Maya

The Advanced Skeleton Rigging Tool is needed for this step. It is currently not installed on the Innovation Lab computers.

1. Use Advanced Skeleton Rigging Tool to create a rig
2. Fit Skeletons: Select bipedGame.ma for Unity compatibility
3. Auto Orient: Fit Now and click Update now
4. Click Build Advanced Skeleton to create Rig

1. Model your character in T-Pose and not Y-Pose to connect the mocap data.
2. File > Create Reference… and choose model file and namespace to link to. Set a short namespace, which is important for import/export.

Before we can use mocap data, we need to characterize (link each joint to a global label/character node):

1. Display HumanIK: Windows > Animation Editors > HumanIK
2. In HumanIK click on Create Character Definition
3. Rename Character by clicking on the blue icon > Rename Character
4. Map Joints from Outliner to HumanIK (map only main joints, part joints not need to be mapped) by:
   1. Select Joint in Outliner
   2. Right click on corresponding joint in HumanIK Character Definition and select Assign Selected Bone
   3. Map Root in Outliner is the Hip in Character Definition
   4. Map Chest to the first Spine (Spine1)
   5. Map Neck the first neck (Neck) joint
   6. Go on with all other Joints.
5. If the green checkmark is displayed, everything is OK. The character will get orange if there is a problem.
6. Save Skeleton Defintion at the end by clicking on floppy disk symbol at HumanIK window.
7. The prefix of the skeleton defintion needs to be changed since we use a reference. If we import the mocap data, there will be a Namespace (name of the Character in Motive). Delete the “Root” of of the prefix but leave the “:”. Change the path to the “data” location in your maya project.
8. Save the Scene

Remarks:

• Map Shoulder does not work if character is not in T-Pose. Rotate Arms so that the Model is in T-Pose until character switches to green.
• Also the feets must be parallel to the Z Axis.
• If you change the model, make sure to clear the assignment data before reassigning the bon it to refresh the offsets. The offsets are calculated when you assign the bones.
• If you create a new scene, you can import the saved skeleton defintion so you don't have to do it once again.

We do not key joints directly. We key curves/controls in order to fix mocap problems. So we create a custom control rig:

1. Unlock the Character Definition by clicking on the lock in Human IK.
2. Click on “Create Custom Rig Mapping” in Human IK.
3. By default, it assign ankles and hips.
4. Connect controllers to the control rig by select the controller and right click on coressponding control rig point and “Assign selected Effector”.
5. Disconnect the translation on the head (deactivate Map Translation).

In order to import motion capture data, you need to export the correct format (FBX Binary) in motive. Choose File > Import and import the motive FBX binary file.

Also the mocap data has to be characterized:

1. Grab all Joints of the mocap
2. Open channel box and set Rotate X,Y,Z=0
3. Select Hip joint and set Translate X=0 and Z=0
4. Select Hips and Translate Y until the that character stands on the ground
5. Open Human IK and click Create Character Defintion
6. Rename the character to “Mocap”
7. Assign all bones from mocap skeleton to character by selecting bone in skeleton and right click on character “Assign Selected Bone”.
8. Save Skeleton Definition. There is no need to change the prefix. Change to location to your maya project. Change Template name to “mocap_CD”.
9. In Human IK, select the character the character to animate, and select as source the mocap character.
10. Select the pole vector and set it to follow (10) in channel display.
11. You need to bake the mocap animation to the Human IK skeleton: Human IK > Bake > Bake Custom Rig

After that, you can start clean the Mocap Data.

1. Import Options > Set File Type to FBX
2. Import Add and Update Animation: it will just update the motion data. You do not have to recreate everything.

1. Select the Controller to fix
2. Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor
3. Select parameter to fix and mark area/time range to fix with mouse
4. Curves > Simplify Curves (set start and end frame)

Do not Simplify over a whole take at once.

1. Open the original character file
2. Export only Deformation System for Unity: Open Deformation System in Outline
3. Select Root and Geometry.
4. File > Game Exporter: Export only selection, use File type FBX (Binary)

1. File > Export Game
2. Use FBX 2018 filetype
3. Activate Animation in Export window.
4. Acitvate Bake Animation
5. Add Animation Clips in Export Window