Blender add-ons for BVH and FBX exports, and new video tutorials!

[Gregory Bond]

In addition to the add-on I announced a few months ago supporting Brekel Kinect Face Pro 2 BVH exports in Blender, I've also created a new add-on supporting FBX exports in Blender. To help understand how these add-ons work I've created new YouTube tutorials explaining how to use each add-on. The tutorials explain how to download, install, and use each add-on.

BVH tutorial, BVH add-on

FBX tutorial, FBX add-on

[Brekel]

Wow, very cool and well done Gregory!

Thanks for sharing!

[Tim Farley]

Hey Gregory!

This is amazing work. Thanks so much for your efforts. I have been able to import the bvh animations into blender with no problems, but I am unable to import Brekel FBX imports.

I know this is outside of the scope of your addon, but I was hoping you (or Brekel) might be able to provide some insight?

I am trying to import an FBX v7 binary file exported by Brekel Pro Face 2 trial on Blender 2.77a (and Blender 2.78 test-build) on Windows 10 64bit. (Pro Face 2 has check for new version on startup enabled).

Using the default built-in FBX importer (not the third party BOS importer) I get the following error message:

FBX Import: start importing C:\Users\tofarley\Desktop\Brekel_14_09_2016_08_06_47.fbx
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\tofarley\Desktop\blender-2.77a-windows64\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\import_fbx.py", line 2234, in load
    elem_root, version = parse_fbx.parse(filepath)
  File "C:\Users\tofarley\Desktop\blender-2.77a-windows64\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\parse_fbx.py", line 164, in parse
    elem = read_elem(read, tell, use_namedtuple)
  File "C:\Users\tofarley\Desktop\blender-2.77a-windows64\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\parse_fbx.py", line 124, in read_elem
    elem_subtree.append(read_elem(read, tell, use_namedtuple))
  File "C:\Users\tofarley\Desktop\blender-2.77a-windows64\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_fbx\parse_fbx.py", line 119, in read_elem
    elem_props_data[i] = read_data_dict[data_type](read)
KeyError: 0

The error that appears in the blender UI says simply, "Cannot open file 'C:\\Users\\tofarley\\Desktop\\Brekel_14_09_2016_08_06_47.fbx'"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Tim Farley]

For the sake of testing, I also tested in Blender 2.77a on MacOS X 10.11.5 (El Capitan) and got the same result.

I have uploaded the fbx in question if it helps us evaluate what might be different/unexpected about this file.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1922411/brekel_nodice.fbx

[Tim Farley]

I took my first crack at writing a blender add-on that works as a supplement to your own.

https://github.com/tofarley/brekel2mbl

This is my first add-on, so don't expect too much!

It's a very simple add-on that generates a set of shapekeys for models created with Manuel Bastioni Lab which are ready to be driven by the Brekel Pro Face 2 Drivers Add-On.

Most of the required keys exist by default when creating a character this way, so those keys I simply duplicate and assign correct naming conventions to. A few keys, however, (Frown, Lip_Lower_Down, Cheek_Puffed, Brow_Down) do not have a corresponding Left/Right counterpart. Those particular keys I break into two using some varying vertex weighting options to try and match Brekel's reference face as closely as possible.

Using Manuel Bastioni Lab, Brekel, and these two add-ons you can go from a completely empty project in Blender to playing back facial motion capture in under two minutes, on a fully customized character.

If you're unfamiliar with Manuel Bastioni Lab, I highly recommend you check it out when looking to design your next character: http://www.manuelbastioni.com/manuellab.php

Manuel has worked for a number of years on the Makehuman team. He recently decided to take that experience and near feature-compatible version that exists entirely as a Blender add-on. The project has only existed for about a year, and already the models created with Manuel Bastioni Lab surpass what is available in Makehuman in terms of topology, rig weighting, and cycles render engine shaders. 

I'm not affiliated with Bastioni in any way, I'm just a huge fan of his work.

[Brekel]

Thanks for sharing Tim!

[Gregory Bond]

hi tim

just had a chance to look at your sample fbx file - it crashes on my Win8 machine with Blender 2.77a too :-(

i assume that brekel uses the autodesk fbx libraries, but blender uses a reverse-engineered fbx importer/exporter because autodesk hasn't open sourced the fbx standard

on a related (optimistic note) Ton Roosendaal (the originator of Blender) had a meeting with autodesk at siggraph 2016 which may result in the standard being released https://www.blender.org/media-exposure/siggraph-2016-report/

greg

[Gregory Bond]

very cool tim! i'll give this a try

if you haven't already, you should mention this on the "released scripts" list of the blenderartists forum:

https://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?48-Released-Scripts-and-Themes

[Mario Marietto]

Tim Farley : I've just installed the addon "brekel2mb" on blender 2.79. I'm using also the manuel bastioni lab 1.6.1. Your addon didn't work for me because the error that I've attached...do you have some idea about how to fix it ? thanks.