MotionBuilder: Character is bent over at the waist

[Claude von Roesgen]

My character is bent over at the waist even though my skeleton from Brekel Pro Body 2 is in a nice T pose. What could I being doing wrong?

[Claude von Roesgen]

Here are the properties for the Brekel Pro Body 2 plugin

[Brekel]

Hard to say from just a screenshot, but most probably one (or both) of the character(s) was not characterized while being in a correct T-pose.

[Claude von Roesgen]

I have tried four different characters. Three from the tutorial that comes with MotionBuilder 2015 and one character from charactergenerator.autodesk.com. All with the same results. I do my T poses in my green screen studio, which is devoid of artificial light and clutter. Could it be a bug in MotionBuilder 2015? Have you or your beta users had any experience with MotionBuilder 2015?

[Claude von Roesgen]

Also I'm using the default solver which is called HIK 2014 Solver. Seems as if when I try to use the MB Solver I can't animate my characters at all. Which solver should I be using?

[Claude von Roesgen]

Jesper Brekel wrote back:

I'm doing all my testing with MoBu2015 using the Mia character from the tutorials folder.

The offsets in the picture look like a classic result of characterizing in a pose other than the T-pose.

If you're on your own you may need to record a take, assume a T-pose, scrub to the T-pose frame and manually drop a character node on the Kinect skeleton to initialize it.

In a future update I'll look at the workflow for single-person operating a bit more.

[Claude von Roesgen]

Here's my work flow. Start Brekel Pro Body 2. Start MotionBuilder 2015. Then Resources->Asset Browser->Templates->Devices. The drag and drop Brekel Pro Body 2 onto the Viewer. Then click on the red Online checkbox to turn it green. Then check the Live checkbox just below it. Then below that choose Create... from the Model binding drop down list. Then enter 10 into the T pose delay text box. Then press the (Re)Create Character Nodes (Actors should be in T-pose) button. I stand in a t pose and make sure I'm in that pose before the 10 second timer elapses and I hold that pose until after the 10 second timer elapses. (I've also used the default 0 value of the timer and pressed the (Re)Create Character Nodes (Actors should be in T-pose) button with a wireless mouse while in the t pose.

Then I drag the mia_rigged character from the Resources->Asset Browser->Tutorials folder and drop it onto the Viewer. Then in the Navigator under the Characters node I double click on Mia. Then under the Character Settings tab I use the Input Settings drop down list and select Character. Then below that I expand the Retargeting section and click on the Match Source checkbox.

Then the Mia character is controlled by Brekel Pro Body 2 but bent over at the waist at a 90 degree angle. My Kinect is level and 1 meter off the ground.

Is this the proper procedure?

[Claude von Roesgen]

I forgot to mention that when I drag and drop the mia_rigged character onto the Viewer, I choose Merge->No Animation from the popup menu.

[Claude von Roesgen]

I recorded a fbx motion file in Brekel Pro Body 2 and then did a File->Import-Motion in MB. The mia_rigged character responds well to this. There is no sign of contortion that I get when doing a live manipulation of the character.

[Brekel]

That workflow should work, but maybe it got broken in the last update.

The MoBu plugin will receive some new fixes soon, I'll also look at that.

In the meantime you can also try to not use the Create Character Nodes button but simply create a character node manually by dragging one from the asset browser onto the kinect skeleton while it's in T-pose.

[Brekel]

Just released v0.59 which includes a number of fixes for the MoBu device.

Running your workflow produces correct results here with the Mia sample character in MoBu 2015.

[Claude von Roesgen]

Jasper

That fixed it! I don't have to check the checkbox under the Character Settings tab in the Retargeting section called Match Source. But otherwise the procedure above works.

Seems to work without a hitch now. Will test more.

Claude