Imported BVH onto CAT rig but no animation. My character rig is in front and after importing the BVH file it loads the original rig of the animation as well, hence the little pink block guy behind my character rig. When I hit play with the Animation Mode Toggle on, the little guy moves, but my character doesnt.

"If I see that damn teapot one more time...."

3ds Max 6.5 - Max 2012
Windows 7 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.13 GHZ
64-Bit, 8 GB RAM

Video Card: Galaxy GeForce 210 (Nvidia)

Website: http://tha3rdkind.com

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UPDATE: I was able to successfully map the animation to a Biped Rig, so WTF? Does CAT suck?

"If I see that damn teapot one more time...."

3ds Max 6.5 - Max 2012
Windows 7 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.13 GHZ
64-Bit, 8 GB RAM

Video Card: Galaxy GeForce 210 (Nvidia)

Website: http://tha3rdkind.com

if you save your bvh thats on the biped as a biped motion. you should be able to load the bip motion onto cat. when the capture animation tool pops up. sometimes you have to hit the capture animation button for the motion to be placed on the cat rig

Syndicate5 23 June 2011 02:12 AM

UPDATE: I was able to successfully map the animation to a Biped Rig, so WTF? Does CAT suck?

The Biped and HTR to CAT video should show you the steps:

http://area.autodesk.com/lou..._with_cat_data_and_crowds

I’ve used another from this series to get MotionBuilder data onto a Cat RIG.

One of these tutorials might also be helpful as Part 3: deals with “CAT-Biped workflow using MotionBuilder”

http://area.autodesk.com/blo...kflow_and_a_bit_of_kinect

and it might have something useful - as the very end shows Biped to CAT, I think.

Syndicate5 23 June 2011 02:12 AM

UPDATE: I was able to successfully map the animation to a Biped Rig, so WTF? Does CAT suck?

At the end of mapping your character in ‘Capture Animation’, you should see the ‘bones’ from the source at the same position as your destination CAT rig.

My guess is you might not have things mapped correctly.

I haven’t tried using BVH directly in 3ds.  I bring the BVH into MotionBuilder and map it onto my character there (which may provide you with much more flexibility, as MotionBuilder is designed for re-targeting animation), and then I ‘capture animation’ using the exported FBX from MotionBuilder.

Works like a charm!

Search around for a tutorial that shows going directly from BVH to a CAT rig, or try it with MotionBuilder. 

You can see a few of my posts where I solved my initial problems here or on http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6 (as CgWannabe999).  I outlined the problems I had and the solutions to my problems.

It can be frustrating at first to get all your ducks in a row, but CAT is definitely the way to go for rigging/animating in 3ds!!

I cant understand why there is almost no information on using bvh files with cat. If you follow the steps laid out under F1 you get a crumpled heap of bones. Almost nothing is explained. The explanations there are inadequate which is something I am not used to with autodesk.

Cat is so amazing when it comes to morepeds it is so frustrating that they haven’t got this working, or made the workflow apparent.

Ok back again.
For anyone trying to solve this it turns out it isn’t that hard. There are max friendly bvh files from Carnegie-Mellon Graphics Lab :https://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/3dsmax-friendly-release-of-cmu-motion-database (you guys might know this but Bruce Hahne adapted thousands of these files, thanks man).

There is a great tute on youtube which deals with loading the files onto a biped and it works pretty well. Saving the bvh that is dumped onto the CS skeleton out as a bip and then reloading it on a new skeleton retargets the whole shooting match nicely :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wU47Z-c940

Placing the CAT rig over the CS skeleton will allow you to copy the mocap:area.autodesk.com/louis_tutorials/cat_overview_part_3_working_with_cat_data_and_crowds

It would be great if you could load the files on a cat rig. Anyone got info on this it would be great to read that.

Cheers

Ive been able to load bvh directly to cat for years. I use the biped to cat as a workaround. if a file doesnt load right but that isnt always the case