Exporter deforming mesh
by James E. Spellman II · in Artist Corner · 05/26/2005 (2:05 pm) · 4 replies
I am hoping someone can shed some light on a problem that I am having. We recented aquired the program Endorphin to generate physics based animations. The pipeline for Endorphin to Torque is:
Max Export to FBX
Endorphin import
Create Animation
Endorphin export to BVH
Max Import
Max export to DTS
The problem I am having is that the model imports correctly in Max (animations look correct), but when I export the DSQ the model's arms rotate 180 degrees and the mesh collapses inward. I believe the problem is related to the BVH file as we have done hundreds of animations using mocap and facial without any problems.
It is confusing to me that the animation looks good in Max but deforms in Torque. The only problem is with the clavical(s) on down the chain (spines and legs work great). I have tried to include the affected bones in the AlwaysExport section of the .cfg
I can supply output files if need.
Any help would be appreciated
Max Export to FBX
Endorphin import
Create Animation
Endorphin export to BVH
Max Import
Max export to DTS
The problem I am having is that the model imports correctly in Max (animations look correct), but when I export the DSQ the model's arms rotate 180 degrees and the mesh collapses inward. I believe the problem is related to the BVH file as we have done hundreds of animations using mocap and facial without any problems.
It is confusing to me that the animation looks good in Max but deforms in Torque. The only problem is with the clavical(s) on down the chain (spines and legs work great). I have tried to include the affected bones in the AlwaysExport section of the .cfg
I can supply output files if need.
Any help would be appreciated
About the author
#2
05/26/2005 (2:15 pm)
I'm guessing it's the same problem I've had. Bones that are not animated (as in no motion, not no keys) aren't exported. An easy way to check if this is the problem (but not a solution to the problem really, the only solution is to animate the affected bones slightly) is to in your sequence object check "Force: Transform animation".
#3
I tried your suggestion on putting the anim in the DTS. It works fine. Any guidelines on your second suggestion on how to identify the discrepancies? I need to separate my anims from the DTS.
@Magnus
Thanks for the tip but unfortunately this is a walking anim and virtually every bone is animated.
In Endorphin, you can only work with their simulation character. This is the character that knows about the physics. The process of getting the Endorphin animation to match the 3D character is you actually match the simulation character's bone structure to the bone structure of the reference character (Max model). There are some subtle differences in the heirachy but that is handled in the export phase. Since I am using the Character Studio Biped, the BVH format is used. When exporting from Endorphin, the simulation character is targeted to a reference file that correctly identifies the corresponding bones (and renames them as BVH doesn't like spaces in the bone names). What really seems odd is that it looks great in Max but not in Torque.
I know there is a solution, I just need some help from the 'experts'. Thanks again
05/26/2005 (2:38 pm)
@AnthonyI tried your suggestion on putting the anim in the DTS. It works fine. Any guidelines on your second suggestion on how to identify the discrepancies? I need to separate my anims from the DTS.
@Magnus
Thanks for the tip but unfortunately this is a walking anim and virtually every bone is animated.
In Endorphin, you can only work with their simulation character. This is the character that knows about the physics. The process of getting the Endorphin animation to match the 3D character is you actually match the simulation character's bone structure to the bone structure of the reference character (Max model). There are some subtle differences in the heirachy but that is handled in the export phase. Since I am using the Character Studio Biped, the BVH format is used. When exporting from Endorphin, the simulation character is targeted to a reference file that correctly identifies the corresponding bones (and renames them as BVH doesn't like spaces in the bone names). What really seems odd is that it looks great in Max but not in Torque.
I know there is a solution, I just need some help from the 'experts'. Thanks again
#4
02/24/2007 (8:59 am)
Hi, i am also looking at this to use in Torque. would you mind me dropping you a mail to talk about Endorphin? 
Associate Anthony Rosenbaum
You might want to do a test by exporting an animation in the dts file and see if it is still corrupting the animation.
AND OR
Compare the bone nodes in the dump files from the dts and from the dsq.