Topic: Head Morph Animating / Avatars

[EdieMaye]

Hello, everyone,

I am here again because I have two questions. Figured to pile them both into one post since they seem they can go hand and hand.

1: After scouring for some time is there any support for Blender users and head morph animations? I have been doing pretty well with my poses and animations, but it's not the most rewarding when I make a, "happy," animation, but the face remains a stark expression that the current head being used has. I found 3DS Max support files and etc, but I couldn't find anything some what universal.

2: I would like to start making avatars as well as poses and animated actions, but I realized that the poses I can make using the file, Female04(poses).blend, seem to look horribly disfigured. Perhaps there is something I am overlooking here?

A prompt reply would be lovely, but whenever anyone has the time to get back to me would be most appreciated.

Thank you,
EdieMaye

[kat]

1: yup.  the 'morph' file for Blender is here. It contains all the (current) default shapes available (where applicable for the default avatars). No tutorial is available for it yet.

2: For Blender users the disfigured appearance (assuming you mean the bones seem to point out to the sides as discussed here also shown below) is necessary to export working poses - its a consequence of the bone orientations for 3DS Max being 'corrected' for Blender (see highlighted note here). A video showing how to use it is available here.

Welcome by the way ;o)

[EdieMaye]

As promised. I appreciate the prompt reply.

So there was a morph animation on your page all along? I've seen the word shapekeys before when looking into this a while ago, but more recently I was looking for the words along the lines of morph or morphing. Not shapekeys. Looks like I just need to squint a little harder. Or, just find my glasses. Lol.

As far as the, "horribly disfigured," comment goes. I should really learn to provide images. Since they can say 1000 words.
Here ya go:

I did look into it again, after posting this topic, and I found that one pose I had made worked and the other did not when I derived from product ID#80 even though both worked within an Empty Derivable and an Empty Mood. Provided above is the image of the one that did not, (obviously,) work for PID#80. 

I already accommodated for the way the bones seem to jut outward from the avatar guide bodies. I figured it had something to do with what you mentioned so I thank you for the clarity. What I believe is happening is that I translated, (minor,) some bones on the arms within the pose file for export aside from just, as you recommend, rotating them which caused the original mangled look once I clicked import and applied changes before even creating the action. The second pose I imported was far more complex including the the entire body being animated and which did work for PID#80.

So if there is any additional advice you'd like to offer to help me avoid this in the future. I'd love to hear it.

Thank you,
EdieMaye

[kat]

Yep "Morphs" are called "Shape Keys" in Blender, not sure why (copyright?). Thankfully they do function much the same way so the end result is a 'morph' between specific set expressions.

Before going further double-check you're using the latest IMVU desktop client rather than the normal auto-updated version, the former has full support for FBX, the latter not which causes poses to explode like you're seeing.

When posing the skeleton make sure you're rotating bones around their original position/orientations (as displayed when the file is first opened/loaded) and the pose you're trying to make, don't readjust the bones to make them appear as you might expect them to be, this breaks the result which often causes the pose to explode as you're seeing, e.g. don't align the leg bone so they point downwards as might be expected for 'leg' bones, this doesn't work for Blender. Watch the embedded videos in this section of the Pose Tutorial to see (confirm) how the bones should be manipulated.

If you're creating a new pose or action for the avatar that's not connected to any other item you'll generally want to be deriving from the Empty Mood product - 10945930 - even if the pose is to over-ride the default. This is also supposed to avoid unintentional pose conflicts.

[EdieMaye]

Thanks to the previous topic I had posted on this forum. I always make sure to check my client is up to date whenever something goes awry.

I also got everything going smoothly by this point. I have my avatars jumping with an ecstatic clap. You've been most helpful as always.

Thank you,
EdieMaye

[kat]

It's okay to post a product number/link in this context so we get to see the end result ;o)

[EdieMaye]

Ask and you shall receive: http://www.imvu.com/shop/product.php?products_id=41048796

Oh by the way. Is it possible to use your Female04(poses) file to add a mesh, animate it with avatar interaction, (like grabbing the gem on the end of the chain and fiddling with it,) and weigh it through multiple bones? Kinda like how hair is made by being weighed evenly through two bones to make it more malleable.

So far I have managed to successfully export a necklace, but the manually weighing the mesh to the avatar rig is proving a bit worrisome. Since I created an AttachmentNode02 to export it.

This knowledge would really aid in making some more impressive avatars/trigger accessories and even hair. Because I can simply not settle for a plain Jane necklace.

Thank you,
EdieMaye

[kat]

You can weight the necklace to existing bones of the avatar skeleton so it follows general avatar movement (use the 'clothing' starter file for this) but, if it needs to do more than that you'll likely need to make an animated accessory. The difference between the two approaches is largely; using the avatar skeleton the necklace becomes a clothing item which can have a trigger pose associated with it - one product, but may conflict with other items; whereas using accessories you'll have two items (accessory and avatar pose) that will need to worn and sync together - two items need to be worn and may need to be re-synced over time.

[EdieMaye]

I see. I am glad I asked instead of doing my typical trial and error methods. I'll certainly see what I can do with this information. I'll be sure to post any end results if you are curious to see what comes of this.

Thank you for your time,
EdieMaye