animation voids offset joint orientation

[Satu Moreau]

I'm using Maya to rig and animate some mesh bare cat ears. I rig them and the offset joints are kept when I upload it. But as soon as I play an animation made for it, it reverts the joints to normal orientation. I can't figure what's wrong. I found one, I have to rig with Z being the up axis, but animate with Y being the up axis. But everything I try the animation still crunches them back to normal joint orientation and voids the offset joints. SL treats the animation as a deformation as well and undeform avatar returns them to the offset joints. I've been animating using the same offset joint rigging, but I tried it with the normal joint orientation and still get the same result. I've looked for help in Maya groups in SL, but no one seems to have experience with animating AND offset joints. I've been at this for days and it's driving me crazy.

[Fionalein]

Can it be a transposition vs. rotation animation problem? Try doing your own animation with Qavimator beta (now bento, can only do rotations) if the ears stay in place on a betagrid upload of a new animation your previous animation contained transpositions(which you should avoid at all costs for relocated joints).

Edited May 28, 2018 by Fionalein

[Satu Moreau]

4 minutes ago, Fionalein said:

Can it be a transposition vs. rotation animation problem? Try doing your own animation with Qavimator beta (now bento, can only do rotations) if the ears stay in place on a betagrid upload of a new animation your previous animation contained transpositions(which you should avoid at all costs for relocated joints).

I only use rotation for animation, long known that one. And it's both on Beta and regular grid that it does this. Where do I find Qavimator? Seems like it wouldn't be any better than Maya. It animates properly, the movements are just what I made, but it crunches the skeleton for some undiscernible reason.

[Satu Moreau]

Still looking for help on this if anyone has any insights.

[OptimoMaximo]

If you're exporting BVH files with translation enabled script (should be the 1.6 if i remember correctly), that's the assumed behavior. Your animation should include ONLY rotation when joint positions are defined within the mesh itself. The bvh exporter writes down the position of the joints regardless of keyframing, and not finding any, defaults to the default location, the effect you're seeing.

Check my forum signature for a animation export solution for Maya  

Edited May 30, 2018 by OptimoMaximo

[Satu Moreau]

2 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

If you're exporting BVH files with translation enabled script (should be the 1.6 if i remember correctly), that's the assumed behavior. Your animation should include ONLY rotation when joint positions are defined within the mesh itself. The bvh exporter writes down the position of the joints regardless of keyframing, and not finding any, defaults to the default location, the effect you're seeing.

Check my forum signature for a animation export solution for Maya  

Thanks so much for the insight. Though I can't find your forum signature either here or on your profile page?

[OptimoMaximo]

Just now, Satu Moreau said:

Thanks so much for the insight. Though I can't find your forum signature either here or on your profile page?

Signatures need to be activated for display in your forum profile setting... on MP, look for MyAniMATE_Maya_System and it should come up promptly =)

[Satu Moreau]

6 hours ago, OptimoMaximo said:

Signatures need to be activated for display in your forum profile setting... on MP, look for MyAniMATE_Maya_System and it should come up promptly =)

All I can find regarding signatures is to set my own. Thanks for the heads up on MyAniMATE though. Hopefully it will work out, once I can afford it.

[Satu Moreau]

Well, new problem with MyAnimate that I don't know how to solve. It refuses to export because there's no hip joint. I only have from ears to pelvis on it because it's just the ears I'm rigging and animating. Is it going to require the whole skeleton in order to make an animation?

[OptimoMaximo]

Rigging and animation assumptions differ a lot, you can't simply animate the same rig you used to do the skinning and export. Please read the instructions and run the skeleton generator button to be able to export animations. MyAniMATE produces an animation rig scaled up to meters in order to comply to the animation standards that differ by a LOT from the rigging standard. I know it sounds clunky but it's how LL has made the systems. You may want to follow this video of mine to set up a character. MyAniMATE-How to set up your character

Even if it's a human character in the video, everything still applies the same. You can delete any joints you won't use, like you are doing, the only one that is mandatory to keep is the mPelvis (AKA hip)

 

 

Edited June 2, 2018 by OptimoMaximo