Hi,,

I imported from Maya my model which contains bones for the animation and blendshapes for facials, but when I apply a character face on my model and try to make the link between my blendshapes and the character face I get wiered deformations on the entire model, If I adjust the “mouth open shape”, the arms move with it,,,, what’s the problem.....

Thanx for ur help.

Hi Hamzaneeba

For Character Face:-

1. If it’s setup with Blend Shapes- the Blend Shapes will apply across the whole of the mesh. So, if, as part of your Blend Shape target the mesh vertices on another body part have moved, the animation will update on not only the face.
2. if it’s setup with Cluster Shapes as the targets- you can use the Bone Joints as cluster shapes to drive the deformations- For Character Face- you would only want to define the face joints as the ‘Cluster Shapes’ to drive the targets- if you’ve inadvertently added the other body joints it could cause the issue.

If the rest of the joints on the character are animating and are not added to the Character Face- you should check that you don’t have any other animation setup in the scene.

Regards,

Lee

Thanx Lee for your help all the time,,,

and i’m just a beginner in Motion Builder, What do you mean by “target the vertecies to an other mesh..”.
If it’s not too much, could you please be more specific, cuz I don’t get it, and I have a project still waiting for this facial animation, so please again.

Hi Hamzannaba

‘’So, if, as part of your Blend Shape target the mesh vertices on another body part have moved, the animation will update on not only the face.’’

What I meant by this is- if you are using one single mesh for your character- if the vertices on another part of the model(other than the face) are moved- they may have been included as part of the Blend Shape by mistake when setup in Maya-

You should check and confirm that the Blend Shapes are the same as the source from Maya- To do that, select the model and open the Property Window in MotionBuilder(Window- Property Editor) and check the sliders for Blend work as setup in Maya.

If you are using Joint animation for the Cluster Shapes in Character Face- you should check that nothing else has been animated accidentally in the scene(i.e. the joints on the arms)

Regards,

lee

Hi, and thanx again and again,

but I always have problems with that facial animation, this is what I suggest if you don’t mind could you please give me your MSN ID, this way I will make it with your help.

Hi Hamzannaba,

Sorry, but I don’t have MSN ID setup.

It might be an idea to add example of the file you are having problems with as attachment to post to check.

Regards,

Lee

re-hi,

nice idea.

Wesley_Blendshapes

P.S :  I used the “default” option in the advanced tab to apply the blendshapes.

Hi,

I’ve had a look at your Maya scene file.

The Blend Shapes appear to be setup correctly, checking these from Window-Animation Editors-Blend Shape, the blends work correctly when set with the sliders through the Blend Shape Window.

I tested exporting the mesh and skeleton to FBX with FBX Exporter 2010.0.2 for Maya 2009. Prior to export, I deleted the duplicate meshes that were modeled for the target shapes as these are not needed for export, the target shapes are stored on the base mesh. I also deleted the softMod Handles as these would not be needed for export either. I have attached the FBX export file for reference:-

wesley.FBX

Importing the scene in MotionBuilder 2009 with File-FBX Plug-In Import, the model imports correctly. To check that the Blend Shapes are the same on the mesh in MB do the following:-

1. select PolySurface 4
2. Open the Property Editor from Window-Add Property Editor. With the property editor open, select Lock button to lock the property Editor(mesh can then be de-selected and you can still view properties) In the Property Editor the Blend Shapes are listed under Shapes section, expanding this all of the sliders are present and correct. You can do your facial animation directly from this window if required, simply drag the sliders to modify the blending and set keys with K button. Attached is screenshot showing the property editor with the shape targets displayed after import-

Maya_MB_Shapes.JPG

To set up the Character Face, you should refer to the documentation that ships with MotionBuilder. I added a Character Face node to the scene and defined the shapes as Custom targets and tested that this is working as expected. Process was:-

1. Alt+Drag Character Face node into scene from Asset Browser-Characters.
2. In navigator window select Character Face and go to Character Face Definition.
3. In character Face Definition window, Alt+Drag your character mesh into ‘Models with Shapes’ drop-down. All of the Blend shapes that were setup in Maya are then listed under Shapes section.
4. The workflow to use for character face is to: Add custom expressions or use generic expressions for the Character Face expressions.
5. With these added with Add button, you can then define what the blending of your source shapes will be for each expression. For example for ‘A’ expression, the Eyes_mouth.A_shape is set to contribute 100% to the character face target. You can set these up how you like, so you could create A_U Custom expression which could use Eyes_mouth.U_shape at 55% and Eyes_mouth.A_shape at 45%
6. I have attached screenshot showing this setup in scene file:-

MB_CharFace01.JPG

7. With the Character Face Definition setup, turning on Active will allow you to animate the Blending through the Character Face Animation Window. The keys are set with K button beside the sliders.
8. You can also edit the blending of the target on Character Face through the FCurves window. Select the Character Face node in Navigator View, and from FCurve window you can select and edit the keys set. Attached is screenshot showing blending in FCurve and scene file setup:-

MB_CharFace02.JPG
MB_CharFace02.FBX

Note: If you have setup Character Face as above, the Blend Shapes themselves(from Propert Editor) cannot be edited unless you de-activate Character Face animation. This is because the sliders in Character Face Animation are controlling the blending of the base shapes.

Best Regards,

Lee

To say “thank you” does not suit you, you deserve much more better, really i appreciate your help and the time you’ve take to test my problem.

People like you are called “GODS”,

I couldn’t get any of the attachements, anyway, you’ve done too much for me, I will re-do the precess myself from the beginning as you mentioned.

RESPECT.