Animation and Rigging Tools: FAQ, Known Issues and Feature Roadmap

[anonymous_user_7d46a7d3]

I finally tracked it down, but only by doing a search of the Epic directories
Program Files\Epic Games\4.5\Engine\Extras\Maya_AnimationRiggingTools\MayaTools

[Meguido]

Yeah there you’ll find a .pdf that explains how to install it (there is not an installer :P)
Once you’re done you can go to the first page to the op and click on his dropbox link to get the more up-to-date files.

[anonymous_user_d1c65eb3]

I’m not sure if this thread is active anymore but I’d like to pose a question to the community and/or . I’ve started doing some weapon animations using the mannequin provided by epic, but I find that the proportions of the character are not entirely correct. His hands and fingers are too long, and he’s taller than a general person with his 195cm in height.

I think at some point the character was scaled up but no consideration was made to the fact that not all bodyparts should be scaled equally. A tall person does not have unproportionally large hands as an example. Is there a reason for this? Does it look better in the game fov or something? The problem I’m having is that the weapons I’ve made that have the correct scale and measurements look kind of small in the hands of this character. Maybe it doesn’t matter if you can use the same skeleton for a smaller character?

So do you guys think it’s a problem that so much content is being produced for this character that is not truly a “generic” and realistic character?

I’m not sure if I should spend time on setting up a more generic character and build my animations for that or if I should just go with the mannequin set-up.

That said, the tools are great, even though I’m having some trouble getting them to work correctly.

[ernstAlert]

@bryanz;180415

I’ve been scouting both the internet and this forum. Is there anywhere where the adding of a weapon to your character is discussed or shown ? Im having a real hard time finding out how this works. The documentation says its possible X_X

Heya! I think you’re probably talking about the export motion having the weapon animation export as well? You just need to have a namespace on your weapon via referencing and have the file location for that weapon be in a folder called “Weapons”. The tool looks for any namespaces not associated with a character that meets those conditions. Usually, on our internal projects, we just add a Weapons folder under the ART/Projects/ProjectName/

[ernstAlert]

@pwsi;181027

Hello ,

Looking to see if there is the update of ART being able to be installed in MAYA LT?

I hadn’t heard LT supports Python now. It was just MEL. If this is true, it might be possible, but they would also need to support file referencing. (Come on Autodesk!)

[ernstAlert]

@Nicolas3D;181342

Testing Blendshapes Rig while waiting for the facial modular rig by ( not so subtle wink wink )

https://.com/watch?v=aBbfNmr4MAw

nicely done! (I’m working on it!)

[ernstAlert]

@;181624

I am getting a problem with using ART inside of Maya 2015 student version.

I will get a ART rig ready to play with and I cannot open the “animation interface” tab. It just prompts me that it doesn’t detect a character in the scene, would I like to add one (even thought there is one in the scene).

Is this a conflict with 2015 and ART? Is it possible to have IK/FK control with out the animation interface menu?

Edit: This happen in Maya 2014 as well. Even after I create a new control rig using the proxy mesh.

Are you adding the character via the “Add Character for Animation” tool? If not, you’re probably opening the file, which means there won’t be a namespace for the UI to operate on.
The other problem could be the character has no thumbnail icons for some reason. This can happen if you made the rig on a different machine or someone else made it and didn’t supply the icons for you.

is it possible to have IK/FK control with out the animation interface menu?

yep! there is a node called “Rig_Settings” pretty near the top of the rig hierarchy in the outliner.

[ernstAlert]

@505lipbalm;183333

So here is how i fixed the above, First go to the auto-desk website, second search for maya 2014, third install 2014 then finally the fourth thing enjoy. Edit and scrap that it worked once and no matter what i do it crashs soo… dont sub if your just looking to get a.r.t like i did.

I don’t have a student license, so I don’t have a way to test what might be different. I know Autodesk restricts a bunch of stuff which is super annoying. Our guys have been using the tools internally with 2013 and 2014 without issue. We haven’t as a studio moved to 2015 yet, so support there is not as strong as 2013/2014. Not sure what crash you got or what was going on to get the crash.

A note about the unknown node issue. This happens when you’ve been working with the file and saving as an ascii (.ma). The tools then tries to save as a binary and it throws the unknown node issue. For now, it’s recommend to just save as a maya binary from the get go.

