Difference between revisions of "Animation Export"

Latest revision as of 06:57, 20 May 2025

Animation Export

To export tracked motion, follow simple steps below.

1. Select Export tab
2. Select rig from the list of available rigs or import your custom model

   

   Note: The motions will be automatically transferred to selected rig (except Default iPi Rig, that does not require motion transfer). See details on motion transfer below)

3. Press Export button or use File > Export Animation menu item to export all animation frames from within Region of Interest (ROI).

   

   Note: To export animation for specific take, right-click on take and select Export Animation item from pop-up menu.

4. Select output file format

Motion Transfer

Default iPi Character Rig

The default skeleton in iPi Mocap Studio is optimized for markerless motion capture. It may or may not be suitable as a skeleton for your character. Default iPi skeleton in T-pose has non-zero rotations for all joints. Please note that default iPi skeleton with zero rotations does not represent a meaningful pose and looks like a random pile of bones.

Default rig

Bone names

By default iPi Mocap Studio exports a T-pose (or a reasonable default pose for custom rig after motion transfer) in the first frame of animation. In case when it is not desired switch off Export T-pose in first frame checkbox.

Other rigs

iPi Mocap Studio has integrated motion transfer technology that allows to automatically transfer motion to a custom rig.

1. Select Export tab
2. Select rig from the list of available rigs or import your custom model

   

   Note: The motions will be automatically transferred to selected rig (except Default iPi Rig, that does not require motion transfer). You will be able to see the transferred motion in the viewport

3. You may need to assign bone mappings on the Export tab for motion transfer to work correctly.
4. You can save your motion transfer profile to XML file for future use.

Tip: iPi Mocap Studio has pre-configured motion transfer profiles for many popular rigs (see below).

Note: If you export animation to format different from format your target character was imported in, only rig will be exported. If you use the same format for export, skin will be exported as well.

Starting with version 3.5, iPi Mocap Studio supports rotation of imported character into proper orientation. This is useful for many popular characters, including Unreal Engine standard character.

Starting with version 3.5, iPi Mocap Studio can map hips motion either to Root/Ground or to Hips/Pelvis. This is useful for game engine characters, including standard Unity 3D Engine and Unreal Engine characters.

Multiple Target Bones

Bone mapping allows to specify multiple target bones. This can use used if:

• Target character is more detailed so one bone in default iPi character rig corresponds to multiple bones in target character (i.e. your character has more spine bones)
• Your character has separate bones for swing and twist rotation channels

To map source character bone to multiple target bones you need to use Add a target bone item in a Manage target bones context menu. You then set weights for splitting the source rotation.

Note: The default values are equal rotation split. Weights are specified separately for swing and twist rotation channels.

How to Loop Animation

iPi Mocap Studio can seamlessly loop animation on export. To get perfectly looping animation, turn on Loop animation option in Export Options dialog:

Note: Store removed translation to root option is available only when Loop animation option is turned on and target character has the root joint.

Export Pipelines for Popular 3D Packages

MotionBuilder

Select Motion Builder target character on Export tab and export animation to BVH or FBX.

3D MAX Biped

1. Select 3ds Max Biped target character on Export tab and export animation to BVH or FBX.
2. Create a Biped character in 3D MAX (Create > Systems > Biped).
3. Put your Biped character to your 3d scene.
4. Go to Motion tab. Click Motion Capture button and import your BVH or FBX file.

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Our user Cra0kalo created an example Valve Biped rig for use with 3D MAX. It may be useful if you work with Valve Source Engine characters.

Maya

Latest versions of Maya (starting with Maya 2011) have a powerful biped animation subsystem called "HumanIK". Animations exported from iPi Mocap Studio in MotionBuilder-friendly format should work fine with Maya 2011 and HumanIK. The following video tutorials can be helpful:

• Maya HumanIK Mocap retarget with iPi Mocap Studio, by Wes McDermott
• Non-Destructive Live Retargeting — Maya 2011 New Features
• Motion Capture Workflow With Maya 2011

For older versions of Maya please see the #Other_rigs section. Recommended format for import/export with older versions of Maya is FBX.

Unreal Engine

iPi Mocap Studio has built-in motion transfer profile for UE4 Unreal Mannequin (default Unreal character) and MetaHuman character. So select the corrensponding target character, export animation to FBX and then import it into Unreal.

FBX

iPi Mocap Studio supports FBX format for import/export of animations and characters. When exporting animation, you are presented with several options:

• Which version of FBX format to use, ranging from 6.1 (2010 product line) to 7.4 (2015 product line)
• Produce text or binary file

The default values are defined by an imported character (if any), otherwise set to recently used values.

Some applications do not use the latest FBX SDK and may have problems importing FBX files of newer versions. In case of such problems, your can use Autodesk's free FBX Converter to convert your animation file to an appropriate FBX version.

COLLADA

iPi Mocap Studio supports COLLADA format for import/export of animations and characters. Current version of iPi Mocap Studio exports COLLADA animations as matrices. In case if you encounter incompatibilities with other applications' implementation of COLLADA format, we recommend using Autodesk's free FBX Converter to convert your data between FBX and COLLADA formats. FBX is known to be more universally supported in many 3D graphics packages.

LightWave

Recommended format for importing target characters from LightWave to iPi Studio is FBX. Recommended format for bringing animations from iPi Mocap Studio to LightWave is BVH or FBX.

