From FaceGen to MakeHuman

[Gandra]

Hi all,

I'm a new mesher, so a newbie with all three of the programs I'm using. I've read through the MakeHuman FAQ, but it's not helping with this.

So, I'm trying to use FaceGen with MakeHuman. I made my FaceGen face and then switched to FaceGen's MakeHuman model set, and exported what FaceGen calls a MakeHuman OBJ. I imported the OBJ into Blender. So far, so good.

Using the MakeTarget plugin for Blender proved a little more challenging. vscorpianc's tutorial walked me through the process, and I can see "Firsttest" in my Modelling->Custom panel, but when I slide the Firsttest slider, it simply does nothing.

Is the custom folder really the right place to put this? It worked for vscorpianc, but she was doing something different by making an eyelid move. The FaceGen object really seems more like a custom topology than like something along the lines of Eyes_out (which works fine on my system, btw). The topolgies aren't targets, though, so I can't just toss it in with the topolgies.

Perhaps there is simply something wrong with my .target file? FaceGen support told me they weren't sure these meshes worked with the latest MakeHuman. Perhaps Blender just obediently processed something which was never going to work?

Any other ideas?

[blindsaypatten]

Does FaceGen create a whole-body mesh using the MakeHuman base mesh with the head shaped the way you want? If so, generating a target should be straight-forward using the Set As Base and then Load from Mesh features. I'm guessing it must or MakeTarget would have been unable to produce a target. The custom folder is the right place for it. A target that does nothing can be generated in several ways when you have multiple targets/shape-keys going in Blender. Did you use the Set As Base and Load From Mesh method to create the target?

It would be much easier for other people to figure out if you posted a sample mesh. Trying to guess what your mesh looks like, what happened in MakeTarget, etc. etc. is rather difficult.

[Gandra]

Thanks for responding. Sure, I'd be glad to share the files. This is the OBJ file that FaceGen exported.
There is also a .mtl file which I'm not allowed to upload for some reason. I suppose that has the materials information. I didn't actually apply any materials, though.

This is a full-body mesh with FaceGen's head as the head, and it looks more or less correct when I open it in Blender.

As to what all I clicked on, I did use Set as Base at some point, but I may well have chosen the wrong options. I deleted the default objects, imported FaceGen's export, and then followed the tutorial as closely as possible. It exported a .target file

Apparently I can't attach .target files here, so I can't attach it, but MakeHuman seems to find it all right. The problem is that it just doesn't work, which does rather suggest that my issues are with Blender ... this is my lunch hour, so I'll give it another try.

I appreciate your taking an interest. If I get this solved, maybe I can do a video tutorial to walk through the whole process.

[brkurt]

Thanks for responding. Sure, I'd be glad to share the files. This is the OBJ file that FaceGen exported.
There is also a .mtl file which I'm not allowed to upload for some reason. I suppose that has the materials information. I didn't actually apply any materials, though.

This is a full-body mesh with FaceGen's head as the head, and it looks more or less correct when I open it in Blender.

As to what all I clicked on, I did use Set as Base at some point, but I may well have chosen the wrong options. I deleted the default objects, imported FaceGen's export, and then followed the tutorial as closely as possible. It exported a .target file

Apparently I can't attach .target files here, so I can't attach it, but MakeHuman seems to find it all right. The problem is that it just doesn't work, which does rather suggest that my issues are with Blender ... this is my lunch hour, so I'll give it another try.

I appreciate your taking an interest. If I get this solved, maybe I can do a video tutorial to walk through the whole process.

Good news here, the object is 100% quads, 13,378 polygons. I'm assuming this started in Makehuman then was alterged in FaceGen.

[Gandra]

No, actually. I'm not sure that's possible. FaceGen doesn't appear to import, only export.

This one began as a FaceGen face with the MakeHuman-compatible model set applied. Then I exported it as an OBJ. That much is right out of FaceGen's playbook:

https://facegen.com/addonsSets.htm

Apparently they don't support this any more, but that's how it's supposed to work. The Blender side of things is harder. I've started the project over from the beginning, so maybe I'll have something more to report soon.

