Root Bone Rotation and Translation
by Bill Koons · in Artist Corner · 10/28/2004 (9:01 am) · 9 replies
I hope someone can help us with this one...
We are using Max Character Studio to create our animations and we've noticed that the character animations seem to ignore rotation information on the root bone of the character. So for example. If we bend the character at the hips. Instead of bending the character the feet come off the ground. We didn't really start to notice this until we began making crouch and die motions. After we saw the problem, we noticed that our run and jump motions have the same problem. The only thing we can think to do is to add a dummy bone to the hierarchy above the bip01 bone, but we aren't sure if this will create other problems.
Note that we've added the root bone to the "always export" section of the cfg file, but it didn't seem to help. I'm sure we are missing something simple, because the Torque demo comes with several death animations that work fine.
We are using Max Character Studio to create our animations and we've noticed that the character animations seem to ignore rotation information on the root bone of the character. So for example. If we bend the character at the hips. Instead of bending the character the feet come off the ground. We didn't really start to notice this until we began making crouch and die motions. After we saw the problem, we noticed that our run and jump motions have the same problem. The only thing we can think to do is to add a dummy bone to the hierarchy above the bip01 bone, but we aren't sure if this will create other problems.
Note that we've added the root bone to the "always export" section of the cfg file, but it didn't seem to help. I'm sure we are missing something simple, because the Torque demo comes with several death animations that work fine.
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#2
so it does not inherit any motion.
10/28/2004 (10:23 am)
Yes the bounding box is linked but we unchecked all of the inheritance boxesso it does not inherit any motion.
#3
10/28/2004 (11:16 am)
Transforms collapsed or not?
#4
10/28/2004 (12:35 pm)
Yes. We think the problem is with 3dsmax. In MilkShape it seems you can rotate the bone below the root, but max keeps the rotation in the bip01. You can't rotate the entire body unless you rotate bip01. We've figured out the translation. It seems the rotation is what is causing the problem.
#5
10/29/2004 (9:55 am)
This is not a 3dsmax exporter bug.. this is just the way character studio works. I personally don't like using character studio because it is a little to 'smart' for it's own good.. it is what it is
#6
When I export an animation, the starting rotation on the hip bone (bip01) seems to be ignored. All of the motion after that point works fine
For example: If I have a character that has an idle animation, in a bent over pose. Rather then bending over the feet of the character lift off the ground. The animation works fine just at the wrong angle. It would look the same in 3DS max, if I just rotated the entire character back so the hips did not have a different rotation than the default pose in the character.
I want to be able to have my character fall to the ground or sit on the ground and have animations work while he is sitting on the ground.
I have created a transition type of animation where the character moves from the base pose into a bent over pose. This seems to work but the feet slide a little. I also would like to avoid this in some instances and jut have the engine blend to an idle pose with the character bent over at the waist. This does not seem to work
I have tried a bunch of stuff:
I have worked with the link to the bounding box. (I have tried all kinds of variations.) Even if I hand rotate the bounding box 90 degrees, it does not seem to effect the rotation of the animation:
I have changed the cfg file. I have tried both ignoring the bip01 which is what everyone has told be to do even though it seems like this would cause this problem and I have put it in the export always section. Neither seems to solve the problem.
I have unchecked the collapse transforms option - when it is checked the character beginning position is affected but it really moves it a long way.
I have added another bone in front of the bip01 and even renamed this new bone bip01 - It didn't seem to do anything.
I also have noticed that if any bone does not actually move during an animation it is ignored. If I export a character in a still pose - with the exact same key frames at the beginning and end of the animation, it does not work. If I slighlty rotate each of the bones. It works. If I miss a leg or arm, the pose for that arm does not come through in the animation.
11/16/2004 (6:57 am)
I have done a lot of testing. Here is what the problem seems to be . . .When I export an animation, the starting rotation on the hip bone (bip01) seems to be ignored. All of the motion after that point works fine
For example: If I have a character that has an idle animation, in a bent over pose. Rather then bending over the feet of the character lift off the ground. The animation works fine just at the wrong angle. It would look the same in 3DS max, if I just rotated the entire character back so the hips did not have a different rotation than the default pose in the character.
I want to be able to have my character fall to the ground or sit on the ground and have animations work while he is sitting on the ground.
I have created a transition type of animation where the character moves from the base pose into a bent over pose. This seems to work but the feet slide a little. I also would like to avoid this in some instances and jut have the engine blend to an idle pose with the character bent over at the waist. This does not seem to work
I have tried a bunch of stuff:
I have worked with the link to the bounding box. (I have tried all kinds of variations.) Even if I hand rotate the bounding box 90 degrees, it does not seem to effect the rotation of the animation:
I have changed the cfg file. I have tried both ignoring the bip01 which is what everyone has told be to do even though it seems like this would cause this problem and I have put it in the export always section. Neither seems to solve the problem.
I have unchecked the collapse transforms option - when it is checked the character beginning position is affected but it really moves it a long way.
I have added another bone in front of the bip01 and even renamed this new bone bip01 - It didn't seem to do anything.
I also have noticed that if any bone does not actually move during an animation it is ignored. If I export a character in a still pose - with the exact same key frames at the beginning and end of the animation, it does not work. If I slighlty rotate each of the bones. It works. If I miss a leg or arm, the pose for that arm does not come through in the animation.
#7
11/16/2004 (7:39 am)
I have also noticed taht there is a ingnore ground tansform box that I have unchecked. I assume this is correct.
#8
02/24/2005 (10:44 am)
I'm also having this problem again(still). Is there any help to be found? I'll even e-mail a scene of the setup.
#9
I've keyframed it's horizontal, vertical, and rotation tracks to no avail.
I've replaced locked the biped's foot with straight keyframes and planted keys with no success.
I am rather shocked that more people aren't having this problem as I assume that bipeds are a fairly commonly used tool amongst 3dsmax users in game development.
03/04/2005 (8:24 pm)
I am having the very same problem. Rotation/translation of the Bip01 does not carry through the exporter and the result is non-moving hips in Torque. The motion of the hips seems to then somehow become applied to the legs and the legs and feet kick about as if they are taking on this hip movement (kind of as if they aren't planted).I've keyframed it's horizontal, vertical, and rotation tracks to no avail.
I've replaced locked the biped's foot with straight keyframes and planted keys with no success.
I am rather shocked that more people aren't having this problem as I assume that bipeds are a fairly commonly used tool amongst 3dsmax users in game development.
Torque Owner Joe Maruschak