[ernstAlert]

@;184188

Thanks for the amazing tool. I have some feedback and bugs to report. I just updated from your dropbox before testing and re-checking these.

Feedback

• Joint Placement: The default rotations for the objects correlating to joint placement should be oriented to world space! This makes my process of placing the joints take literally over 10x longer than it should and I’m not exaggerating There doesn’t seem to be a way to zero out all their rotations and I actually have to eyeball them, then go from there… Other things I have tried break symmetry. Ideally this would be the default (0,0,0 rather than -5.132, 9.1, 0.093 for example). Fingers / Thumb is the major one here. There is an ‘auto world space’ option but it doesn’t help much.

Bugs - Occur with Maya 2013

• When you need to make a change you can’t actually go back and do it. I forgot a leaf joint I needed and now I have to start from square 1 just to add it in. It says depending on the change some weight may not be restored and so forth but when I click OK it gives this error:

# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "D:/Development/UnrealEngine-4.5.0-release/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py", line 7103, in unlock
#     continueProc = self.cacheWeights()
#   File "D:/Development/UnrealEngine-4.5.0-release/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py", line 10868, in cacheWeights
#     for i in range(int(verts)):
# ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'Nothing counted : no polygonal object is selected.' # 

• Using the OS File Dialog instead of the Maya File Dialog causes a crash without any error or warning when saving templates. A lot of people thought 2011 replaced it, it just made an alternative the default option, find it here: Preferences → Settings → Files/Projects → File Dialog.

• Sometimes the shape nodes are named _Shape instead of _DeformedShape for no transparent reason and it prevents me binding to it, have to go back to export file and duplicate the mesh and I can no longer use the original name. This happened in an entirely new file, too.

// Error: line 0: No object matches name: Facial|UV_Grps|Hair|Hair_Geo|Hair_GeoShapeDeformed // 

The name of the object I’m trying to bind and it’s hierarchy starting from world are like this: UV_Grps -> Hair -> -> Hair_Geo (-> Hair_GeoShape).

• Using an Ascii file results in an error that is unrelated to the issue, using Binary solves it - I don’t have the message on hand. Occurs near the end of the process.

Heya! Not sure entirely what you’re looking for in regard to the default joint rotations. I can’t imagine you mean all joints should be in world space? If you could provide some imagery, it might help me understand what you’re looking for there.

I wonder if that issue you’re having is also related to the shape name issue you mentioned. I have no idea why Maya would be naming your shapes all inconsistently, but the tool isn’t touching those, but it is probably expecting some consistency.
I can make a change to the dropbox files to fix this though. I can make sure that if it can’t find the vertices, it just skips and doesn’t error out for you. I’ll post an update on here when that’s done!

the ascii file throws an unknown node error when the tool goes to save as a binary. It’s an annoying Maya issue that is meant to protect the user from plugin issues, but yeah…usually just ends up being an annoyance.

[ernstAlert]

@mr.jingles;185752

I’m not sure if this thread is active anymore but I’d like to pose a question to the community and/or . I’ve started doing some weapon animations using the mannequin provided by epic, but I find that the proportions of the character are not entirely correct. His hands and fingers are too long, and he’s taller than a general person with his 195cm in height.

I think at some point the character was scaled up but no consideration was made to the fact that not all bodyparts should be scaled equally. A tall person does not have unproportionally large hands as an example. Is there a reason for this? Does it look better in the game fov or something? The problem I’m having is that the weapons I’ve made that have the correct scale and measurements look kind of small in the hands of this character. Maybe it doesn’t matter if you can use the same skeleton for a smaller character?

So do you guys think it’s a problem that so much content is being produced for this character that is not truly a “generic” and realistic character?

I’m not sure if I should spend time on setting up a more generic character and build my animations for that or if I should just go with the mannequin set-up.

That said, the tools are great, even though I’m having some trouble getting them to work correctly.

Thread is definitely active! I was just out on Thanksgiving break. I wasn’t in charge or control of the model used in the template games. I just rigged what was given to me. I agree about the proportions, but I don’t think there is anything I can do there. You can definitely use the same skeleton for a smaller character.

The Epic Skeleton thing can be really confusing. The most important thing is that people that want to make characters or animations for the marketplace use that skeleton for maximum compatibility. However, they don’t need to use the given proportions, just the same hierarchy/names. The engine has built in retargeting, so animations can work on a wide variety of proportions given the hierarchies are consistent.