[Gandra]

I have not figured this out, but I think I'm making progress on gathering more information. Now I'm winging it instead of following a tutorial. So, open Blender, delete default box and camera, import FaceGen's export. It looks okay, for whatever that's worth.

Click "Set as Base." It seems to work. The UI transforms, at any rate.

Click "Load Target From Mesh." Here I get an error. It says that I must load two meshes.

I'm guessing that a target requires a "from" mesh and a "to" mesh. I'm not sure what happened when I followed the tutorial, but if the from and to meshes were identical, then naturally the resulting .target file would do nothing.

The tooltip says: Make selected mesh a shapekey of active mesh. So I think I need an "active mesh" which is the bare MakeHuman default and a "selected mesh" which is the export from FaceGen. Does that sound right?

In the python code, it looks like this error is given whenever the variable trg isn't set, which can be caused by any number of things. This active vs. selected thing seems like a promising path to explore, though.

I am gonna figure this out and create a guide so that nobody else has to suffer.

[joepal]

At some point I'd like it explained if/how a proprietary program bundles a GPL-licensed base mesh though. a8_v74 comes from blendertools (ie maketarget/makeclothes), which are licensed GPL2.

[Antiqua_Sphinge]

At some point I'd like it explained if/how a proprietary program bundles a GPL-licensed base mesh though. a8_v74 comes from blendertools (ie maketarget/makeclothes), which are licensed GPL2.

Perhaps greed is the how?

The company in question appears to be located in Ontario.

[wolgade]

At some point I'd like it explained if/how a proprietary program bundles a GPL-licensed base mesh though. a8_v74 comes from blendertools (ie maketarget/makeclothes), which are licensed GPL2.

The explanation is simple: They don't expect to get sued by an open source project. In most cases this assumption proves to be right.

[blindsaypatten]

Gandra,

I worked through this and got it mostly working:
Start blender
Delete cube
Import FaceGen .obj file
Select the mesh
Switch to Edit Mode
Right click on a vertex on the hand
Cntl-L to select linked vertices
Cntl-I to invert selection
X to delete selected, click on Vertices
Return to Object Mode
Switch to an empty layer
In the MakeTarget panel select Base Mesh and click Load Human
Select the loaded mesh (it is probably already selected)
On the modifiers tab of the Properties window Add Modifier Shrink Wrap
In the Shrink Wrap panel click the cube under Target: and select Surf0
Switch to the Object data tab (triangle) and under Shape Keys click on Basis and then click the - (minus) button to the right to delete the Basis shapekey
Switch to Edit Mode
Select a vertex in the main body mesh and Cntl-L to select linked and Cntl-I to invert selection
X to delete all the parts of the mesh that aren't part of the body mesh, click on Vertices
Switch to Object Mode
Switch back to the modifiers tab and click Apply to apply the Shrink Wrap modifier

You now have a mesh that is close to the shape of your imported FaceGen mesh*

Switch to an empty layer
In the Outliner window click on Surf0 so that the Load Human Mesh button appears in the MakeTarget panel
Select Base Mesh and click Load Human
Switch back to the second layer where the mesh you created with shrink wrap is and select the mesh
Switch back to the third layer and Shift-right-click to make the loaded human mesh the active object
Click the Load Target From Mesh button
Click the Save Target As button and save it to your custom folder.

* There are a few complications here, parts of the interior of the mouth shrank wrapped to the upper lip and something happened to the eyes. I think you can use a vertex group on the Shrink Wrap modifier to avoid moving of the interior parts of the mesh. Or you can select only the parts of the mesh that you want to morph and use the Selected Vertices Only option when you save the target.

To use the target in MakeHuman download this target: http://www.makehumancommunity.org/targe ... fixed.html to your custom folder. This will morph the startup character to the base mesh, and your new target will then morph the base mesh to the FaceGen generated mesh. You may want to also download http://www.makehumancommunity.org/targe ... _only.html and use that to change the body to a regular female body with the FaceGen head.

Hope it works for you! I've attached a zip file with the three targets. It doesn't deal with the interior of the mouth issue but proves the process is doable.