United3dArtists Archive

Okay, it's not the high-end studio way, but it works as if you had a motion capture studio in TrueSpace on the workspace side. I figured it out (unless someone beat me to it). I wasn't finding any posts about making custom BVH files in TrueSpace when I did a few searches, so I will present my technique here:

1. Create a skeleton on the workspace side. I made a human skeleton with more joints than might be necessary for most projects just to add to the fun (I added one extra foot joint, and hands with fingers on my skeleton). The skeleton must start in a neutral, or T-pose. If you would like you could add extra legs, arms, maybe even more heads or a tail setup with the bones and joints.

2. Save the skeleton before animating it, saving it as an object, scene, skeleton, and finally a BVH file in a T-pose, or neutral pose, in the library of the workspace side of TrueSpace. You can save things into the library by right mouse clicking in separate parts of the library after your skeleton is complete. You don't have to attach any mesh to the skeleton yet.

3. It's useful to apply the inverse kinematics (IK) handles to most or all of the joints in the skeleton before key framing. Now, key frame any movements you want to your skeleton.

4. Save the BVH file to the library after your single animation is complete. Give it a different name than the one you saved before the animation. For example, the neutral pose could be called "Non-Animated T-pose". Then you would have to come up with something unique to name your animated file too.

5. Right mouse click on your animated BVH file, not the T-pose or neutral one in the library, and select export. A dialog will appear for you to save and export your own custom BVH file from TrueSpace, so give your BVH file a name that is meaningful. Now you can load that BVH file onto any of your meshes if they are in a bone and joint setup where it fits your human, or creature.

Tip – the skeleton you make doesn't have to be a human type. It could be a horse, a bird, a fish, or anything you could think of that you would model.

I hope that this inspires ideas, and I just thought this would be something new to share.
- tamtam

That was placed in TS by design. Mr. Bones was probably the one that requested it to be placed in. We did a fair bit of testing with the BVH aspect of TS, mainly because of the state of the original IK. Till IK2 came along, IK1 was almost completely useless. The thought was to give the animators something they could work with, BVH motions were the best that could be done.

Rich

T.O.M.B. "The Online Motion Box" contains over 4,000 High Quality BVH motion captures sorted by category, so you can find just the right motions for any project you need fast!

Visit http://www.truebones.com for more information

And they have some nice New and FREE Bvh motions there as well.