[Vaei]

@;186299

Heya! Not sure entirely what you’re looking for in regard to the default joint rotations. I can’t imagine you mean all joints should be in world space? If you could provide some imagery, it might help me understand what you’re looking for there.

I wonder if that issue you’re having is also related to the shape name issue you mentioned. I have no idea why Maya would be naming your shapes all inconsistently, but the tool isn’t touching those, but it is probably expecting some consistency.
I can make a change to the dropbox files to fix this though. I can make sure that if it can’t find the vertices, it just skips and doesn’t error out for you. I’ll post an update on here when that’s done!

the ascii file throws an unknown node error when the tool goes to save as a binary. It’s an annoying Maya issue that is meant to protect the user from plugin issues, but yeah…usually just ends up being an annoyance.

Here is an image, you could pretend it’s a finger:

I’d just like the option to have the rotations at 0,0,0 because unless it gets them perfect when generating them it’ll cause me a lot more trouble than it’ll save me.

As for the shape names, are you sure it’s Maya? By default something that I name Character, the shape node will automatically rename to CharacterShape, however for some reason your script expects the shape node to be named CharacterDeformedShape and modifying geometry or what not then trying to re-use that name causes your script not to try and name it CharacterDeformedShape but it’s still looking for it rather than CharacterShape. Is this something that Maya does for shapes that are referenced and have weighting?

The other thing… The hand pivots are generated based on fingers. That’s fine, until your character is missing fingers. It appears the rig where the character has a thumb and a mitt doesn’t get the hand pivots for unused fingers. Since I used Index instead of Middle, I miss the hand pivot, and the pinky pivot.

[ernstAlert]

@;186379

Here is an image, you could pretend it’s a finger:

http://i.imgur.com/DJET9vX.jpg

I’d just like the option to have the rotations at 0,0,0 because unless it gets them perfect when generating them it’ll cause me a lot more trouble than it’ll save me.

As for the shape names, are you sure it’s Maya? By default something that I name Character, the shape node will automatically rename to CharacterShape, however for some reason your script expects the shape node to be named CharacterDeformedShape and modifying geometry or what not then trying to re-use that name causes your script not to try and name it CharacterDeformedShape but it’s still looking for it rather than CharacterShape. Is this something that Maya does for shapes that are referenced and have weighting?

The other thing… The hand pivots are generated based on fingers. That’s fine, until your character is missing fingers. It appears the rig where the character has a thumb and a mitt doesn’t get the hand pivots for unused fingers. Since I used Index instead of Middle, I miss the hand pivot, and the pinky pivot.

I see. Thank you for posting the image! That clarifies it perfectly. You’re referring specifically to the child joints. I thought you wanted all joints in world space and that made no sense!

As for the shape names, are you sure it’s Maya?
Nothing in the script looks for any hardcoded names. That function in particular is looking for the following crit:

#go through each found skin cluster, and if we find a skin cluster whose geometry matches our selection, get influences
                    for cluster in skinClusters:
                        geometry = cmds.skinCluster(cluster, q = True, g = True)[0]
                        geoTransform = cmds.listRelatives(geometry, parent = True)[0]


                        if geoTransform == geo:
                            f = open(path, 'w')
                            skinCluster = cluster

EDIT: To explain this snippet, it goes through each skinCluster you have in the scene, and queries the geometry of that skinCluster. That geometry is actually the name of the shape node. It then queries the parent of that, which is the transform node you see in the outliner and saves weights out with that transform node’s name. The fact your model is possibly referenced from what I can gather, might be causing this issues.

Is this something that Maya does for shapes that are referenced and have weighting?
possibly. So your mesh is being referenced into the file and you’re placing joints to that? I’m not sure how that will work out to be honest. Never tested that workflow, but I imagine the deformation tools won’t work for you in that case.

As for the hand pivots, I just confirmed this. The hand pivots still exist, but they get hidden when those fingers aren’t chosen. I’ll need to fix that.
In the meantime, you can select them with the following mel commands:

select l_hand_mid_pivot;
select r_hand_mid_pivot;
select l_hand_tip_pivot;
select r_hand_tip_pivot;
select l_hand_pinky_pivot;
select r_hand_pinky_pivot;

[anonymous_user_cad1c303]

@;186293

Are you adding the character via the “Add Character for Animation” tool? If not, you’re probably opening the file, which means there won’t be a namespace for the UI to operate on.
The other problem could be the character has no thumbnail icons for some reason. This can happen if you made the rig on a different machine or someone else made it and didn’t supply the icons for you.

is it possible to have IK/FK control with out the animation interface menu?

yep! there is a node called “Rig_Settings” pretty near the top of the rig hierarchy in the outliner.

