Asset: Burger Scene, Mechanics, and Animations

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Looks great!

Oh wow. That is great info. Do you know of any tutorials online showing these workflows for Auto Rig Pro and the NLA editor with prerecorded mocap data? It would be great to be able to standardize this stuff across models and rigs from different vendors, Mixamo, Real Allusion, Daz etc.

Mike L. Taylor

Oh one other thing! The rigs from mixamo looks really funky when they are downloaded as fbx without a character bound to it. But I use the Autorig Pro addon for Blender and its able to copy the animation data to my own rig and it translates pretty good. I'm sure there are tons of other ways to do it as well but that's how I currently roll.

Dyrgrip FX

I'm not too fond of the mixamo stuff. The animations feel very game design:ish but they also have some longer takes that is pretty good. Otherwise they are very none dynamic. BUT! Since you can combine animations using Actions/NLA you can spice them up with another animation layer on top in a non-destructive way. You should really look into that because it's not that hard and you gain a lot of control. Totally worth it! :)

Dyrgrip FX

OK here is the fix .. hopefully. I imported the animation, transferred the animation to one of the existing rigs and snapped the rigs to the same location. Turn on axes in the armature tap for both rigs. Now you see two issues. Alignment and bone roll are offset. Select both rigs, EDIT mode. I aligned each bone from the hip down to the rig with the original animation. When this is done, line up the roll under in bone tap. From here on all imported animations worked a treat. So I guess If you'd do those updates in the Mechanic source rig, it should be good to go until the next thing happens.

Hey Ian - Do you think we could create a Mocap channel on the discord server? I have a feeling it might be helpful...

Seth Rutledge

I did, yeah! With the blend file and the fbx, and just tested again, and the feet are locked. -or wait no, I checked with a couple other animations, and yeah, there's still a bit of slippage sometimes (something to do with the root bone still translating some of its rotation/movement to the overall rig- the more the hips move the more the rig slides, I think). Blarghe- I've literally spent weeks trying to fix this one exact problem; I'd thought I'd finally nailed it :/ Okay well, I've got something else I can try, it just might take me a sec to get around to it :/

Ian Hubert

Yeah it’s weird since the rig dimensions should be identical in this scenario, right? I literally just opened the burger scene and imported the animation. The imported rig looks legit though, but that’s almost always the case with correct import settings; let it be stuff from Mixamo or from the Rokoko library etc. Usually retargeting or different rig proportions cause things to go bonkers. Did you try it within your supplied scene?

Interesting! Dang... so, I've definitely run into the feet-sliding issue, but it's almost always when I scaled the character before applying the animation. You want to just import the character (or open the scene), and apply the animation before you scale it- it's weirdly finnicky. Is there a chance that's what happened?

Ian Hubert

Hey guys I did import the animation into the burger scene and did notice that the feet slide around. So ground contact needs clean up. I didn't notice this in Ian's animation. Anyone else having this issue. If no, how do you import? If yes, what's a good way to this clean up?

Yeah, you're talking about "Auto-Rig Pro", yeah? I think it's probably good, though I haven't really gotten it to work for me. I've heard some news about a new free option possibly coming soon, but they haven't announced it publicly yet- but hopefully super quick here! I'm really stoked :D

Ian Hubert

This was really cool. Do you know of a good way to re-target an animation to a different rig. I found a way to do it with a paid addon but that's hard to recommend to others.

i actually just found out about that and went on there! ill shoot you it on there!

Oh yeah?? That's rad! Yeah post a link here or send me a message on patreon or the discord! (been trying really hard to be more present over there)

Ian Hubert

Awesome, Ian! thanks!!

Phillip Park

man, i ended up making a pretty badass (atleast i think so) using these mechanics. anyway i can share it with you when its finished?

Oh dang!!!!! That's cool! I gotta look into that! Nathan showed me some of the NLA basics like... 10+ years ago, but I completely forgot about it. And I actually haven't really used the mixamo motion data for anything yet. I suspect I 'd have some trouble getting everything to gel nice, but maybe it's not as hard as I think?

Ian Hubert

Mike: I use the NLA editor in Blender for tasks like that. It's awesome since you can make different actions/move sets and repeat, crossfade and even combine them.

Dyrgrip FX

I'm glad! I hope this actually works out like I'm imagining. Being able to populate a scene with animated people always seemed so impractical, but it's so important for making stuff feel alive.

Ian Hubert

Oh that's awesome! Yeah they've been putting a ton of work into blender compatibility. The live-streaming into blender is really fun (literally just controlling characters in realtime in the viewport), and apparently they've got some other update that's going to make the whole thing more straightforward. I'm stoked :D.

Ian Hubert

Copy that. Are you able to combine your own mocap with the Mixamo rig and data? I see a lot of people cutting around where Mixamo Data starts and ends to avoid having to transition between end and start poses. Being able to create custom data to bookend the Mixamo FBX motion data seems ideal.

Mike L. Taylor

When it works, it's great!! I've had almost no luck getting it to work if the rigs aren't absolutely identical, though.

Ian Hubert

Thanks man! And oh! You've got to link up your discord to the patreon, and it'll automatically connect you- it's all tiers :D Maybe this helps? https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266-Get-my-Discord-role

Ian Hubert

Freakin awesome Ian, thanks!

Erich Stenzel

Forgive me for asking, but how do you join the discord channel? Or is that only for the $3 people? Thanks! (The scene is awesome by the way!)

Alex White

Me too!

Ha! Why have I been copying and pasting key frames between models for months? This is so easy!

Mike L. Taylor

Sweet! I just ordered a Rokoko suit myself, so this could not come at a better time :)

Seth Rutledge

Also, actively counting the instances of the infamous industrial greeble haha. Love how versatile it is.

Aman Bhargava

Thank you SO much Ian! I learn a lot from these scenes and it is helpful to tear them apart to examine the various parts. I almost feel guilty for getting access to these, compared to what I'm able to offer you in return. Many, many thanks. You're absolutely amazing.

Aman Bhargava

Thank you, this is awesome.

Jan van den Hemel

This is very good news! A huge thank you for your efforts Ian! Keep it up!

Dyrgrip FX