Motion capture

[CinnamonMetal]

Where can I find free motion capture data of humans, running dancing etc; I've looked on TurboSquid but none of the free motion capture files are readable ?

[Atom]

I have used BVH files from both OSU and CMU.

Also CG Speed has some of those same  BVH file processed to various degrees. (Choose MotionBuilderSet)

You can preview BVH files using BVHacker (free).

Here is a basic workflow.

1.)Decide on a BVH file.

2.) Convert to the .bvh file to a .bclip file and companion .cmd file using Houdini's command line tool named mcbiovision.

EXAMPLE .bat file for Windows to convert a BVH to a .bclip and .cmd companion file set. (Adjust path to your Houdini\bin folder)

"C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 15.5.480\bin\mcbiovision.exe" -n 2 "C:\Users\Mitzumi\Documents\Mocap\cmuconvert-daz-60-75\60\60_01.bvh"
"C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 15.5.480\bin\mcbiovision.exe" -n 2 "C:\Users\Mitzumi\Documents\Mocap\cmuconvert-daz-60-75\60\60_02.bvh"
"C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 15.5.480\bin\mcbiovision.exe" -n 2 "C:\Users\Mitzumi\Documents\Mocap\cmuconvert-daz-60-75\60\60_03.bvh"

3.) Run the resulting .cmd file inside Houdini to re construct the BVH skeleton as a Houdini FK based skeleton.

File/Run Script...

4.) Dive into the chop network, that will be built by the .cmd file, locate the File node and browse to the .bclip file which will finally cause the bones to move. The .bclip drives the associated bone network.

 

Once you have an imported .BVH file, you can re-target it to another rig using the Goldfarb technique, here.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Atom

[CinnamonMetal]

On 6/19/2019 at 7:12 PM, Atom said:

Run the resulting .cmd file inside Houdini to re construct the BVH skeleton as a Houdini FK based skeleton.

How do I run a .cmd file within Houdini ?

[Howitzer99]

The short version is: from inside Houdini, choose File->Run Script... and point to the generated .cmd files.

 

Here's a longer version, if anyone needs help with the steps involved.

There's an option to open a windows shell from inside of Houdini that will have systems variables set to be able to run Houdini's included command-line tools, like the mcbiovision converter.  Another good one is abcinfo for sanity-checking any alembic caches you might be working with, either way, there are a lot of useful tools that ship with Houdini that run from the command-line.

From Houdini's top menu, choose Windows->Shell

This will pop-up a Windows cmd shell.

To test that it's working, type in mcbiovision, and you should see the help information displayed in the window.

Run the mcbiovision tools to create the .cmd files, and then from houdini, File->Run Script... and point to the resulting .cmd file, then carry on with Atom's #4 item above.

 

Hope this helps, and thanks for sharing Atom, I was looking into converting some mocap animations a few months ago before being sidetracked by Vellum.

Dave

Edited June 24, 2019 by Howitzer99

[primzahl]

Hello, for my final animation movie at the animation school I have the possibility to work with Dancers and Motion-Capture.

I try to do all the modelling and rigging in Houdini/ZBrush, so I’m wondering how the workflow is to get the data in Houdini. Going through forums and watching the few videos on this topic, it’s seems very frustrating and complicate and I get feeling it should not be done. (By the way the teachers use Motion builder and Maya, but I don’t like Maya.)

I will try the work-flow as described above but Tips and Tricks like … how to setup the rig in Houdini the right way and other tips and suggestions are highly appreciated, since this is my first time working with mocap-data.

Edited August 6, 2019 by primzahl