Motionbuilder generated blendshape lipsync animation to Maya

[jonesm]

I have been trying to find a solution to this problem but can't find one anywhere.

I have a character generated with Autodesks Character generator which I output with blendshapes for the facial animation, I have generated the body animation using mocap from the Kinect and decided to use the built in audio lipsync function in Motionbuilder which once set up well gave me fantastic results. I was planning on bringing the character into Maya and rendering in Mental Ray. I have plotted all animations and brought the file into Maya but the blendshape animation didn't transfer with the body animation.

I have been through all possible options (at least the ones I can find) in relation to getting the file into Maya with the blendshape animation working but to no avail. I would have thought this would be something simple to do and maybe this is one of those times where I'm missing the simplest option directly in front of my eyes.

Is there a workflow option I am missing, if not can I bring the file into another autodesk app (3d Studio max, XSI, other) and get it to work in there and then transfer to Maya or is this something that just hasn't been enabled

any help with this would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[Anonymous]

Though I have not used the kinect as a driver for the blends shapes I have had good results for going back and forth to Maya. I sculpt all my shapes in Mudbox and import these into Maya and check the they are all set up and working with my HIK character. I then save this setup up out and bring it into Mobu. I then check the Maya blends are still all connected and which has worked pretty well. So I know the back and forth from Mobu > Maya works pretty well. I'd first just check the loop between Maya > Mobu > Maya works first before adding the Kinect connections into the loop. 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My name is Alonzo Von Threet. I am on a Mac. So I am using MotionBuilder 7.5 but have adored Mobu for a very long time. Recently, I did a voice set up in Mobu with audio. However, I don't remember exactly how I did it but it worked fine. I know, that seems useless that I don't remember the exact keys and buttons but I don't. I do, however, remember the proceedure and how or why it works and that maybe of help to you.

Moreover, last nite, I used an KB animation trigger device, which I do remember the exact keys. That maybe the solution for you.

So as far as workflow, what may be the problem is this:  After using an animation trigger device such as KB. You need to bake or plot the animation from the device to the actual morph geo. There's a particular type of bake setting you must use with triggers (as I mentioned I forgot how I did the audio).

The plot option for baking facial rig triggers to the geo for export via FBX is in the "Key Control" palette. If you have the face of the character select it's click the "Animation" drop down menu and envoke "Plot Selected" (All Properties".

My suspicion is that the "All Properties" is a vertex morph animation bake needed to plot the animation from the device to the geometry.
I know it works because I did it last nite for the first time. Like I mentioned, I have a very old version of Mobu on Mac so through the buttons may different, the workflow should essentionally be the same. I do know without this vital step in the process, the animation will not transfer.

If it still doesnt work there's a very old VTM from 3DBuzz that does Face/Actor Audio that has all the info you need for doing audio succefully. The info may be free on YouTube. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

hi, It's me again. Alonzo Von Threet aka AVTPro.

I double checked the audio setup. It's different from animation trigger. With Audio the principles are the same but the procedure or buttons are different.

Once you have your dialog animation, use the PLOT button in the Actor Face palette to bake the setting to your character definitions for the face. Then use Plot in the Character Face palette to bake your animation to your facial geometry. Now to make sure it's all working properly turn off the audio recording and LIVE input devices of the Actor or Character face. Matter of fact, just delete them. If the character still moves then the device has been plotted correctly to the geometry.

That should do it. Hope it works for you.

[Anonymous]

I've got the same problem and just found something.

I've done a lipsinc test with a genesis character. Attached a character face and an actor face. Lipsinc worked fine. Then, in the character face/ character face animation, i've selected the weight and all the visemes shapes. In the transport control, started at frame one and clicked on the record button. After the animation has played, go to the actor face, plot animation; go to the character face, plot animation and voila. I've sent the scene back to maya.

Hope that helps

[dkanekanian1]

@Anonymous wrote:

I've got the same problem and just found something.

I've done a lipsinc test with a genesis character. Attached a character face and an actor face. Lipsinc worked fine. Then, in the character face/ character face animation, i've selected the weight and all the visemes shapes. In the transport control, started at frame one and clicked on the record button. After the animation has played, go to the actor face, plot animation; go to the character face, plot animation and voila. I've sent the scene back to maya.

Hope that helps

---

I am getting a Nothing to record dialogue box after I have selected all the visimes in Character Face Animation.

[dkanekanian1]

fixed this by setting Record true and setting Live false in Voice Device, although I had to record first with Live set to true and then set to false