this issue, thanks in advance!

[damian.pajda]

Probably your root joint isn't part of the Character so it doesn't bake with it. 

You need to add root joint to Character as a CharacterExtension or just bake it manually (Plot Selected option from KeyControls).

[Anonymous]

Hello, thanks for getting back to me on this question!

The root joint is part of the Character (it is assigned in the Character Definition tab of Character Controls).

Unfortunately, you can't see the pop up window of the baking properties in the screen recording, but I did actually try to bake the root joint with Plot Selected (All Properties). Maybe there is another issue I'm missing out on.

I've attached the scene, if you or anyone would like to give it a go. I'd very much appreciate that.

Thank you!

[damian.pajda · Accepted solution]

I quickly checked this file. One solution that I would suggest would be:

1. remove root joint from characterization - I'm not sure if it should be mapped as a Reference

2. Make Character Extension for your character and assign root joint to it.

3. Bake animation to ControlRig (from Character Controls panel) - this way body animation won't be parented to root joint and won't make cycle dependency while plotting.

4. Enable Relation constraint

5. Bake animation to skeleton (from Character Controls panel or PlotAll)

and it should work. I use this kind of setup of root in my scenes.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much, this actually worked!
There seems to be a lot left to learn in MoBu, I've never worked with Character Extensions before.

Thanks for taking the time to help out 🙂

[jps]

On healthy way to make sure you plot only necessary elements of your scene is to create a set or a group. When you need to plot, select your group or set and use plot selected all properties from the animation top menu bar.

I don't recommend to use plot all as you might get into troubles on complex scenes.