MakeHuman Community Wiki - User contributions [en]

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T17:02:13Z

Robbaer:

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community. If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community. Click Finish. There should be a shortcut to start MakeHuman on both the desktop and within the startup folder.

In all cases, MakeHuman related assets should by default be found in:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\makehuman\v1py3.
Or, if you have OneDrive enabled, this may be"
"C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive\Documents\makehuman\v1py3", instead.

If you are using Blender 2.83 or beyond, you may also wish to install some helpful plugins for using MakeHuman with Blender. Start Blender and choose, Edit | Preferences | Add-ons and click the Install button at the top. Navigate to the folder where you extracted the downloaded MakeHuman and go into the folder addons_for_blender_28x, click to select makehuman-plugins-for-blender.zip, makeclothes2.zip, makeskin.zip, and maketarget2.zip. Click Install Add-on. Click the check box to make this plugin available from within Blender. As desired, repeat the process for the makeclothes2.zip, the makeskin.zip, and the maketarget2.zip plugins. With the cursor over the Blender 3D viewport, press "N" to reveal tabs on the right side of the viewport for accessing these tools.

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from [https://github.com/makehumancommunity/makehuman GitHub]. This requires that you have installed python 3. and a set of other dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:53:29Z

Robbaer: /* Windows 10/11 */

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community. If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community. Click Finish. There should be a shortcut to start MakeHuman on both the desktop and within the startup folder.

In all cases, MakeHuman related assets should by default be found in:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\makehuman\v1py3.
Or, if you have OneDrive enabled, this may be"
"C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive\Documents\makehuman\v1py3", instead.

If you are using Blender 2.83 or beyond, you may also wish to install some helpful plugins for using MakeHuman with Blender. Start Blender and choose, Edit | Preferences | Add Ons and click the Install button at the top. Navigate to the folder where you extracted the downloaded MakeHuman and go into the folder addons_for_blender_28x, click to select makehuman-plugins-for-blender.zip, makeclothes2.zip, makeskin.zip, and maketarget2.zip. Click Install Add-on. Click the check box to make this plugin available from within Blender. As desired, repeat the process for the makeclothes2.zip, makeskin.zip, and maketarget2.zip plugins.

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from BitBucket. This requires that you have installed python 2.7 and a set of other
dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:43:31Z

Robbaer: /* Windows 10/11 */

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community. If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community. Click Finish. There should be a shortcut to start MakeHuman on both the desktop and within the startup folder.

In all cases, MakeHuman related assets should by default be found in:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\makehuman\v1py3.
Or, if you have OneDrive enabled, this may be"
"C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive\Documents\makehuman\v1py3", instead.

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from BitBucket. This requires that you have installed python 2.7 and a set of other
dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:24:25Z

Robbaer:

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community. If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community. Click Finish. There should be a shortcut to start MakeHuman on both the desktop and within the startup folder.

In all cases, MakeHuman related assets should by default be found in:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\makehuman\v1py3. [If you have OneDrive enabled, this may be "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive\Documents\makehuman\v1py3" instead.]

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from BitBucket. This requires that you have installed python 2.7 and a set of other
dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:23:55Z

Robbaer:

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community. If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community. Click Finish. There should be a shortcut to MakeHuman on both the desktop and within the startup folder.

In all cases, MakeHuman related assets should by default be found in:
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\makehuman\v1py3. [If you have OneDrive enabled, this may be "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive\Documents\makehuman\v1py3" instead.]

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from BitBucket. This requires that you have installed python 2.7 and a set of other
dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:11:23Z

Robbaer:

MakeHuman can be downloaded here [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html]. Later in the development life cycle, it might make sense to download nightly builds, which are found here: [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/].
Nightly represent the latest developmental updates and are not guaranteed to be stable.

Currently, the latest release is MakeHuman 1.2.0. For version 1.2.0, you can go directly to [http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/makehuman_120.html] where you can find links for the release notes, the downloads for various platforms, and a list of know issues. If you are also a Blender user, the tools in this MakeHuman version are designed to to work with Blender 2.83 or later.