The character is a maya file that was given to me. I found out that the icons where causing me problems before you replied. The sample mannequin file assets were using some peach skinned proxy icons instead. I basically copied and pasted the mannequin icons to that same location and replaced the peach skinned proxy ones. But I am afraid that this didn’t work.

When I try to add the character via “Add Character for Animation” tool I get prompted to find the reference of the “Mannequin_Export.mb” in D:/Build/UE4-Releases/4.0/Engine/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/…

My ART tools folder is not located here. So I redirect the reference to the “Mannequin_Export.mb” file located in another path location. I fix the reference error and resave the file. I reopen the “Mannequin.mb” file to animate him and the animation interface does not open. There is no “Rig_Settings” node in here either.

So I think my assets for the Mannequin rig are incomplete or corrupted. Even when I fix the reference file conflicts and open the Mannequin.mb I still have no “Rig_Settings” node in the outliner. I do have the “Rig_Settings” node for 2 separate character files that do not use the Mannequin sample rig, but their own custom created rig. One of those works perfectly since it was created on my own machine, while the other animation interface does not open (not a big deal since it has the “Rig_Settings” node instead).

So I don’t have an idea on what to do next. For this mannequin related issue. I have no standard to reference from, since I do not have the original UE4 file assets.

To try and avoid future problems. What should I ask my clients to provide to me in the future? A couple of the file maya files I have received at least have the “Rig_Settings” node inside the file. But what can I ask for, that will allow the “Animation_Interface” to be opened and used? Is there a standard pipeline with clients working on the same character for animation that are not using source control with one character asset? All I receive is a maya file with a ART rigged character inside of it and told to animate it.

Edit: Sorry . I didn’t see your comment in my question thread somewhere else. So let me ask on how can I create the icons for this mannequin project? So far I have copied the “Mannequin.bmp and the Mannequin_small.bmp” from a skeleton ART folder to my working ART thumbnail folder. Is that all that is needed?

I have gotten better success when I copied these files. I have went through the process of adding the Mannequin sample for animation into a new empty maya scene, with no errors. The animation interface does open, with no errors. I save the file out and close out maya and reopen the scene, the animation interface is open when start up is finished, with no errors.

But I still can’t manipulate the rigs FK/IK option.

I get this error when I click “FK Mode” in the interface…

“# Error: ValueError: file E:/Autodesk/UE4/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_animationUI.py line 6274: No object matches name: Mannequin:hand_match_loc_l”

I also don’t have the “Rig_Settings” node for this Mannequin for some reason.

[Covah]

I’d just like to say the rigging tools are great.

[anonymous_user_d1c65eb3]

Thanks , that sounds reasonable. I haven’t tried the retargeting features of UE4 yet but it sounds like that’s what I want. And I applaud your dedication to your community. Thanks for a quick reply.

[Drocks]

I am new to the animation tool and have a fairly noobish question

When I rig a character in Maya using the tool, the character is facing down Y.
The character is then brought into UE4 and needs to be rotated 270 degrees to face forward down X.
I mainly want to make sure this is intended behavior and that Im not missing something that might trip me up later.

Thanks!

[anonymous_user_cad1c303]

@Drocks;187044

I am new to the animation tool and have a fairly noobish question

When I rig a character in Maya using the tool, the character is facing down Y.
The character is then brought into UE4 and needs to be rotated 270 degrees to face forward down X.
I mainly want to make sure this is intended behavior and that Im not missing something that might trip me up later.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2u4hide.jpg

Thanks!

Are your FBX export settings exporting with Z asix up?

[Spaehling]

Hey Guys,

i know Maya 15 is not supported, but today i update Maya 15 from SP2 to SP5. And now it crashes on save. Latest when you create the Controll-Rig.
A friend of mine is using maya 15 with SP4 and has no problems. its no big deal for me, i go back to maya 14 as long.

I still wanna warn you, to update your Maya. Did someone else got the same Problem, with SP5?

greetz Spähling

[Drocks]

@;187065

Are your FBX export settings exporting with Z asix up?

