Mixamo to MotionBuilder Workflow

[Anonymous]

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to import Fuse generated characters that have been rigged and added animation in Mixamo into MotionBuilder. I have found several tutorials that talk about importing and retargeting motion data but none specifically address importing Mixamo characters and animation.

Mixamo provides rigged characters with user friendly rigging and facial expression controls in a T-Pose. It also provides several thousands of short animated clips that I assume can be stitched together better in programs like MotionBuilder. I just can’t find a good tutorial that provides a Mixamo to MotionBuilder workflow which includes working with MotionBuilder Story.

Here is what I am currently doing:
- Create customized character in Adobe Fuse
- Upload to Mixamo
- Mixamo adds rigging to characters (including facial) and my choice of animation clips
- I export the characters in FBX/FBM format and I then import the rigged character and then the animation into Maya using Mixamo's provided scripts
- I only know how to import one skeleton animation (motion data provided by Mixamo) at a time into Maya.

It was recommended to me that MotionBuilder would be the best place to stitch multiple animations together into a story.
- So I save both the rigged Character in a T-Pose and the animated Actors (Mixamo's animated skeletons) starting in a T-Pose as FBX files.
- I then "Send" them from Maya to MotionBuilder and all works fine. However I want to use more than one short imported animation.

Here is where I get stuck.
- In MB I am able to characterize both the Character and the Actors in T-Poses but I can't retarget the Actor on to the Character. I select the character in the navigator and can see the Input Type pulldown has Character listed but when I try to select it, it selects Stance instead.

Do you have any suggestions on how I can retarget my Character in MB and where I can find a tutorial that specifically addresses the proper workflow from Mixamo to Maya to MotionBuilder and then retargeting (or stitching together) other animations provided by Mixamo in MB Story?

Tx Dave

[Anonymous]

Anyone have an answer for this question yet?

[Anonymous]

I can't find a tutorial that specifically addresses the proper workflow from Mixamo to Maya to MotionBuilder and then retargeting (or stitching together) other animations provided by Mixamo in MB Story?

[Anonymous]

So Here's what I i came up with on YouTube. How these help somebody.  I was kind of hoping there was something like this coming from AutoDesk, but I guess not. Cheers!

Motion Builder lessons - Week1 01 01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWiJPnMVfA

Motion Builder lessons - Week1 01 02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muYmiflQuIs

Motion Builder lessons - Week1 01 03 User Interface and Navigation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRpbWJjcc9c

Motion Builder lessons - Week2 01 01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_AUaycxT9E

Motion Builder lessons - Week2 01 02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS2wZ3iT9BA

Motion Builder lessons - Week2 01 03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezjfNs4KhOk

[Anonymous]

Hi

I just ran across Mixamo about 3 weeks ago. Since then I may have rigged and animated at least severa; characters.  It's very straight forward MoCap workflow.

  I did a workflow video with a Mixamo, Endorphin and MotionBuilder/Maya pipeline with a character I modeled. I dynamically extended the mocap from Mixamo.

https://youtu.be/PMcZbXA2OW4

I am a freelancer so if you need direct, private help I can assist with consulting.

Anyhow, there's probably not a lot of informations specifically for Mixamo. You have a rig, characters and animation that all work together.

The skeletons are such that Mobu characterized it without a problem.  Just add a new favorate path from the Asset Browser in Mobu to your characters and drop each new character into your scene.

It sounds like what you really need is a few fundemental tutorials. Check out Digital Tutors videos on Mocap and Rigging. It'll  be a cinch after that.

[ece3k]

Ok so I figured out an easy workflow for getting Mixamo animations into the world of Motion builder and Maya.  Here is what you do:

  Go to Mixamo, and download an animation as an fbx file.  Don't download mesh or you will need to delete it later.  Go to Motion Builder and open that fbx file.  It will come in as a skeleton that has animation on it.  You CANNOT characterize the skeleton until you reset the joint rotations for one frame.  It is easy to do.  Select the entire skeleton (it will turn green).  Make sure you current time indicator is on frame 1 (this isn't absolutely necessary but it helps me keep it straight in my head).  Then go to the Properties tab in the lower right corner under the Resources window.  You will see under (66 Skeleton Nodes) the Rotation (LD) line.  Select and zero out all the rotations (x,y,z).  You will see the joints jump back to a Tpose.  You do not need to hit a keyframe...in fact, don't, because you may hose a looping animation by re-keying the first frame.  Double click in the main view window to de-select the joints.  Go to your asset browser and select the character node (In the templates folder) and drag that node onto the HIPS joint.  Make sure you have it on the Hips.  It will ask you to characterize and you select BIPED.  Now you are good to go.  Scrub the timeline and the rotations will reset to what they began since you did not set a keyframe on those rotations.  

  Then you can do the normal stuff....merge in a character.  Select that character and drive its source from the new character you just made.  that can be baked and sent to Maya, or used in story mode to blend with other animations.  

  I hope that helps people...it got me for a while until I realized I was characterizing a skeleton with pre-rotated bones and that messes up everything.

Erik

ece3k@virginia.edu

[ece3k]

Just a few follow up notes on the process:

  1.  If you move the Current Time Indicator before characterizing, it will reset and you have to zero out the rotations again.

  2.  Save after you have finished and delete the original fbx so you don't accidentally reuse it.

  3.  If you open a new scene in MOBU with your character in it, you can go to story mode and drop in the fbx file you created from the asset browser directly into the story timeline and it will auto apply it to the character in the scene.  If you are using a looped animation, export the animation clip from story mode (frame start and end should be the exact length of the clip which is the default if you followed the instructions above) as an animation clip.  then re-import it into the story mode and you will see that it now loops as you extend the clip.  Cool right?  I know.

Enjoy.

Erik

[ece3k]

• Sometimes when you reset the rotations you will notice in a side view that the character is below the origin point on the y axis.  In these cases, just translate it up so the feet are on the 0 axis before characterizing.  This can be done before deselecting the skeleton. I have noticed this issue on a lot of the animations.  

[Anonymous]

The Best and Easiest Solution ever been looking for it for decades thanks ... ♥

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I wanted to chip in here with some notes from my experience looking for a proper workflow to map animations from Mixamo onto a personal character.

First thing I noticed is that, when auto-rigging my character with Mixamo, the resulting quality of the rig is quite far from the Motion Builder standards, and the rotations, scales and other parameter get messed up and not good for advanced clean-up or characterisation. What I found to be the best approach is to download the animation from Mixamo with one of the provided rigged characters that they offer (the Y-Bot seems to be good), which follows the naming conventions of Motion Builder.

Once the animation has been downloaded as fbx, the next thing would be to import it to Motion Builder, zero-out all the rotation of the skeleton (as explained before by another user) and then characterise it. Once this is done, we can save the characterised fbx and go from there. From this point, it is very straight forward to map it to any other characterized model.

I hope this helps!