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I did a lot of animation on an mhx model in Blender before I realised she had holes around her neck. Someone on the Make Human forum suggested I use an mhx2 character which solved the problem. Is there a way I can just update the character from within the same Blender file without loosing the animation?

I tried exporting the animation as a bvh file and reloading it onto the mhx2 character in a new Blender project but I've had all sorts of problems. It imports a skeleton of bones which walks downward on its own, or a tiny one which walks sideways on its own or some upside down orange balls which wander about. It's obviously got the animation which is good, I just can't get it to attach to the mhx2 character.

So to be clear I either need to

  1. just update the model from mhx to mhx2 within the same project and not loose the animation
  2. Export the animation as a bvh file and upload it onto an mhx2 character in a new project
  3. Work out why my mhx character was making holes around the neck in the first place and fix that. (this is the option I prefer as I need the project finished tomoro but i would like to learn all three)

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Dave Goateze
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I'd go with option 3, especially if your deadline is tomorrow. Especially if it's just a matter of re-topoligizing, and then re-weightpainting just a bit.

If you want to learn from this, I suggest try having a master-slave style rig. That means you have one set of bones you animate directly, and those bones in turn constrain a bunch of 'slave' bones that only deform the mesh. That way if you want to re-import your model later on, you can simply re-constrain those 'fresh' new bones to your older animation rig.

You can even have two separate armatures, one for deforming, one for animating to make the re-constraining process clear to yourself. Although I've found this method a tad obscure, and not considered canonical Blender rigging.

Mike Belanger
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  • so how do I get rid of the holes in my mhx character? – Dave Goateze Feb 07 '16 at 21:46
  • Just by looking at it, I'd say adding a few more loops to the central chest area, and then hitting edges directly across from eachother and hitting 'f' while in Edit mode. Might be some fancier, newer retopo-style method too, hopefully someone here can mention that method. – Mike Belanger Feb 07 '16 at 21:52
  • Yeah I thought I could do that but when I try and edit the body nothing is missing. It obviously makes some calculations according to the clothing as to which faces are necessary and which ones aren't. I need to adjust where these calculations are made. – Dave Goateze Feb 08 '16 at 11:42
  • Oh, weird. Without seeing a .blend, I can't really say what's going on. – Mike Belanger Feb 08 '16 at 12:56
  • can I send you a blender file? – Dave Goateze Feb 08 '16 at 15:13
  • as you can see from the bottom image it imports the bvh skeleton which walks downwards and doesn't have any relationship to the character at all – Dave Goateze Feb 08 '16 at 15:14
  • There's all sorts of file-sharing services where you can upload, and paste the link here. Here's the most common: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/ – Mike Belanger Feb 08 '16 at 17:00
  • cheers mate! http://www.pasteall.org/blend/40551 – Dave Goateze Feb 08 '16 at 23:10
  • Not sure where you're seeing the holes in the neck. All I did was change the armature setting (under Properties >> Modifiers >> Armature field from "Woman" to "Y_woman lean down syringeZYX". I then added some loops around the collar and slid the edge loop around. I then recalculated the normals. I don't have time for anything else, but to fix the pockets, try adding some subdivs on them, and recalculate normals. http://www.pasteall.org/blend/40560 – Mike Belanger Feb 09 '16 at 02:15
  • By the way, you may want to re-animate the steps so the legs don't go through each other. – Mike Belanger Feb 09 '16 at 02:16
  • that is amazing! how did you do that? I am your best mate forever! One question she seems to walk on the spot now rather than travel have I got a setting wrong? – Dave Goateze Feb 10 '16 at 16:05
  • also her back goes very out of shape as she leans down at the end – Dave Goateze Feb 10 '16 at 16:09
  • Sorry I don't have time to fix that sort of thing myself. The best advice I can give you is to familiarize yourself with the animation and weight paint system. Try getting some tutorials on that new blender cloud, or look through their open movie projects. Good luck! – Mike Belanger Feb 11 '16 at 03:31
  • You think this is a weight paint problem? I am familiar with that thanks I will have a look.thanks a lot for your help mate – Dave Goateze Feb 11 '16 at 20:09
  • nice one it was weight painting cheers mate – Dave Goateze Feb 11 '16 at 23:39