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

[ernstAlert]

@wertstoffsack;339305

Hi ,

thanky for your reply and adding the sorting of the *.txt files to your trello board.

Maybe you could also package the post-script.py for the 4.8 mannequin with the download updates?

When trying a re-export of the 4.8 mannequin, A.R.T. will pop-up a warning for a missing post-script, I guess it´s the one you
shared earlier in this thread.

Having those extra IK bones by default (or as post-script option) seems to be very desireable for pulling off things like adjusted hand positions
on weapon grips per weapon/character and the likes. I think there is a tutorial outlining the process, probably a snippet from a Fortnite stream?

I can´t find the link anymore but there is also a good chance I mix things up…

Cheers,

Good call. I will add the post script as well. The reason it isn’t part of the actual build from the start is because I don’t actually want any rig controls on them, as they are for procedural stuff, and I don’t have a way currently to mark a leaf joint added by the tools to not get rigging.

Thanks!

[ernstAlert]

@wertstoffsack;339461

Here´s another error for Maya 2015sp6Ext1, win7x64:

Error: RuntimeError: file [Drive]:/UNREAL_database/Epic Games/4.8/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_exportMotion.py line 791: Invalid file type specified: FBX export

It seems something in the Maya FBX import/export options has changed.

If I try to import Mocap (like from an *.fbx exported from Unreal, any of the animation pack samples) onto the 4.8 Mannequin, instead of getting the animation onto the character like in your learning video,
the Maya fbx import pops up and hitting import there just results in a new rig in the scene with the animation on that.

no (re-)mapping like in your import/export video happens.

Maybe I get it wrong but I had thought importing animation via “mocap” onto a character first pulled in via “add character for animation” would let me import animation sequences exported from unreal into Maya?

…

Somehow, the whole import and export of animation via *.fbx (using your import and export buttons, generally, writing *.fbx via export or export selected works) seems broken?

Not sure if I completely follow, and I haven’t run that version of Maya with the extension yet, but I tried exporting an animation from 2016, and it went flawlessly, which tells me it’s not an issue of the command being deprecated.
Make sure you have the FBX plugin loaded. It likes to unload itself sometimes. Just unload and reload, and if it still doesn’t work, back up your prefs, then delete them and restart. It definitely seems like an issue with the FBX plugin though.

I tried importing from an FBX exported from the engine animation starter pack (4.8.1) and it worked flawlessly as well (except the animation had some bad twist settings!). One more thing, in 2016, and possibly 2015 ext 1, I had to change the default FBX exporter to use 2014/2015 FBX, as I found while testing something for someone else, that the engine doesn’t seem like it fully supports FBX 2016 yet and won’t properly bring in files.
Dropbox - FBX_Import_Issue_RESOLVED.mp4 - Simplify your life?

Here’s a vid of the recording from 2016 test I just did:
Dropbox - importExport2016.mp4 - Simplify your life?

[Lcsiov]

Hi all,

I’ve skimmed through the thread but couldn’t find an answer. I have my character skinned and ready to build a rig for. However, when I press the ‘Build Rig Control’ button it goes through the normal process of naming and screenshot the character, etc, but then it saves the current file and loads a blank one, and does not generate anything. Just sits there at 0%. I think I’m just missing a simple step, but perhaps not?

I’m on Maya 2015. Any help would be much appreciated!

[ernstAlert]

@Marteeka;339756

Hey ,
I know you can move the clavicle by linking it to the hand controls, but I wanted to move the clavicle independently. Are there options for moving joints independently.

sure! You can put the clavicle in FK mode by right clicking the clavicle button on the picker, and choosing FK.

[ernstAlert]

@wertstoffsack;340202

Hi ,

there seems to be a problem with the rig´s left arm and the left hand bone at least. There´s flipping/twist introduced somewhere, either in export to *.fbx or the rig itself?

Examples where this affects resulting animation would be the Death_1, Death_2, Death_3 Animations from the Animation Starter pack.

–

Is there a way to get ART to create a T-Pose that will work for HIK? HIK is ******** about the arm bones not parallel to x even when using the ART T-Pose?

Is there any chance you could consider not forcing Z up for at least the ART 2.0 update?

