Motion capture test - Genesis 3 Toon Generations 2, Iray render
Bryan Steagall
Posts: 238
Hello all!
I'm working on a personal project with Daz Genesis 3 Toon Generations 2 characters and wanted to share these bloopers. (thank you Steve for such awesome characters!)
I did these as a test of my workflow to see how well everything worked together and get a better idea of render time.
The project will be done with motion capture, OptiTrack Motive for body mocap, and Dynamixyz Performer for the facial animation, using motionbuilder to put it all together. Then imported as .fbx into Daz studio, saved as pose .duf files, then applied to native daz genesis 3 characters and rendered out in Iray.
I did find some interesting quirks and problems with bringing in fbx and saving as .duf.. for example, you have to make sure you "unlock" all of the child nodes of Genesis 3, otherwise the pose files don't work correctly (bones don't rotate fully, but not due to limits.. as those I turn off.) and the facial animation, although it looks ok, for some reason doesn't reach 100% of the values of the animation in the original fbx file (especially noticeable in closing of the eyes, opening of the mouth, etc) which bugs the heck out of me and I can't understand or find the cause (it is almost like it only goes up to about 90-95%). I'm not using the genesis 3 mesh morphs, instead I'm using the bone facial rigging that comes with Genesis 3 (I found out that Daz studio won't save facial animation from fbx files when animating with morphs for some reason, but it will save it when using the bone rigging)
Here's the same bloopers, rendered out in Motionbuilder
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy them!
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Pretty good voice acting and animations.
Thank you sir!
Made me laugh, very believeable.
Thank you Nicstt, that is what I was aiming for..
I am interested to follow your process for this. Hope you keep us posted along that way.
Hey Greybro.. certainly! anything in particular that you're interested in seeing?
I love behind the scenes and in particular how to.
That is really cool. Both gave me a good laugh. Thanks for sharing !
ok, I'm going to slowly start to post here some of my workflow and behind the scenes.. starting off with screenshots of the actor setup and screenshot of both the body and facial mocap screens. As I go along, I will keep this updated for those interested.
Comments are welcome, thanks!
I certainly did, very, very well done. Very impressive!
Looking forward to seeing more.
-- Walt Sterdan
Thank you Walt!
Hi, sorry suddenly ask you. I hope to know, if you export simple facial animation from motion bulider as bvh, to daz studio, it can work ?
because, I am now serching best way to make facial animation with blender and export it to genesis3 fgirues, when I hope so. I hope to just concentrate blender now days, then About rig it seems ok, but to export motion capture data, I may need to use BVH from blender.
then hope to know, if motion capture can export as bvh with facial nodes animation (I think most of facial animation should be made by "node translation")
I serch around many website about "bvh" for facial animation, with motion capture,, but most of reports or manuall about bvh usually just show, standard rig rotation animation.
then only "root" need to set key for translation, but child nodes (eg facial bones for facial mocap) have no translation key. but nowdays I often see, facial animation which composed by motion capture (and nodes translation). then hope to know,, those who make facial animation with mocap, then when they export the animation to other 3d aprication,, they only use FBX, but not bvh ?
or BVH still be used to export facial animation (which need to set "node" translation keys) , then DS can import them as usuall way?
well if it uses the Genesis 3 bones you can do it, I have facial animation from iClone with my own facial animation profile using bones, unlike body bvh it actually works but sadly need to under advanced tick every facial bone every import.
It works perfectly sometimes and not at all others and I am stumped as to why.
oh big update to this post
I have D|S4.7 which predates Genesis 3 so I can use all the bones!!!
D|S 4.9 ( I have the beta) does not show them for bvh import
so yeah need an older version and DAZ I gather not to keen to let you have them
otherwise you need to do it in Poser with a converted to triax exported Genesis 3 cr2
and its flakey at best
So that means, if you set facial rigs "translation" (not made by "rotation",, eg just pull both "ears" translate to stretch ,) on iclone, (the genesis3 rigs are aleardy adjusted for iclone in 3d exchange) , then record it, after that export animation (return) as bvh to geneis3, on daz studio (import the bvh), with assgined rigs map, ,
genesis3 translate ear without show bone off set values as translate ,, as same as iclone,, and show same facial animation as icone ? (just ear move from default position, not deform genesis face mesh ugry)
I hope to check the iclone expotted bvh file,, (ercorded, facial nodes translation), keyed values. if the exported bvh record keys same way as blender,, it never work without manually modify all keys.
(Need to remove all "off set values," from keys) ,.but if iclone auto remove off set values, from translate animation keyed value,,, it simply work.
We have no option in daz stuido to adjust it,, then if iclone can export facial animation (translation)it means, iclone exporter have option, or it is standard way to record bvh..(not inlude child nodes off set values in translation (location) keys,) then I hope to know other aprication how export those animation as bvh as default. to clear see, it may need to solve by "blender" or not.
