Motion Transfer Studio

Overview

Motion Transfer Studio is a powerful new feature available for Windows Creature Pro users. (Mac support will follow) This allows you to import Biovision BVH files that contain 3D Motion Capture Data and then transfer that motion onto your 2D character. Using this feature, 3D motion capture data becomes a form of input for animating 2D characters in Creature, allowing you to produce compelling and high quality results in a very short amount of time.

Watch Video Tutorial here

Requirements

• Creature Pro for Windows Right now this is a brand new experimental feature so the first rollout is for Windows.

• GPU with OpenGL 3.3 Compatiblity Profile Support Make sure the OpenGL drivers for your GPU support OpenGL 3.3 with the Compatibility Profile.

Usage

First off, make sure the bones of your Authored Character that will undergo Motion Transfer are all FK Motors or IK Motors.

In Animation Mode, click on the Mocap Transfer toolbar button:

This brings up the Motion Transfer Studio window. It is recommended you maximze this window for a more efficient workflow:

The top bar has the following options:

• Import This opens up a file dialog to allow you to import a BVH motion capture file.

• Reset Camera This resets the camera that centers between the source and target characters.

• Track X This zeroes out any global X translation of the mocap character, effectively tracking it in the X dimension.

• Track Y This zeroes out any global Y translation of the mocap character, effectively tracking it in the Y dimension.

• Track Z This zeroes out any global Z translation of the mocap character, effectively tracking it in the Z dimension.

Yaw Tracking

You can remove the Yaw ( or Y angle rotation ) of a character via the Yaw Tracking feature. To do this:

1. First select a Mocap Character Bone by clicking on it

2. Now click on the Tick toolbar button on the upper right of the window. This sets the yaw tracking based off the bone you selected from 1)

To remove yaw tracking, simply click on the Cross toolbar button on the upper right of the window.

Yaw Tracking is useful for characters that turn about the y axis ( essentially flipping their movement directions ). You can remove this flip via the Yaw Tracking feature.

Playback Params

The button at the lower right of the Window allows you to adjust Playback Parameters for Motion Transfer. You can set motion transfer frame ranges to allow you to adjust the timing and ranges of the Motion Transfer.

Import Mocap BVH

1. Click on Import to import your BVH file. You will now see the Mocap Character on the left and your Authored Character on the right:

2. Rotate the Mocap Character to face the same way as your Authored Character by holding down the SPACE KEY and then DRAGGING the mouse. Motion Transfer will project and transfer the results onto your Authored Character according to how your character is facing.

Setup Target Binding Bones

1. Now Click on any bone on the Mocap Character. Hold Down + Drag to the target bone on your Authored Character to setup a target binding bone:

2. Repeat this process for all bones you want to do Motion Transfer:

Run Motion Transfer Process

1. The Target Binding floating window has the following options to enable you to start the transfer process:

• Clear This clears the target binding for the selected bone.

• Clear ALL This clears ALL target bindings for all bones.

• Run Current Runs the transfer process for the currently selected bone.

• Run ALL Runs the transfer process for all the bones with target bindings.

• Displacement Scale This affects how much Translational Displacement there is for the transferred motion. If the slider is set to 0, the resulting motion only contains rotational motion but no translational motion. Increasing the slider will result in more translational motion that is experienced by the Mocap Character.

• Rotate Scale This affects how much the bones rotate over the course of the entire animation. Increasing the Rotate Scale allows you to exaggerate the motion while reducing it tones down the transferred animation.

• Transfer Detail How the results of the motion transfer are written back into the Authored Character. Animation results are written as animation knots in the FK Motors or IK Motors of the Authored Character. The higher the detail, the more knots there are. Lower detail results in the system simplifying the animation splines, making the results more manageable for manual tweaking.

2. To run Motion Transfer on all bones with target bindings, simply click Run ALL. Once the process is completed, you should see the Authored Character inherit motion from the Mocap Character:

Undo Results of Motion Transfer

Simply go back to the main Creature window, click on Edit -> Undo to undo the results of the motion transfer.