Motionbuilder (2015) doesn´t support working in Z up. It seems actually hardcoded to Y up. It´s difficult to constantly switch Maya between Z up and Y up depending on project or task at hand
or manage multiple environments for the same user easily, e.g. 30fps/Zup, 24fps/Yup, etc.

Maybe, a future version of UE will support alembic, quads, subdivision, Y up, customized fps settings and the likes to cater to requirements/limitations outside the games realm so it would be nice to have Z not hardcoded.

Cheers,

-----------edit---------------

The HIK mapping problem for the rig created using the 4.8 mannequin template settings (+.txt files) and an auto T-Pose inside Maya 2015sp6Ext1 does not show in Motionbuilder 2015.
The exact same rig (the skeleton) will not map to HIK/Maya but a *.fbx export from that will map to HIK in Motionbuilder for me?

There is a good chance I miss something or there is a setting in the way preventing Maya from completing properly.

In any way, this clouds my joy and once again helps me believe Maya´s primary function is to torture, by generally stopping just short enough of solving any type of problem at all in an easy way.

This must be hell

Haha, your last bit is so true.

I have never tried HIK working with the rig. Mostly because from past experiences, it only works in Y up from what I recall, which put the ground plane according to it, smack through the center of the character.
Can you further elaborate on what you mean by the twist on the left arm? Any examples you can show? The code is the same for both sides, so unless there was an issue at setup (like changing the orientation of a twist joint or something) it should be all good.

The Z/Y up thing is tough to shoe-horn in, as there are parts of the rig build that are assuming world coordinates for how to do certain things. In V2, this is already implemented currently, but I do worry about it not being as reliable as Z up, since that’s what everything is developed in internally.

As for the other import formats and settings, some of that is being addressed and worked on, but I’m not sure all of that is. My advice would be to create a proper answerhub ticket for that so that we can make sure the engine team sees it. Some of it may even currently be possible, but someone from engine would be better to give you answers there!

[ernstAlert]

@ZioYuri78;341741

Have another problem here, i can’t save after import or export an animation.

oh man, someone else had this problem and I can’t remember what the fix was. I think they deleted their prefs? Try backing up and deleting your prefs and see if that resolves it. I wish there was an easy way to search this thread

[ernstAlert]

@;341926

Getting an error using the Ghost Pose functionality. When I try to snap the new ghost pose, it gives me this error (stack trace included). The pose deletes ok when I hit ‘close’.

// Error: Could not add constraint or connections.
# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "C:/Projects/MyProj/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_poseEditor.py", line 2021, in ghostPose_snap
#     constraint = cmds.pointConstraint(loc, self.character + ":" + control)[0]
# RuntimeError: Could not add constraint or connections. //

I’m using 2016 so that could be the issue.

I tested in 2016 just now and it seems to work without error. That error sounds like one of the rig controls it’s trying to work with already has a constraint on it, preventing the snap from happening. I’d check your controls to make sure none of them have a constraint to anything else.

[ernstAlert]

@wertstoffsack;340202

Hi ,

there seems to be a problem with the rig´s left arm and the left hand bone at least. There´s flipping/twist introduced somewhere, either in export to *.fbx or the rig itself?

Examples where this affects resulting animation would be the Death_1, Death_2, Death_3 Animations from the Animation Starter pack.

–

Is there a way to get ART to create a T-Pose that will work for HIK? HIK is ******** about the arm bones not parallel to x even when using the ART T-Pose?

Is there any chance you could consider not forcing Z up for at least the ART 2.0 update?

Motionbuilder (2015) doesn´t support working in Z up. It seems actually hardcoded to Y up. It´s difficult to constantly switch Maya between Z up and Y up depending on project or task at hand
or manage multiple environments for the same user easily, e.g. 30fps/Zup, 24fps/Yup, etc.

Maybe, a future version of UE will support alembic, quads, subdivision, Y up, customized fps settings and the likes to cater to requirements/limitations outside the games realm so it would be nice to have Z not hardcoded.

Cheers,

-----------edit---------------

The HIK mapping problem for the rig created using the 4.8 mannequin template settings (+.txt files) and an auto T-Pose inside Maya 2015sp6Ext1 does not show in Motionbuilder 2015.
The exact same rig (the skeleton) will not map to HIK/Maya but a *.fbx export from that will map to HIK in Motionbuilder for me?