(at least daz need to improve bvh exporter,, which can export nodes translation keys as same as other apricatyion. )
as I said I used a pre Genesis 3 version of studio to import, I cannot get it to work properly now either, I keep overlooking something I got right before.
There is a free facial motion capture SW from Adobe Mixamo called Mixamo Face Plus. All you need is a web camera it says. Well you'd need a model rigged like it's Mixamo Face Plus SW expects.
Hi Kitakoredaz
The bvh standard, as I remember, only allows for translation of the "root" node, not for any of the other nodes.. bvh is a very old standard and relatively simple.. way before facial animation was even a thought on anyone's mind.. designed just to capture the body, which if you break it down to the most simplistic way to capture movement, you don't translate body segments.. you rotate them, arms, chest, fingers, etc.. and you apply translation only to the hips to achieve movement.
I've tested exporting bvh facial animation from motionbuilder, and it does import into daz studio, but the results are horrible. (as you mentioned, the facial nodes do require translation.. which the standard for bvh will not support in this case) Iclone might have added something to the standard (referring to what the3digit mentioned) but the normal standard for bvh, which normally everyone uses.. does not.
Most of the facial mocap systems I've seen and tested, use mostly fbx as the standard format for best results (as autodesk is the big boy in the pond).
>Bryan Steagal , thanks to test and many things which I did not clear know about motion-builder , and animation standard etc.
then About BVH, yes I know it is old standard,, and I think, the format not expected to use with facial nodes, when it was offered,, those days.but it can record channel of translation, when there is key.(about this case, channel for each nodes change 3 to 6, for all nodes, as original.
eg,, if make faceanimation in motion bulider with using translation , then just export and return it,, if it work,, it show most of aprication can export 6 channel for child nodes too. then I believe so. (Blender is not have so good exporter, because of the original amature system,, but at least blender can work (can keep translation, and import export) and,, even though I use symple bvh hacker,, etc,, it can keep nodes translation. then record it as "motion" segments. though I could only test with bvh hacker, and blender,, but I know,, your mentioned is actually right,, maybe nowdays FBX is more popular,, then most of 3d aprication not customize their bvh importer, exporter, without many user hope so,, (then the way how to animate may change about translation motion, even though the data is still there,,)
Anyway, I asked samething Maya user too,, then he mentioned Maya not support bvh as default etc ^^; (Yes he use FBX ) , about daz studio importer,
actually it can move facial nodes with imported bvh, the problem is jhow to use recorded data (in motion) for 6 channnel,, then include "off set" or not for key values. but I feel it may not be requested seriously, without many user need to use bvh,, to import facial animation, (And I still not clear,, if blender export way is not standard , I bleive, at least programmer can easy make add-on, if it need,, (because all data (values) are already discribed in bvh,, which need to customize,,as Off set values and each node location of each keys. then I somehow feel pity,, just correct it,, or each company have standard ,,we can easy use bvh to export facial animation, as same as FBX.
(about scale animation data,, yes,, there is no way,,,, or simply BVH can not do it,, it can not keep node length, as same as before,,)
the raeson why I choose bvh is,, export animaation as FBX from blender rigs,, then import to daz seems more difficult than bvh,, at current for me,, though I may check more,, how blender FBX exporter work with daz studio,,or simply render in blender, when I hope to add facial animation with blender rigs,,,,, anyway thanks good guide, and to take your time.
I just discovered something.. I wish the daz studio documentation would have really stated this in more detail. The "shaping preset" and "properties preset" allow for saving of morph based animation imported from fbx files! The "shaping preset" saves morph animation, while "properties preset" saves the morphs and the body animation.. I've only tested the facial animation so far with one genesis3 character.. but I'm going to test with others too and let you know how it goes.
Amazing! Very interesting to watch what you're doing and see how it all comes together.
Here's another render with Iray, first scene, almost complete.. I'm not totally happy with the results, I want to go back and use a combination of morphs and facial rigging bones to see if I can improve it.. found out that there's an issue with the animation done with bones only when brought in fbx and saved as a pose.. the animation curves don't reach 100 percent of what I had in the original fbx file
http://www.kkstudio.us/cc/scene1_final.mp4
Went back to change some of the expressions, and now I'm relatively happy with it.. some things might change in the final product, but now it is time to move on to other scenes.. This was rendered totally in Daz Studio using Iray, using native characters (so all animation is saved as shaping or properties preset .duf files). Render was done interactive, limited to 60 seconds per frame. Total render time about 12 hrs.
Hey, It has been discontinued. If you have an iPhone X I think is the next best way to do such a thing.