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Exporting animations BVH no position data

arnonarnon Posts: 88
edited December 2023 in Daz Studio Discussion

I created a simple animation, exported it in Biovision .BHV format and imported it to other programs like Blender etc. Although the figure moves its joints like it should there is no translation. It simply stays at zero position as if it's glued to it. Rotation works more or less but it's like the position value isn't exported. Property types in "Timeline" are set to Transition, Rotation and even Alias, Other and Hidden are turned on. The export settings just show everything below "hip" bone hierarchy so I think the position value is above "hip" and isn't exported.

Why and how to fix?

Post edited by arnon on

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,169

    I don't think root bone translations are supported with BVH if just exporting the skeleton unless the root bone is included 

    you need to probably do FBX export

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508

    It sounds like the translation/rotation of the motion is on the actual actor, rather than on the hip.

     

    If this is the case, use Body2Hip on the figure, then try. I have a feeling it will work for you.

    Body2Hip is one of the tools found in this wonderful pack

  • arnonarnon Posts: 88

    Thanks, I'll check both suggestions.

  • arnonarnon Posts: 88

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    I don't think root bone translations are supported with BVH if just exporting the skeleton unless the root bone is included 

    you need to probably do FBX export

    Strange, as BVH im- and exports the root bone in Blender. I've seen quite some BVH animations with the Object moving in X,Y,Z.  Is this a limitation just in DAZ? When I import other BVH's the DAZ's import filter asks me about hip translation etc - and translation works! It seems I just can't export, why why why?

    So I struggle with exporting BVH via: export FBX from DAZ, import FBX in Blender, export BHV from Blender.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508

    If I did that sort of stuff, I'd say "send me one of your BVH" and I'd import it into Studio, run Body2Hip, export to BVH and try it. But all of that running around in Blender and others gives me a real headache. So I just stay comfy and cozy in Daz Studio with my wonderful Iray! 

  • arnonarnon Posts: 88

    Haha, thanks for the comment:. I don't like to use Blender, but sometimes you just can't go without it. And you know what? Your comfy DAZ and the Body2Hip made it! I tried before but it just didn't work so I quitted. You comment made me give it another try and... now it works! Amazing!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508

    :)

    Next thing you know, you'll bypass the Blender part and just spend all your time having fun like me... animating instead of optimizing! :)

     

    My reasoning: In Daz Studio, Daz Content just plain Works!!! :)

  • arnonarnon Posts: 88

    Ehm, I'm stunned. Now I lost all my ambition...but at least I can "read" your scenes, but I am far from "writing" such scenes.Hats off!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508
    edited December 2023

    Awww... Thank you! After more than tens years of only learning the ropes of this and that, I finally decided to stop trying to buck the system figuring out how to make stuff work where it's not meant to.

     

    So I decided to just see if I could figure out the mystery of animating in Daz Studio. 

    Coming from another software (Carrara), we all just know that you can't animate in Daz Studio. But the latest Genesis figure that is Fully compatible with Carrara (and I mean "Compatible" - just load and use as we would here) is Genesis 1. Genesis 2 works, but the auto-fit isn't updated to recognize the difference between Genesis 1 and 2 - so we can't swap those outfits natively - but we can in DS and then save them. Then they work in Carrara.

     

    Oh... anyway... Linday came out with that outstanding Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 Females. "dForce"? that's a cloth simulator. I have to check this out - because it looks exactly like the hair I need my main character to have (seen in videos). 

    I didn't have much for Genesis 8 characters at the time - or anything else Genesis 8 for that matter. But I did have Teen Josie 8. So I loaded her up, gave some basic hair and clothing I had and turned on the Iray viewport for the first time ever.

     

    I almost fell out of my office chair. I knew that rendering out in Iray is higher quality than what we get from the viewport, and Josie was showing beautiful translucency, detail, and the lighting just looked awesome for not even loading anything - total noob!

     

    So I started sharpening my pencil on getting to know Daz Studio a bit better. Taking time to do that can save me a Lot of time in the future, since everything I've been buying is made for it and Iray. 

     

    But that was the trick. With Carrara only having Genesis 1 & partially 2 compatibility, I wasn't buying much new stuff then - so I also had the fun of building up my wishlist for stuff that was made for Iray and Daz Studio - and start getting into Genesis 8!

     

    Anyway. that was only a few years ago. Feels like yesterday, but it wasn't.

     

    Discovering my method for animating with dials instead of using a graph editor (I still use the Graph Editor, but most of the time I don't need to this way) my life changed forever.

     

    At first i just thought it was really cool that I could make any animations work together in the same timeline no matter how much they didn't like being together. It was really neat - I could do anything - Invincible!!!

     

    But after only a short while of animating this way, I really started getting a groove on - getting more and more inspired and then taking those inspirations and turning them into motion pictures! Just like that - and all in Daz Studio!!! Not more poking at stuff I didn't fully understand because someone else told me that's the only way - screw that! Daz Studio is fully capable, and I know it took me less time to learn my workflow in Studio than it would to figure out how to get my characters working in Blender or anything else. I mean... Carrara hands it to you on a spoon and I was coming from that! 

     

    So I was in the middle of trying to write it all down to share with the world. Difficult to say - easy to do. Easy to Show. Difficult to explain.

    I get a call from my pal at Project Dogwaffle asking me to contact Paul Bussey at Digital Art Live. 

     

    I mean... I was floored getting a call from Dogwaffle, and here he's asking me to... okay... what's going on. Someone's pulling one over on me.

     

    Nope. Paul heard that I came up with a new way of animating in Daz Studio and asked if I wanted tell the world about it! Exactly what I was trying to do in words on a screen... but now I get to record it to video? Great Plan!

     

    So I did my course and, as all of those things go, we can really show a Lot, but more than that makes it too huge and too expensive for everyone. So I started with the most important stuff in my workflow. Many hours of fun video! :)

    Since then I started to realize that not everybody knows aniMate 2 inside and out - something that I kind of assumed when I made my course. 

     

    So I made a forum thread about aniMate 2 so I could start showing folks what we can do in it. I've never even used the free version. I bought aniMate 2 in one of my first Daz 3D orders, and was working in Carrara - only coming to DS to work in aniMate 2.

     

    Now I have a pretty cool web page started with several sub pages for clarity sake. I asked Paul of I could do a two-part webinar on the subject and we just concluded that earlier this month. Soon there will be a Daz 3D course on the subject. The pages of the forum are mentioned in that product as a means of being able to ask questions and discuss stuff. Nice.

     

    If you're interested, here are the pages on my site:

    The Power of aniMate 2 (main page/article)

    Dartanbeck's workflow tips:

     

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508
    edited December 2023

    Going to Linday's hair is what drove me to all of this. Just before I saw that hair, this is what I was doing in Carrara. Night and day from what I'm doing now in Daz Studio... Night and freaking Day!!!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,508

    Then along comes Daz Studio, and this was the beginning of my 2023

    The video that set it all in motion

    During a video meeting with Paul, I accidentally used my radio announcer voice during our conversation. He got a kick out of it so I made the first promo for the course with it - but I don't use it In the course! LOL

    For the course as a bonus video, I did a half-hour behind-the-scenes featurette on the Car Chase scene from the video above - this is a promo for that

    I guess it's customary to include an intro video for these things, so here's that

     

    ...and now this is the promo for the upcoming course for Daz 3D

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