There is a good chance I miss something or there is a setting in the way preventing Maya from completing properly.

In any way, this clouds my joy and once again helps me believe Maya´s primary function is to torture, by generally stopping just short enough of solving any type of problem at all in an easy way.

This must be hell

@'[Epic

;342203’]Haha, your last bit is so true.

I have never tried HIK working with the rig. Mostly because from past experiences, it only works in Y up from what I recall, which put the ground plane according to it, smack through the center of the character.
Can you further elaborate on what you mean by the twist on the left arm? Any examples you can show? The code is the same for both sides, so unless there was an issue at setup (like changing the orientation of a twist joint or something) it should be all good.

The Z/Y up thing is tough to shoe-horn in, as there are parts of the rig build that are assuming world coordinates for how to do certain things. In V2, this is already implemented currently, but I do worry about it not being as reliable as Z up, since that’s what everything is developed in internally.

As for the other import formats and settings, some of that is being addressed and worked on, but I’m not sure all of that is. My advice would be to create a proper answerhub ticket for that so that we can make sure the engine team sees it. Some of it may even currently be possible, but someone from engine would be better to give you answers there!

Just realized that one of the videos i recorded earlier had this twist issue, but I ignored it as it wasn’t what I was trying to test!

It seems to only happen when importing FBX animation from the engine or some other source, it when I looked at the wrist values here, you can see why the twist is jacked!

236 on rotateX seems wrong Since the engine is going from quats to euler, I imagine there must be some conversions that happen sometimes that are not correct. When I adjusted the curve down to get the same pose, the twist now looked correct:

[ZioYuri78]

@'[Epic

;342170’]This is a Maya thing unfortunately. For some reason, Maya uses hard-coded paths to references instead of relative paths.
The checkbox should keep those changes, but in cases where it doesn’t, I’ll go to the reference editor and make sure the resolved and unresolved names are the same, which will fix the issue:

@'[Epic

;342205’]oh man, someone else had this problem and I can’t remember what the fix was. I think they deleted their prefs? Try backing up and deleting your prefs and see if that resolves it. I wish there was an easy way to search this thread

Thank for reply

[anonymous_user_16cddeb7]

Yes, I’ll overhaul the primary post with directions. The dropbox connect just has scripts and symbols and not the complete toolset to eliminate size. You’ll have to duplicate the substance to your unique introduce area. Much obliged!

[anonymous_user_fe44a3cf]

Just saw the latest update to your blog ! Some pretty cool looking stuff! Keep up the good work and thanks for the update!

ArtTool V2 HYPE!
http://jeremyernst.com/devblog/

[anonymous_user_cd0f4901]

I am having a problem with my rig. I rigged in the T-pose because the Ik/Fk matching was not working whenever I rigged in a rest pose. But now, whenever I want to key the ik/fk switch, Maya crashes. Is this an known issue or do I have a broken rig?

[wertstoffsack]

Hi ,

in your importExport2016.mp4, you successfully import “Reload_Shotgun_Ironsights”.

I´m desperately trying to recreate your result, both in Maya 2015sp6Ext1 and Maya 2016sp1. For me, every time that ****** *.fbx dialog pops up (see 6)) and I don´t get the animation onto the character.

1. I´m getting the 4.8 Mannequin Character to import Mocap onto via EpicGames>Add Character for Animation
2. In the ART menue I click on Import Motion
3. I get # Error: WindowsError: file Drive:/UNREAL_database/Epic Games/4.8/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_importMotion.py line 279: 267 #
4. The Import Motion Browser pops up anyway
5. I browse to Reload_Shotgun_Ironsights.FBX, which I get from Content/AnimationStarterpack>Reload_Shotgun_Ironsights and RMB>Asset Actions>Move>Export
6. That shmf fbx dialog pops up and prompts to import, I try all sorts of different settings and hit import
7. something -1 to 0 happens to my timeline but nothing to the rig, depending on the import dialog settings for *.fbx, I get a copy of the skeleton in the scene.

