mirroring an animation

[Couldbe Yue]

is there a quick and dirty way to mirror an animation bvh?  I don't really want to try to do it by hand. I know, I'm lazy :(

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Couldbe Yue wrote:

is there a quick and dirty way to mirror an animation bvh?  I don't really want to try to do it by hand. I know, I'm lazy

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I'm prolly as lazy are you are, Couldbe, so I'll hand you this link without having tested whether it works...

http://tali.appspot.com/bvhmirror.html

Good luck!

[Amaranthim Talon]

If you are using QAvimator, the feature is there under Tools. If you are NOT using QA but have a bvh file, open it with QA and take advantage fo the tool- good luck!

[Couldbe Yue]

Thanks Madelaine, it worked like a charm xxxxx

Amaranthim, my version of QAv is so old that it doesn't have a tools menu.  It's from 30 nov 07 and I have never managed to find anything newer (or even where I got it from)..

[Amaranthim Talon]

Here is a download page: QAvimator

There are three to choose from, I think the '08 is the one that still has the Cut function working. The newer ones do not. So to be safe, I would keep your old one AND get the newer version as well.

[Couldbe Yue]

thank you! :heart: 

I installed all of them to add to mine and have to say that my 07 one seems to still be my fave (apart from the mirroring in 2010) in 2007 I could set a keyframe just by touching the body part but in 2010 I actually have to use the key button.  Still, it's nice to have them and I'll have a bit of a play with them on the weekend..  it's such a shame it still doesn't have the add frame as well as the paste, that would have made me very happy

[Amaranthim Talon]

"Add Frame"?   Hmmm.. what is that? I do not recall seeing that one- and my paste works.. I am using the 2009-12-30 version. Anything exciting about the 2010 I should know about? ETA that I use the '08 version when I want to be able to cut frames out.

[Couldbe Yue]

ctrl-c still works in 2010 just not the icon, so if you use keyboard shortcuts you won't even notice the icon doesn't work.   I'm still sniffy about not being able to add a keyframe by touching the model though and the 2008 verson actually has a (very,very limited) userguide.  I was impressed!  Check the install folder to have a look.  Apart from what looks like a slight cosmetic change to the ui and the addition of mirroring, I didn't see anything new in there.  Certainly nothing that will make me stop using 2007.

The one thing I've always wanted in Qav was the ability to insert frames, when you cut it removes a frame but there's no way to add any in, so it becomes a real pita if you want to pad out an anim. whilst cut will remove the frame altogether, paste will just paste over the frame, it doesn't add a new one. 

 

 

[Helm Anton]

Yes that wpuld be like xmas. Being able to add frames between keyframes  would save alot of headaches lol. You can move frames back but not forward without copy /add frames /paste...then move all other frames....

Apart from that Qvam rocks!!

[Amaranthim Talon]

@Couldbe- Oh I misunderstood- I thought you had a version tha would let you Add a frame.

@Helm- Agreed! I really love the program - just wish someone wd tweak it up a bit.

However - Medhue will most likely tell you about SLat animation program SLat - it does allow inserting frames. And here is a tut Medhue himself made you can find it here:

in case the above is too small.

I have never been able to quite grasp SLat tbh and prefer QA- but inserting frames can't be beat!

[Couldbe Yue]

I love the idea of slat and think it has nifty features but have never been able to get the thing to work well enough to consider switching.  I probably need to spend some more quality time paying attention to it. 

[Medhue Simoni]

Slat is a very nice program, but it really needs a coder to take it over, and finish it up. It's a pretty revolutionary program and, in my eyes, does many things right. Editing within the curve graph really allows the user to create smooth animations, cause you can see the problems in an animation very clearly. I now tend to use curve graphs in all the programs that have them to create animations in. Correcting little glitches in motion capture is also super easy in SLat. Plus, it is easy to add and substract frame to get timing exactly right. Looping animations perfectly is also a huge plus in SLat. If it had IK and the save frame functions were fixed so they work with all animations and frames, then I would probably still use it all the time. As it is, I still use it to do the final check on animations and retime anims for SL. I really wish another competent coder would pick it up and add what this program really needs, and maybe add the ability to import new skeletons. I'd never use another anim program if all this was done.

[Amaranthim Talon]

I can't make heads or tails of the interface. I have watched your tuts and I know you swear by this program- but wow there is nothing intuitive about the interface. In QA, I sat in front of it, moved the limbs and I was on my way. This thing needs a damn manual- and then a live interpreter Maybe am dense! I woudn't be surprised - but wow..

So I did come up with sort of a workaround for the QA's lack of inserting frames. I have a couples anim am working on - but it was too short and the actual kiss part happened so quickly you would not see it at all- my mistake - so to fix it, I made two new anims and saved - with the two new mannequins opened, I added the existing ones and copied  the first few frames into the new ones! I would select Male 1 go to the frame, copy - select the second Male anim, go to the frame - paste.  Monotonous, yes - but effective. And yay- I have a kiss.

Re smoothness - I can relate Medhue! As we have spoken of the hardest thing is getting a loop in somewhere other than at the second  frame. Nothing I can do to choose to loop from say the middle other than the end and then of course it is no longer continuous animation. I know the answer to that- just keep trying! But Argh!!!

[Medhue Simoni]

Naa! If you make animations, you gotta have some kind of decent brain, not like a coder tho. You gotta map stuff like in your head and then be able to figure out how you get there with a set of bones, it's pretty complex brain wise. Then you gotta use the artsy part of your brains to make it look good. lool

Give DazStudio a try. You can mirror a frame, but you can't mirror the whole animation. This is the first program that has really pulled me away from SLat. I kind of thought I would have to change my fav at some point, cause SLat ain't gonna work forever. I really love animating in Daz tho. It really is a dream once you set up your windows right, and create all your shortcut keys. Only real downfall, you can't really see the whole animation, in realtime, in the program. It like throttles the frame rate skipping frames. The program was created to handle super high resolution models, so I think it does this to be able handle all that data. You can render a little movie of the animation, and you will see it exactly as it would be in SL. This could be nifty if you needed to use that video to display the animation on a webpage, if you were selling it that way. Oh, and, you don't have to add a Tframe, it adds it for you. I even found a ReTime Script for Daz, that allows me to choose a section of the animation and retime it, or basically add and subtract frames. It does it in the same confusing way that Poser does tho. Plus, it has Inverse Kinetimatics or whatever that is called. You can also save frames, or whole animations, or even just an arm pose to reuse later by clicking the picture you created in your inventory.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Animation-Forum/How-to-make-SL-animations-in-Dazstudio/m-p/1557153

[Crubo Carver]

I totally agree the Slat interface is confusing at first because there are TOO MANY ways to look at the animation - icon frames, blue anims, red anims, plots, edit circles, framebars . . . but after seeing Medhue's tutorial I persisted and the workflow difference for some functions is HUGE. For example, smoothing is MUCH easier - in Q I have learned some tricks to do it but Slat is way faster and simpler. Also slowing and speeding up by adding frames, cutting and pasting frames between anims, so many things are faster.

I now use QAv as a kind of sketchbook because the interface is simpler - like a pencil and paper. Once I have keyframes in place I deploy Slat.

Medhue's right it's a half-finished app, but it paid off for me big-time. In addition to Med's tutorial, the in-app notes are pretty good, but incomplete. If you're interested, I can send you extensive notes on learning Slat. Just message me inworld or via My Second Life.

I also tried Daz once and never got anywhere, but if Medhue uses it that's enough recommendation for me to try it again!