Mixamo FBX Import Fix (Orientation Issue in Blender)
Table of Contents
Description
Importing Mixamo generated FBX files into Blender may be subject to alignment issues. Typically animations sequences play relative to themselves but may be slightly off, incorrectly positioned and/or orientated relative to Blender grid. For bipedal characters this is primarily due to the way Mixamo skeletons are set up to use a ‘hip‘ or ‘pelvis‘ bone as the skeletal root instead of a generic ‘root’ or bone aligned to the grid, a ‘ground’ bone. In addition issues may be caused as a consequence of global orientation used by that system (Y up instead of Z up). To fix this, it’s possible to manually edit the skeleton to compensate and correct the issue so the rig and animation work as expected.
Duration: total c. 5 mins (00:05:00).
Info: 1080p.
Suitability: Beginner+.
Source: n/a.
Product ID: n/a.
Design note: some additional information to keep in mind importing Mixamo generated animations/avatars into Blender;
Snap
The errant bone, mixamorig.Hips or mixamorig_Hips, does not need to be altered or modified except for alignment snapping to the spine bone, mixamorig.Spine or mixamorig_Spine. To do this, with rig selected and in Edit Mode, select the Tail end of hips, then Shift+click the Head end on spine [1]. From the Armature menu select Snap, then Selection to Active [2] – Armature » Snap » Selection to Active. This will snap the the two bones together resulting in the animation playing-through correctly orientated relative to the grid and scene.
Snapping the Tail and Head nodes of hip and spine together [1] using Snap [2]…
… to realign the two bones [3] and correct the skeletons orientation.FBX Import Settings
When importing a Mixamo generated animation sequences most FBX settings can be left untouched except the Armature options. Here, Ignore Leaf Bones, Force Connected Children and Automatic Bone Orientation should be enabled (checkbox ticked) [4].
During FBX import most settings can remain as-is except the Armature options, these should be set to reduce ancillary issues after-the-fact.Collada/DAE Import
Importing animated DAE/Collada files into Blender [5] that are generated by Mixamo shouldn’t need to be fixed per the above as, although the hip bone is not precisely aligned, bone alignments and orientation are correct relative to the skeleton as-is so sequences will play-through correctly without modification.
Importing a Collada/DAE file generated by Mixamo should present any issues. However, during import ensure the Armature Options are appropriately set to avoid issues.
Timestamps
Times are approximate;
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