Thanks for the response
Yeah, I have Z as my up axis in Maya’s general settings and up axis is set to Z in my FBX export settings.
Are you getting different behavior to this? I see the 3rd person template character mesh is rotated 270 degrees (or -90) too.

I should add that my character is coming into Unreal in the exact same orientation as it left maya, so that is pretty much expected behaviour.
Im more curious why the rigging tool orients a character facing down Y when the forward direction in UE4 is X, meanning a 90 degree rotation is needed to bring the character mesh in line.

[ernstAlert]

@;186844

The character is a maya file that was given to me. I found out that the icons where causing me problems before you replied. The sample mannequin file assets were using some peach skinned proxy icons instead. I basically copied and pasted the mannequin icons to that same location and replaced the peach skinned proxy ones. But I am afraid that this didn’t work.

When I try to add the character via “Add Character for Animation” tool I get prompted to find the reference of the “Mannequin_Export.mb” in D:/Build/UE4-Releases/4.0/Engine/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/…

My ART tools folder is not located here. So I redirect the reference to the “Mannequin_Export.mb” file located in another path location. I fix the reference error and resave the file. I reopen the “Mannequin.mb” file to animate him and the animation interface does not open. There is no “Rig_Settings” node in here either.

So I think my assets for the Mannequin rig are incomplete or corrupted. Even when I fix the reference file conflicts and open the Mannequin.mb I still have no “Rig_Settings” node in the outliner. I do have the “Rig_Settings” node for 2 separate character files that do not use the Mannequin sample rig, but their own custom created rig. One of those works perfectly since it was created on my own machine, while the other animation interface does not open (not a big deal since it has the “Rig_Settings” node instead).

So I don’t have an idea on what to do next. For this mannequin related issue. I have no standard to reference from, since I do not have the original UE4 file assets.

To try and avoid future problems. What should I ask my clients to provide to me in the future? A couple of the file maya files I have received at least have the “Rig_Settings” node inside the file. But what can I ask for, that will allow the “Animation_Interface” to be opened and used? Is there a standard pipeline with clients working on the same character for animation that are not using source control with one character asset? All I receive is a maya file with a ART rigged character inside of it and told to animate it.

Edit: Sorry . I didn’t see your comment in my question thread somewhere else. So let me ask on how can I create the icons for this mannequin project? So far I have copied the “Mannequin.bmp and the Mannequin_small.bmp” from a skeleton ART folder to my working ART thumbnail folder. Is that all that is needed?

I have gotten better success when I copied these files. I have went through the process of adding the Mannequin sample for animation into a new empty maya scene, with no errors. The animation interface does open, with no errors. I save the file out and close out maya and reopen the scene, the animation interface is open when start up is finished, with no errors.

But I still can’t manipulate the rigs FK/IK option.

I get this error when I click “FK Mode” in the interface…

“# Error: ValueError: file E:/Autodesk/UE4/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_animationUI.py line 6274: No object matches name: Mannequin:hand_match_loc_l”

I also don’t have the “Rig_Settings” node for this Mannequin for some reason.

For the mannequin, you probably should edit that export file and just rebuild the rig, that way your paths are baked in, instead of what it comes with. Maya’s reference path handling is…frustrating…
For the other possible issues related to that file, were you given an export file? (mannequin_export?) if so, you can open that if you have the tools, and rebuild yourself. this will get you the icons you need and ensure the rig is proper.

If you are getting this file elsewhere, the files you would need to ask for are the following: character_export.mb, character.mb, character.bmp, character_small.bmp. The icons are found in MayaTools/General/Icons/ART/Thumbnails/ProjectName.

Edit: Sorry . I didn’t see your comment in my question thread somewhere else. So let me ask on how can I create the icons for this mannequin project? So far I have copied the “Mannequin.bmp and the Mannequin_small.bmp” from a skeleton ART folder to my working ART thumbnail folder. Is that all that is needed?

This should work! In fact, as long as there are two bmp files in there (one with _small suffix), that have the character name, everything will work great.

**I get this error when I click “FK Mode” in the interface…

“# Error: ValueError: file E:/Autodesk/UE4/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_animationUI.py line 6274: No object matches name: Mannequin:hand_match_loc_l”**

It does sound like this rig needs to be rebuilt. It doesn’t have all of the needed nodes. It’s possible it was built on an old version of the code(4-5 months back at least). Is it possible to have your source rebuild that file for you, making sure they’re on the same code drop you are?