[wgb14]

Hi all

I guess you must all be aware of the bvh format (Biovision Hierarchy), the industry standard format for motion capture data. Also if you have read the Haptek SDK you must be aware that the player  supports (in theory) animations in BVH format. Last year I made an unsuccesfull attempt to introduce bvh animations in the Haptek player with the hope that we could all bypass their other very expensive tools for creating realistic animations. Although, I was sucessfull in mapping some bvh files into the Haptek's joint names, the joint heirarchy remained a mystery and hence I abandonded the project. I tried almost every commercial package but none could export in the mysterious joint hierarchy that Haptek is using. For example, Motion builder is able to import the Haptek mocap examples, but it changes the joint hierarchy of the output so much, that it is impossible for the Haptek player to reproduce it.

A few days ago, I decided to revist the project for one last time (at a theoritical level). After googling a bit, I found this http://gamepipe.usc.edu/~zyda/pubs/Will.Frey.Motion.pdf. One page 27, it says that Haptek sells (or used to sell) a custom made mocap system for around 30,000 USD. Could this be the answer to the mystery?. Could these online example have been created with their custom made mocap system? If yes, there should have at least created some kind of converter to convert any bvh file to their format. I emailed the company, but they still refuse to answer, and propably will never answer. The reason? If there is such a converter, their figuredef tool will become obsolete.   

Something interesting that I also found, is that bvh is dead!!!!! It still may be used in several comemrcial packages, but there is another format for 3D data exchange named COLLADA. COLLADA is a general 3D asset file format, a subset of which can be used for motion capture data. Very few commercial packages currently support it but as it seems it will become the standard for exchanging 3D data between every available 3D tool today. OGRE3D is already on the way to supoort it, and many othe engines will follow too.

Fredy where is this AI weeky, I think I can write several articles there about animation technologies and AI. Another interesting article that I have in mind is a review of the existing avatar creation engines. I think such an article will be a valuable resource for everyone.       

[Freddy]

Another fine report

The kind of figures Haptek quote are only for big companies I guess, but I am not so sure if the product itself is worth anywhere near as much to anyone.  Maybe they could get away with it a few years back, but today I am not so sure.  Haptek seem to like making their own internal version of a system, for intstance the compression system for making haptars too...I belive that is a version of BZip.  This can only be a plan to restrict the market to their own products.  Ho hum...so yes Ogre is the way forward I think.

AS for the 'weeky' or 'WIKI' it is here:

http://aidreams.co.uk/aiwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

It would be great to see those articles on there!  I haven't had the time yet to add any content, but I know a few of us are interested now, so it's just a matter of time.  There's no real hurry anyway, but I think that between us we could make something very worthwhile.

It might run a little slow at times because the servers we are on are not that great.  If you do a long piece of work then I advise you to make a quick copy of it before you submit it, just in case anything goes wrong.  You might even be able to use the 'back' button on your browser too.  I'm looking at alternative hosting solutions, which will cost me more, but they will be worth it in terms of service I hope.

[Maviarab]

Good stuff Dante and interesting too...

Freddy, depending on cost let me know mate, I'm as involved as you in this site in a way so will hep contribute to some decent hosting if needs be

[Dante]

Eh? Me? Who?

[Maviarab]

Pah, meh, pffft and tut hehe

DOH 

[wgb14]

Ok, I guess i was partially succefull this time. I have managed to demystify the mysterious bvh format of haptek. The custom-made program that i thought Haptek is using id actually a cheap animation suite called Animation master http://www.hash.com/2007web/. It appears that, this tool is the only tool that can export bvh files in a format that the Haptek engine understands. However, i was unsuccefull in exporting my own bvh files from the tool. This is somethign that remains to be found.

So in summary in anybody wants to try Haptek's bvh, you should follow the steps below:

1)   Map a .bvh file onto the haptek skeleton format. Use Motionbuilder or Lifeforms for this. This needs to be done for each .bvh file that will be produced.

Unfortunately, a converter to automate the mapping process doesn't exist and hence, the mapping of each bvh will have to be done manually.

2)   Export the format in bvh format
3)   Import in Animation Master
4)   Export again in bvh. This will create the proper joint hierarchy for the player to read. The player should be able to read this.


BVh is a complex format and different packages produce different formats. But when COLLADA becomes a mainstream, these problems will belog to the past. Given this, and the advent of the new generation of desktop mopcap systems, the use of motion capture will become even more popular. It is only matter of time.   


 

[Freddy]

I like the look of Animation Master, it's been on my wish-list for a long time.  I found they do a yearly subscription now, which could prove handy.  I wonder if you could just cut Haptek out of the loop ?  Is there a standalone player for AM ?

[wgb14]

Unfortunately not, there is no player for Animation master. The output is a standard video file.