Is there a chance you have a custom *.fbx sdk build on your side that suppresses the *.fbx file import dialog window, or maybe a prefs setting that does that?

On my side, I deleted prefs for both Maya 2015sp6Ext1 and Maya 2016, saved jointmover.mb with 2015 and made sure that the *.txt file and *.py in the prefs>scripts are there and point to where they should?

Also, in another video, you show how to set export to FBX 2014, that I can repro but how would one set import to FBX 2014?

Cheers,

[Efrye]

@'[Epic

;342157’]confirmed this is the case. I think I know what might have happened here. I’ll add it to the trello board and let you know when it’s been addressed.
Thanks!

Trello

Thanks , as always it’s much appreciated!

I got one more question: I can’t find a way to scale a character for animation. We are using one rig for all female characters, one for male characters, one for children, et cetera. However, not all female characters are going to have the same height. We can scale them in Unreal of course, but if the character is interacting with the scene or with another character, we also need to scale them in Maya to get the animation right. Is there a scaling option in the rig somewhere and I just can’t find it? Or a workaround maybe? Scaling the “master_anim_space_switcher_follow” group kinda works, but it looks like it only scales the transform of the joints, not the actual scale values. If scaling currently isn’t possible at all, are there any plans to add it to V2?

Edit: Ok, maybe it wasn’t just one more questions after all. Here’s another: I created some custom joints for facial animation by adding joints in the export file and control objects in the rig file. However, animation created on those controls doesn’t get exported or imported with the “Import/Export Motion” tool. Is it possible to get it to work by setting up the control objects in a certain way? Or do I have to create those joints as “rig modules” during the rig creation process?

Edit2: One more, but this will definitely be the last! I found that having references in my scene that are not ART characters will destroy some functionality of the plugin. For example I can no longer import animations until I remove any non-ART references. In some cases I could no longer export either. The error message I get is: "# Error: WindowsError: file C:/…/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_importMotion.py line 1547: 123 # "

Thanks again, and sorry if any of this was answered before. I searched in this thread but couldn’t find anything on those topics.

[anonymous_user_db4b52f5]

I have installed the last version 4.8.3 but I can’t find the ART in mac…

[fxsrt10]

Hey I’ve run into the following issue with the tool (version from 4.8) and I have at least a workaround for it, but its a little strange to say the least:

1. Imported a animation from the AnimMoveSetPro pack and edited
2. Exported like normal
3. Unreal can’t import the animation properly
4. Take animation and import FBX directly into maya
5. Notice that the visibility of the bones are keyed off so break connection and revert to on in order to see it
6. Rexport with the bones selected
7. Unreal can now import the file.

I’m not sure where the issue lies? But that worked for me at least, granted a little annoyed I have to take such a round about way to do it.

Also another issue I have is that I can’t save to either Maya ASCII nor Maya Binary(Student editions 2014-6)

[AntonioE]

When skinning, I like sometimes to rotate the joints to specific values and when I’m done , I use the “Assume Model Pose” option under the “Reference Pose Manager” to reset the pose, but it doesn’t seem to work with the twist joints, and I have to zero out the rotations manually. Any chance of adding the twist joints to this functionality? Thanks!

[Vaei]

Is the OSX and Windows version of this compatible with each other? Got another person doing the setup in Maya on OSX, want to make sure windows can modify the files.

Also , hate to bring this up once again but I took your suggestion about setting the group rotations to 0,0,0 so that they weren’t on weird angles when I started positioning them. The problem is, the rotations on these groups don’t appear to be saved anywhere? Is it possible to have an option “Rotations to World Space” or something that it can remember?

[Torabi]

Space switching on IK joints doesn’t work properly. You can change it once but then no matter how many times you change it afterwards it doesn’t apply. Forcing me to reload the rig. Also is there a way to get rid of the annoying missing file dialogue box whenever I load the mannequin? I could fix it before but I can’t remember how. Since the export file is so hidden away it is annoying to browse to the folder and tell it to load the file every time I want to animate the mannequin.

[CriErr]

guys, after import any animation from art tool into UE4 for mannequin and making montage from it
it plays like that vid
with those blend mode montage setup pic
but if just play animation which montage based on, everything is fine vid
how to fix that?