Using M4/V4 Mocaps With Animal Characters?

Steve K

I have in mind an animation with animals doing human actions.  I've got a lot of mocaps based on M4 and V4 that I'd like to use, but it seems many of the animal characters are rigged differently ... probably because they have four legs typically.  I've had luck with Troll models, but not much else, yet, although I don't have a lot of animal chacters to test.  Any suggestions for animal characters?

WendyLuvsCatz

you need to rename nodes and bake rotations

it is doable but a bit of work

converting to weightpainting needed too

it may actually be easier to retarget the animation

WendyLuvsCatz

using iClone to do it and exporting a BVH it is much easier

0oseven

Hi Steve - I dont think Ive come across any model that you could apply [successfully ] a V4/M4 motion because as you say the bone structure different .though I recall making a mouse walk using a bvh,

Here is a tut from Wendy that just might help -I saved it from original post..Probably need some experimenting and if not helpfulIts still a useful thing to know about.

I dont know what sort of animals you have in mind - maybe the toon series on sale at moment https://www.daz3d.com/at-the-zoo-ready-to-render

Wendy on Attaching Conforming Clothing for animation
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0oseven's     SUMMARY
Select the clothing
open in vertex room
select edit /convert to other modeller
use primitive option
back to assembly room
click animation/ attach skeleton
clothes object should then move with figure.[ steve this may work on an animal character - you might have to delete its bone structure first ]
NEXT
tweaks are needeed to fix poke through during animation
stil figuring best way to do this
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I never though to try it
until seeing how Genesis Autofit worked
but
you can take ANY dynamic Poser prop clothing
ANY conforming clothing converted to an unrigged vertex model
in fact ANYTHING!!!
even a tree, piece of furniture, a vertex object of any description
AND select hip in ANY Daz figure as is, rigged loaded and shift then model/object whatever!!!!
then choose Attach skeleton
the object will be rigged to the figure and move with it

yes I have done this before reattaching a skeleton
but
YOU DON'T NEED TO DETACH IT from a rigged Daz figure loaded from your runtime
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a Poser dynamic kimono prop I attached, 
you can then import aniBlocks, apply poses etc to the figure and it follows the bones as if one figure
the hair was converted to an unrigged vertex object and also attached
you can attach as many objects as you wish after others are already attached and weight paint each.
the boots are conforming clothes I added afterwards, they still work too!
I am impressed, rigging clothes made easy! 
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the short answer
put a prop on a figure sizing it to fit
with it selected hold shift and also select the figure's hip
go to animation at the top of the assembly room window
select attach skeleton
and you are done!

the long answer
you will prob need to go into the vertex room and weight paint each joint's influence on the various parts of the mesh to get it to conform nicely 

Headwax

Hi, I usually stick animal heads , paws etc on m4 body. Parent them to head or hands.

You can either in Carrara hide all parts of the model that you dont want seen - 

Or in studio or poser a bit of a fiddle will just leave you with the eg head complete with morphs - if you dont want to carry the extra geometry .

Example here - heads on three bears bodies https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3595551/#Comment_3595551

 

 

Can't recall the step by step for that thou- its certainly the best way though as your hot point is in the right place.

I did ask in studio forum and received a stepp by step - but cant find it sorry

 

edit here it is https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/159971/studio-help-in-saving-only-part-of-a-figure-eg-head-but-keeping-morphs-and-rigging#latest

 

 

 

Steve K

Okay, thanks for all the prompt responses, those all sound productive.  My goal is fairly short term, so I was (naively) hoping for an animal figure that had a M4/V4 type rig/skeleton "as purchased", and that retained its full animal appearance.  Besides the various Trolls I own (a handful), the DAZ Millenium Gorilla works well, and has the advantage of the "Space Apes"  add-on product which I also own.  So maybe some good scifi animation possibilities there.  I'm guessing I need an animal that can stand on its hind legs and so has a similar skeleton to M4/V4.  One that caught my eye but have not bought is the "Meerkat":

https://www.daz3d.com/meerkat

It looks very nice for a comedy animation, if the mocaps work.  "A group of meerkats is called a 'mob', 'gang' or 'clan'  "  (Wikipedia)   If anybody could try a M4/V4 mocap with it, I'd appreciate it.  Or any animal similar. 

My wife has been to Madagascar and watched lemurs cavorting, even better than meerkats for animation, I think, if a non-toon model is available and compatible with M4/V4 mocaps.  Yes, I ask a lot, I know., but watch this:

Thanks again.

Mistara

cuties 

Steve K

Mistara said:

cuties 

I agree.  Unfortunately, I got the Meerkat and it does not work with the M4/V4 mocaps, at least not "as is".  So far, all I've found is the DAZ Gorilla.