Hey all...
I had a question re: the Batch Export.txt and setting bone poses. In the .txt file there are a possible 63 bone poses listed. Are all these necessary to get the most basic of animation working?...It's suggested that you only need a basic 6 speech targets/poses to start with.
Secondly....does FaceFx support translational bone data?
Thanks.
Slade's batch export contains not only the basic mouth shapes, but also targets for eyebrows, blinks, head rotation, emotions, and micro-expressions. In short, it's definitely more than you need for a basic animation.
You can get by with only the very basic mouth shapes when starting a new character rig. Once you're happy with the speech targets (listed in the default mapping), I'd suggest creating the speech gesture targets (head pitch/roll/yaw, eye pitch/yaw, blink, eyebrow raise, squint), as this will add some life to the character without much work on your part. After that's all working well, go ahead with whatever extra targets you feel your character needs for his performance.
To answer your other question, yes, FaceFX supports bone translation, rotation, and scale in the poses. Note that if you want scale to work in the FaceFX-default rendering engine, you'll want to restrict yourself to uniform scale.
Excellent... thanks for that ;o)
Ben
Excellent...Thanks for the swift reply ;o)
I have a question about loading the bone translation and rotational value into the .fxa file. Do the translation/rotation values need to be loaded into the "reference poses" section? I'm trying to create a FaceFX friendly rig out of Maya 2010, but I'm not trying to use phoneme poses entirely. I'd like to be able to load the bones in, as well as transfer the animation from Maya. Anyone have any idea how to setup bone translation/rotation in my .fxa?
beauteora,
Sounds like you are using FaceFX 1.7.x if you are dealing with FXA files. Perhaps you are using FaceFX in the UDK? It works the same as FaceFX 2010:
1) Export a reference pose by going to a frame with the face in a neutral position and including the bones you want FaceFX to control
2) Export a bone pose by going to a frame where the bone pose is displayed and hit Export. The rotation, translation and scale are all included automatically in the bone pose.
Yes, I'm trying to use a .fxa to get my animation directly from Maya into UDK. The reason for this is I'm trying to be able to use hand-animated shots mixed in with FaceFX generated animation on the same rig. Is it possible to export animation from Maya via the Face FX plug-in even if the joints are animated on directly? This would give me a pipeline where I can use hand-animation from Maya sometimes, or FaceFX animation in FaceFX Studio sometimes.
I guess long story short, how can I export animation from Maya into UDK via FaceFX if animation is only on a joint, and not on a bone pose?
You can't do that.