I've been trying to export out my mocap animation as an fbx. I load it into my software OK but there always seems to be a uv map missing. Not sure if it's just fbx related or how ipi exports fbx. As the map is missing I cannot just add the texture map in my software as the uv is missing. Any idea why this is?

Hey,

Are you trying to export mesh as well as skeleton?
Which software are you importing to?

The usual flow would be to add just the animation to the character in the software of choice.
This is the regular flow for Unreal, Maya, Motionbuilder etc.

It gives a few advantages as well.
The animation rig you retarget to can have more details and more animation (hands, wrists, antennas, you name it)

If you really want to run it directly I would look into a UV transfer. In Maya there is a simple UV transfer that works in world or local space that will solve this.

I'm using Lightwave. I exported a rigged character as fbx into Ipi then added a recorded bvh file in ipi which works fine. I then export the fbx animated file out as an fbx file from ipi back into LW. However I always seem to lose a uv map that was originally there.

Dude! I've been using lw since 1995 and still use it almost daily :)
Let me figure out a good workflow for you as I haven't really used mocap with it before.

alrighty.

I recommend using motion mixer. If you havent used it before, its not as hard as it seems.
If you do not do any retargeting, and straight want to apply the motion, this is the best approach.

F2 opens it.
In motion mixer you have a character, that you add items to. These items are what drives the animation.
You can load and save motions as you want. You can mix and add to your liking.

Load your animation.
Create a character. name it to your liking.
Add all the joints that take part in the animation by using add Items.
Now create a motion using all the items. This will remove the animation from the timeline.
Save the motion (name.hmot) from the motion menu.

Now. load your rig. This is the one with the UVs that you would send to IPIsoft.
Create a character here as well, that has all the same items.
In the motion menu, load the motion you saved in the previous step. Just hit yes or ok at every step.

you can now add the motion to the timeline. make sure the loaded motion is active in the motion list. Then add motion and click on timeline.
There you go! you can edit this as in any timeline based software such as premiere etc. You can mix and match animations etc.
When you get into it, you can also string animations together to create bigger stuff.. example:
mix a walk with a look right. Loop a few times, then play the stop animation, followed by the pick up phone animation.

You can also at any time chose to edit an animation. It will then be added to the timeline. You can do your work, then when you close, it will be picked up and added to the motion mixer timeline again. (dont forget to save it though)

Ive been trying this. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. Here is what I did. I export my fbx from LW to Ipi, create animation. After exporting the fbx from ipi I open it in LW and select all the bones in the rig, create character and then i create the motion and save it out from motion mixer. Now I create a new scene import the same rig into LW that was exported to ipi (same rig exactly) I select all bones, create character, and now I load the motion file into motion mixer that was previously saved and the rig collapses into itself.
I seemed to have tried everything and can't get it to work.

Mind sending it to me so I can check?
May be that fbx renames or alters stuff.

Try this:
Export rig as fbx. Import back to lw. Use this as base rig.
Also use the fbx as the ipi rig.

If nothing else, there is perception neuron. That's more for retargeting though.

Just out of interest. Which LW rig do you use with ipi?

Hey,

I did not use a standard rig, or rather skeleton. I retargeted to a cartoon character in maya where I had created a rig and control rig.
I exported from maya as fbx. imported character and animation separatly.

I tend to export the motion builder rig from ipi to use on other characters.

If you are asking about what rigs are good in LW, as in control rigs? I like the latest genoma rigs. Rhiggit is good as well, but I tend to make my own rigs as I have been a rigger/animator for 20 years now.

IF I was to use one of the presets, I would most likely use the genoma rig, as its pretty close to a motion builder rig. LW 2018(19?) had a really good base rig that was simple to use.

/Henrik

Yeh that's what I'm using. The biped Genoma mocap rig. It imports into ipi and out great and works in LW except for dropping a UV map. Maybe that's an fbx problem and not a ipi problem, I don't know. I have 5 uv maps in the original rig. As soon as I export to fbx I have only 4 with one uv missing which is a bit annoying. However it wouldn't matter so much if I could save the motion and put back on the original rig, but as I've mentioned it's just not working. I think something is going wrong with the sizing of the rig from LW to ipi and back again and that maybe what's screwing with the motion files. I tried resizing the rig but that didn't work either. Here's what happens. See images.