(New in version 1.05.02)
‘File‘ menu -> ‘Rig Mocap Tester’
The ‘Rig Mocap Tester‘ tool facilitates quick testing of various motion capture (mocap) animations on your rig.
Viewing your rig in motion is an effective method for identifying potential issues with the rig or its skinning.
For the tool to function correctly, your rig must be in a built state and have the ‘HumanIK‘ attachment on six different nodes: the head, spine, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg nodes.
If you are used an Arise biped preset, preferably ‘CA_Biped_Game‘, or you’ve constructed your biped rig using the designated nodes for each body part, simply add the ‘HumanIK‘ attachment to the mentioned six nodes and build your rig. This will automatically define your character for HIK. For further guidance, consult the documentation for the ‘HumanIK‘ attachment.
Attributes:
- ‘Character‘ – A dropdown menu containing all defined HumanIK characters in the scene. If you have added the ‘HumanIK’ attachments to your rig as instructed above, this attribute should display your rig character.
- ‘Mocap Library‘ – This dropdown menu is populated with mocap animations from the Maya mocap library folder, which is available in most Maya versions, though not all (Maya 2018 does not).
- ‘Custom Mocap File‘ – Enter the path of a custom FBX mocap file if you prefer to use one.
- ‘Load Mocap Animation‘ – Click this button to load the specified mocap animation onto your rig.
- ‘Remove Mocap Animation‘ – Click this button to remove the mocap animation from your rig and reset the rig to its bind-pose.
Notes:
- To create a custom mocap animation file: Use a rig with an HIK definition on the joints (e.g., an Arise rig with ‘HumanIK‘ attachments), bake the animation onto the joints, and export the joints and their animation as an FBX file.
- By default, the ‘HumanIK‘ attachments will use the IK ctrls when defining your character. If your rig is in FK, you might not see the animation correctly.
- Ensure that any Mocap animation applied to the rig is removed before rebuilding any nodes.
- Maya’s HumanIK system on which the Arise HumanIK attachment is built, expects the following conditions: T-pose, Arms straight out at 90° from the torso, Legs straight, No bend in elbows, knees, or spine, No twist in joints. Arise automatically answers those conditions when the arms, legs, torso, and head nodes have their ‘Clean Transformation‘ checkbox turned off so the ‘World Orientations’ attributes are used. Those conditions are also met when the model is in perfect T-pose. It should also be noted that currently ‘World Orientations’ don’t work well when Maya’s world up axis is Z.
- Maya’s HumanIK system, on which the Arise HumanIK attachment is built, expects the character to meet several strict conditions at the time of definition: a clean T-pose, arms extended straight out at 90° from the torso, straight legs, no bend in the elbows, knees, or spine, and no joint twisting.
Arise automatically satisfies these requirements when the arms, legs, torso, and head nodes have ‘Clean Transformations‘ disabled, allowing the ‘World Orientations’ attributes to be used (Default). These conditions are also met when the character is modeled in a perfect T-pose.
It should be noted that ‘World Orientations’ currently do not behave reliably when Maya’s world up axis is set to Z. Therefore, unless the character is modeled in a clean T-pose, mocap retargeting may not behave as expected.
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