Hi Everybody

Problems getting capture back into Lightwave.

Following Rebel Hill's tutorial(export FBX, convert in FBX converter etc) we managed to bring our character into ipi studio (although we had to switch off all buttons i.e. “materials”, “Embedded Textures” etc except “Models” in the Lightwave FBX exporter) other than minor weightmap issues and after re-targeting some of the bones (spine, toe_end etc,) it works well.

The real problem comes when we try to export FBX from Ipi. We get the dreaded “Only eEULER_XYZ rotation order is supported on export” error; What is this? How can the model work in ipi seamlessly but we get this error when we try to save it out? Surely the rotation order is ok or the model would not attach itself to the motion?

The error message also says “Your character has at least one node that uses eEULER_XYZ rotation order” how do we fix this? it would be more helpful if the error message could tell you what “nodes” are in error.

After spending hours and hours working to get this motion back into Lightwave we are running out of ideas. We just cant get the Rebel Hill workflow to work, we can get the model in, we just cant get it out of IPI.

We are using Rebel Hills FBX lightwave rig, we are using LW11 exporter, and we also have limited access to a copy of MB 2010.

So any help/tips in doing this would be great before we throw the computers out of the window and walk the Earth.

Other things we have tried:

Ipi back into Motionbuilder via FBX; in ipi it saves with no error message, but the mesh disappears; loading the FBX into MB we have the skeleton appear with motion attached, but no mesh and bones have been renamed and no finger bones. So do we bring the LW FBX in and re-target manually?

Thanks in advance
Rob

iPi wont work properly with an fbx straight out of LW... it gives the error you describe (loads, but wont export). Its for this reason that you convert LWs fbx into collada first (with fbx converter), bring collada into iPi as target character, export from iPi as fbx... this you can now match back to your LW character.

If you're doing all this and still getting the error Ive no idea why, so I suspect uve missed a step, or got something back to front.

As for exporting for MB lacking fingers, etc... that's because when u export to MB, ur exporting the iPi tracked skeleton... NOT the imported character uve retargeted onto. This skeleton ofc, wont fit you custom character proportions anyway. Tbh, if uve got MB, there's little reason to retarget in iPi anyhow, as MBs retargeter is much mroe versatile.. so u may be best off using the LW<>MB route, bringing the ipi motions directly in there.

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Hi RH, thanks for the reply,
We have followed all the instructions to get the character in: export FBX, covert to Collada into ipi, no problems with that.

It is just the out of ipi is the problem. In your video you simply click on export animation – fbx then you are back into LW no problem, we get the eEULA error.

So at a loss really, we have followed the instructions precisely but still no luck, only difference that I can see between our set-up and yours is we are using LW11 and using trial of ipi, could this be something?

Cheers Rob

My wife and I are successfully using iPi DMC with Lightwave 10.1--we made our first 'mocap' short film 'Happy Box' last October with it, and we have two more films in production now. I'm about to try LW 11 with our workflow, so I'll let you know if I run into any problems with it.

Right now I'm a bit busy recording and tracking motions for our second 'mocap' movie but I hope to make time to create some videos of our workflow soon. I think a few steps in our workflow are a little different from Rebel Hill's but the ideas should essentially be the same. (In fact, RH helped me immensely when I was developing our own iPi-to-LW workflow.) In any case, maybe a different perspective on the topic can help clear a few details. I'll let you know when my videos are posted.

G.

Just to be clear, we're using Motion Builder to retarget our iPi data for LW, but I understand that Ikinema Webanimate is a good alternative.

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If ur doing all that then I really dont know. Maybe its the trial version of ipi's fault. Best I can say is try sending us ur LW character and I can try it here, but Ive done it with a couple variations on the basic "world aligned" LW joints rig without problems.

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Wouldn't it just be nicer if we had direct LWS export?

This restriction is removed in iPi Mocap Studio 2.0.0.134.