SoftImage|XSI

Our user Eric Cosky published a tutorial on using iPi Mocap Studio with SoftImage|XSI:

https://www.ipisoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&p=9660#p9660

Poser

1. Export your poser character in T-pose in BVH format (File > Export).
2. Import your Poser character skeleton into iPi Mocap Studio. Your animation will be transferred to your Poser character.
3. Export your animation to BVH format.
4. Import exported BVH to Poser

Tip: Poser 8 has a bug with incorrect wrists animation import. The bug can be reproduced as follows: export Poser 8 character in T-pose in BVH format; import your character back into Poser 8; note how wrists are twisted unnaturally as the result.
A workaround for wrists bug is to chop off wrists from your Poser 8 skeleton (for instance using BVHacker) before importing Poser 8 target character into iPi Mocap Studio. Missing wrists should not cause any problems during motion transfer in iPi Mocap Studio if your BVH file is edited correctly. Poser will ignore missing wrists when importing resulting motion so the resulting motion will look right in Poser (wrists in default pose as expected).

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DAZ 3D Genesis 8

1. Just select built-in Genesis 8 Male or Genesis 8 Female rig as target character.
2. Export your animation to BVH format.
3. Import exported BVH to DAZ Studio.
   • Turn off limits and locks for all joints.
     • Right click the root node of figure > Select > Select children.
     • Edit > Figure > Limits > Limits Off.
     • If you need to unlock nodes, use Edit > Figure > Locks > Unlock Selected Node(s).
   • Import BVH file you exported from iPi Mocap Studio.

iClone 8

If you use default iClone character, our users recommend this simple workflow:

1. Select Motion Builder target character on Export tab and export animation to BVH.
2. Select Mixamo Default Character profile when importing BVH to iClone.

iClone 3

Note: Modern versions of iClone work smoothly with iPi Soft. Instructions below are only for iClone 3

Note: Current version of iPi Studio can only export animation in iClone-compatible BVH format. The iMotion format is not supported. That means you will need iClone PRO to be able to import the motion into iClone. Standard and EX versions of iClone do not have BVH Converter and therefore cannot import BVH files.

Workflow for iClone is straightforward.

1. Select iClone target character on Export tab and export animation to BVH.
2. Go to Animation tab in iClone and launch BVH Converter.
3. Import your BVH file with Default profile, click Convert
4. Save the resulting animation in iMotion format. Now your animation can be applied to iClone characters.

Tip: iClone expects an animation sampled at 15 frames per seconds. For other frame rates, you may need to create a custom BVH Converter profile by copying Default profile and editing Frame Rate setting.

Note: BVH Converted in iClone 4 has a bug that causes distortion of legs animation. iPi Mocap Studio exports an iClone-optimized BVH correctly as can be verified by reviewing exported BVH motion in BVHacker or MotionBuilder or other third-party application. No workaround is known. We recommend that you contact iClone developers about this bug as it is out of control of iPi Soft.

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Valve Source Engine SMD

Transfer motions to your Valve Source Engine character (stored in .smd file) and export your animation in Valve Source Engine SMD format.

Our user Cra0kalo created an example Valve Biped rig for use with 3D MAX. It may be useful if you wish to apply more then one capture through MotionBuilder or edit the custom keyframes in MAX.

Valve Source Filmmaker

DMX

First, you need to import your character (or its skeleton) into iPi Mocap Studio, for motion transfer.

There are currently 3 ways of doing this:

1. You can import an animation DMX (in default pose) into iPi Mocap Studio. Since it has a skeleton, it should be enough for motion transfer. To create an animation DMX with default pose, you can add your character to your scene in Source Filmmaker and export DMX for corresponding animation node:
   • open Animation Set Editor Tab;
   • click + > Create Animation Set for New Model;
   • choose a model and click Open;
   • export animation for your model, in ASCII DMX format;

     There is a checkbox named Ascii in the top area of the export dialog.

2. Alternatively, you can just import an SMD file with your character into iPi Mocap Studio. For example, SMD files for all Team Fortress 2 characters can be found in your SDK in a location similar to the following (you need to have Source SDK installed): C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\<your steam name>\sourcesdk_content\tf\modelsrc\player\pyro\parts\smd\pyro_model.smd).
3. If you created a custom character in Maya, you should be able to export it in DMX model fromat. (Please see Valve documentation on how to do this).

Then you can import your model DMX into iPi Mocap Studio. Current version of iPi Mocap Studio cannot display character skin, but it should display the skeleton. Skeleton should be enough for motion transfer.

To export animation in DMX, press Export Animation button on the Export tab in iPi Mocap Studio and choose DMX from the list of supported formats. You may also want to uncheck Export T-pose in first frame option on the Export tab in iPi Mocap Studio.

Now you can import your animation into Source Filmmaker. There will be some warnings about missing channels for face bones but you can safely ignore them.

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Old way involving Maya

This was used until iPi Mocap Studio got DMX support. And still may be useful in case of any troubles with DMX. Please see the following video tutorial series:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD4409518E1F04270

Blender

You can export default iPi rig or transfer motion to your custom rig following general instructions.

Cinema4D

If you have experience with Cinema4D please help to expand this Wiki by posting Cinema4D import/export tips to Community Tutorials section of our user forum.

Evolver

Transfer motions to your Evolver character (stored in COLLADA or FBX file) and export your animation.

Evolver offers several different skeletons for Evolver characters. Here is an example motion transfer profile for Evolver "Gaming" skeleton: evolver_game.profile.xml

Second Life

Transfer motions to your Second Life character (stored in BVH file) and export your animation in BVH format.

SecondLife documentation contains a link to useful SL avatar files. The ZIP file includes a BVH of the "default pose". Be sure to have that.

See the discussion on our Forum for additional details: https://www.ipisoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&p=7845

Massive

Please see our user forum for a discussion of animation import/export for Massive:

https://ipisoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3233

IKinema WebAnimate

Please see the following video tutorial on how to use iPi Mocap Studio with IKinema WebAnimate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-yJ-O02SLU

Jimmy|Rig Pro

Please see the following video tutorial on how to use iPi Mocap Studio with Jimmy|Rig Pro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD1keDh3fCk