== System Requirements ==

You will need about half a gigabyte of free disk space.

In order to use some realtime materials and obtain the best from the internal rendering engine, it's required an average quality graphic card, produced after the year 2006. In general, your graphics card should support OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) version 1.2 or above. There have been reports that the model colors are corrupted on some older Intel Graphics cards (often appearing blue and black). If you experience this, a possible work-around is to start MakeHuman™ with the "--noshaders" command line switch. On Windows, this switch can be added to your shortcut. See also [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]

== Windows 10/11 ==

Download the zip file from the from the download page [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/releases/makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.zip download page]. From within Windows Explorer, double click the downloaded zip file, and click "Extract All" to extract the compressed files. When the extracted folder opens, double click "makehuman-community-1.2.0-windows.exe" to install the program. Allow installation on the dialog that pops up. Click Next.

Choose "Install for anyone using the computer" if you want all users of your computer to have access to MakeHuman; otherwise, choose "install for just me" and click Next. This choice will affect where MakeHuman assets are saved. If you choose "Install for just me", the default program location is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\makehuman-community . If you choose "Install for all users", the default program location is: C:\Program Files\makehuman-community.

== Mac OS X ==

Download the DMG file from the [http://www.makehuman.org/download.php download page]. Once downloaded, mount the disk image and drag the MakeHuman app into your Applications folder. MakeHuman supports Snow Leopard and newer.

== Linux ==

At the point of writing this, the newest stable release is only available via PPA, see [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-11x]. This should work on all debian derivatives.
Other Linux distributions will need to run from source.

== Installing from source ==

If you want to play around with the code, follow the latest development, or are having trouble with the prepackaged binaries you can run from a source clone from BitBucket. This requires that you have installed python 2.7 and a set of other
dependencies. See [[Documentation:Running_MakeHuman_from_source]] for more information.

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:06:51Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T16:01:19Z

Robbaer: /* Windows 10/11 */

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:56:49Z

Robbaer: /* Mac OS X */

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:56:07Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:55:25Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:43:37Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:42:16Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:41:17Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:39:17Z

Robbaer: /* Windows */

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:29:12Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:Installing MakeHuman

2022-04-23T15:19:46Z

Robbaer:

Documentation:TargetsV2

2022-02-22T14:30:41Z

Robbaer: /* Before using the program */

=== Before using the program ===

MakeTarget Version 2 is created to work with Blender 2.83 LTS or newer. It is used to create custom targets for the body. A target (also called a morph or morphing) a change of the 3d shape. It is used to create morphes or target for the MakeHuman basemesh. This Blender plug-in can also be used to correct existing MakeHuman targets.

More exactly, a target in MakeHuman is a table of changed vertices. It is an ASCII file containing 3 values that describe how each vertex should be moved. Target files are obviously derived from Blender shape keys. Thus, the workflow includes the creation of a new shape key in Blender as well. There is a difference between Blender shape keys and MakeHuman targets in that Blender internally creates a copy of the complete mesh, even when you only change one vertex; whereas, a MakeHuman target only contains the changed vertices.

Before a new target is created, the following questions should be answered:

* Is the target designed to only change parts of the body like ears or lips that are not covered by clothes and where bones will not be stretched or relocated?

If this is the case, it is sufficient to work only with the body mesh.

* Is the target designed to also change parts covered by clothes and bones?

In this case, the body + helper mesh must be used

* Which mesh should be most likely used?

You should decide between male or female mesh or the standard mesh used in MakeHuman, when started.

=== Load the mesh ===

Best way is to load a human mesh using MPFB (MakeHuman Plugin for Blender). It has some presets which have to be used if you work with MakeTarget and it has a special help to work with the helper. You need to have MakeHuman in parallel using the socket connector (see image below).

In Blender, set MPFB "Settings" to "MakeTarget" and load settings. After that import the mesh.

[[File:MTG LoadMesh.png]]

To switch on the helper a modifier is added, just press the marked symbol and the helper will appear or disappear.

