I have imported .bvh animation. I have another rig other than the default and have been matched most target bones. I had imported target character (.smd), and then I see a rig. But when I import animation (.bvh), the rig I had targeted was lost. How can I put the animation .bvh file into the target character .smd?

To explain clearly:
I have a premade .bvh motion file.
I have imported in and it shows a rig moving.
When I imported my custom rig, the motion is gone.
When I imported my motion, the rig is gone.
How do I match .bvh motion data "bones" to my custom "bones"?

Please respond, it is urgent need! THANKS!

iPi Mocap Studio cannot transfer arbitrary animation to another character.
Target character import is intended for transferring animation tracked from the video to a given character.
Animation import is intended solely for purpose of previewing an animation that was earlier exported from Studio.

You can try to do the motion transfer using bvhacker tool, e.g. rename bones, remove excess bones.

I have once tried when the rig stays in T position at first place, it follows the motion.

Perhaps adding a T position at my pre-made bvh motion would let the rig track it? If so, how can I let the bvh be tracked to the default iPi rig (perhaps adding T position to bvh file?) and then let the custom rig track the default rig...is there some kind of tutorial similar to this that I can refer to?

I am new to re-targeting rig to rig. I am not sure how to apply from the bvh rig to my custom rig. I have downloaded BVHacker, though I have no idea how to achieve this.

Thanks.

As I said, our software cannot help you in retargeting arbitrary bvh file to another rig. Motion transfer does not work with imported animation, only with mocap projects.
BVHacker may help if motion transfer consists of simple operations like bone renaming, removing etc. You can find appropriate commands in its skeleton tree view. Applying edited BVH file to another rig should be done in the animation software you use.

If you need to retarget .bvh from another source, you'll need to do this in another program. There are several options available.

The program I like to use it Motion Builder, which is an industry standard but it has a relatively high learning curve and is expensive. However, I believe you can get it free if you're a student, and if you have access to the educational discount you can get it as part of a suite for around $500 or so.

After we finish our current short film project, we're looking into using iClone5 Pro to create a short series of 'machinima' style movies, and this system can retarget and edit mocap from other sources (including iPi DMC.) To do this, you also need to get the 3DXChange Pipeline add-on. We got the total package last spring for around $500 - $600. We haven't used it yet so I'm not sure how it compares to Motion Builder for mocap retargeting and editing--from video demos I've seen, it seems pretty decent for the price. We'll probably get around to using it next spring. Will report what it's like using it when we do.

A few other 3D animation programs that can retarget 'outside' mocap data are XSI, Max, and Maya. I use Maya sometimes at work but I really don't know much about retargeting in Maya. In video demos I've seen, the procedure looks very similar to Motion Builder's system.

If you're on a tight budget, Blender may be a choice worth considering. I don't have any experience with it but I believe it has built in retargeting too--do a search, I'm sure there are videos showcasing this feature. I'm actually interested in Blender myself (one of my friends at work uses it for specific fx work,) but I don't have the bandwidth to learn a whole new 3D program these days. Maybe after my wife and I finish a few more movies.

Another option is iKinema WebAnimate, which is a mocap editor in a web-browser. This is an online service where you can upload motions and your character, retarget, edit and check your results. I believe it's free up until you're ready to download the result. I've never used this service but I've seen posts from people who have reported satisfactory results. I'm not sure how much it costs to download from this service. (Maybe somebody who uses this service could post more details about it?) There are a couple of other online mocap services out there but iKinema WebAnimate is the one I hear about most often.

Hope this helps.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

THis is simply untrue,

Motion transfer is easily attainable as this video clearly shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3jCAfy ... C-qfqD4SbQ

This video shows how one can retarget an animation that was previously exported from iPi Mocap Studio. This not an arbitrary animation, and such workflow was never implied in Mocap Studio.
Besides, this approach works only when the skeleton in imported animation matches the skeleton in Mocap Studio exactly. And the skeleton gets minor changes in some updates of Mocap Studio, so one cannot "retarget" animations created with previous releases.

So why dont you explore the possibility of such implications? The animation showed was not exported from iPiStudio.

It was an arbitrary BVH that was a Motionbuilder type skeleton.I think you need to reconsider for the customer sake such workflow possibility.

IE: make it so customers can do this to ease the workflow burden, as it opens up many possibilities and saves great amounts of time.