Convert to Blender Orientation?

[d8sconz]

First, what a fantastic tool!
On the other hand...

Blenders default orientation is "Z" up, whereas most bvh's are
oriented "Y" up. I'm getting around it by fiddling with the ipo's for
the root (Torso) bone once I've imported the file into Blender. I've
had a good look at the program but can't find a way to do this in
bvhacker. Is it possible?

Thanks

[davedub]

Hi,

I'd be interested in putting this conversion into a future release of
bvhacker. However, I'm not quite sure what you mean by ipo's for the
root?

I'm guessing it has something to do with rotating the root through -90
degrees in X. If the fix is a simple as that, then you could try just
doing the rotation in bvhacker. If there's more to it, then I'd be
really interested to hear what needs to be done.

Cheers,

- Davedub

[d8sconz]

Thanks for the reply Davedub,

I mentioned bones but I've decided to import the empties and IK the
bones of my own armature to these. I found (as you guessed) that if I
rotate the Torso empty +90 around X I get the orientation I need, so
it's just a matter of moving the x rotation ipo curve up to the 90
degree mark in the editor. However, translation is still along z, so
the running figure rises in the air as he runs. The fix involves
swapping the Y and Z ipos which requires a dummy empty to hold them
while I swap the curves around. Then the figure runs backward - in
Blender movement needs to be in minus Y direction. So I mirror the
curve over the horizontal axis. Now we're going in the right direction
but all the rotations are slightly askew. This is the point that I'd
thought I'd ask if the wheel had already been invented. I'll get back
to figuring it out now I know it hasn't yet. If, as I suspect, the
only fiddling has to be done to the Torso empty it may require a
simple python procedure to sort it out.

Thanks,

Ross

[davedub]

Hi Ross,

Ok, I think I'm getting an idea of a simple fix in bvhacker that might
be worth a try.

I'd like to try swapping the Z and Y translation values (translation
values are only on the hip), then rotating the hip in X by 90 degrees.
This is easily build into bvhacker. I think that doing it in a
mathematically precise way may stop the other joint rotations going
askew.

Could you send me a file I could test this with? I've sent you an
email so you can reply directly to me.

Kind Regards,

Davedub