[[File:MTG ToggleHelper.png]]

If you don't use MPFB, you can also load a human mesh with Makeclothes2. This will not include the toggle for the helper.

There are a few additional methods, you can load it via mhx2 .. but be careful the scale must be the same otherwise your target will either use 1/10 of the movement or 10 times as much later in MakeHuman (mhx2 export: use decimeter). So easiest way is either to use MPFB or MakeClothes

=== Create a new target ===

As an example a target named lower-eyesbrows (should look a bit like an early human) should be created. It does not involve clothes and also no bones are changed. So in this case a mesh without
helpers would be sufficient.

The name lower-eyebrows is used to create the target. The result are two shape keys. An initial one "Basis" and the shape key which has to be changed.

[[File:MTG CreateTarget.png]]

Now the mesh is changed (make sure lower-eyebrows is selected in shape keys) so that the eyebrows are lowered. Best is to use proportional edit for your work. Be aware not to influence the eyelash region, otherwise the helper mesh must be changed for the eyelashes also.

Lets only change one eyebrow like in the picture.

The other side will be created by mirroring the target, here "copy +x to -x" is used. The copy command symmetrizes left and right side. A vertex in the middle will be set to x=0, so the mesh will stay totally symmetrical.

[[File:MTG SymmetrizeTarget.png]]

''Hint: symmetrizing is done with a table, so it will not fail as long as the table matches the mesh you load.''

=== Save the target ===

The last step is to save the target. Search for your target path of MakeHuman (custom targets). You can create a sub-folder if you work with a lot of own targets, like in the picture.

In MakeHuman these folders must be scanned again. So press the rescan-button. Then a subfolder will be detected and the target is ready to use.

[[File:MTG SaveTarget.png]]

=== Load a target ===

You can reload this target into MakeTarget2. As an example it is also easy to load a target made by someone else and change it or to load the official targets (only available on GitHub, the targets of the distribution are compressed). Especially if the helper was not changed, something that is sometimes neglected: load the mesh with helper, load the target, do the corrections and save it again.

[[File:MTG LoadTarget.png]]

Documentation:TargetsV2

2022-02-22T14:04:34Z

Robbaer:

=== Before using the program ===

MakeTarget Version 2 is created to work with Blender 2.83 LTS or newer. It is used to create custom targets for the body. A target is also called a morph or morphing which normally means the change of a shape in 3d. So it is used to create morphes or target of the basemesh. This program can also be used to correct targets made before.

The result of this target in MakeHuman is a table of changed vertices. It is an ASCII file containing 3 values how each vertex should be moved. It is obviously derived from Blender shape keys. So the workflow includes to create a new shape key in Blender as well.

There is a difference: Blender internally creates a copy of the complete mesh, even when you only change one vertex, the target of MakeHuman only contains the changed vertices.

Before a new target is created, the following questions should be answered:

* Should the target only change parts of the body like ears or lips not covered by clothes and where bones will not be stretched or located different?

In this case is sufficient to work only with the body

* Does the target also change part clothes and bones?

In this case body + helper mesh must be used

* Which mesh should be most likely used?

You should decide between male or female mesh or the standard mesh used in MakeHuman, when started.

=== Load the mesh ===

Best way is to load a human mesh using MPFB (MakeHuman Plugin for Blender). It has some presets which have to be used if you work with MakeTarget and it has a special help to work with the helper. You need to have MakeHuman in parallel using the socket connector (see image below).

In Blender, set MPFB "Settings" to "MakeTarget" and load settings. After that import the mesh.

[[File:MTG LoadMesh.png]]

To switch on the helper a modifier is added, just press the marked symbol and the helper will appear or disappear.

[[File:MTG ToggleHelper.png]]

If you don't use MPFB, you can also load a human mesh with Makeclothes2. This will not include the toggle for the helper.

There are a few additional methods, you can load it via mhx2 .. but be careful the scale must be the same otherwise your target will either use 1/10 of the movement or 10 times as much later in MakeHuman (mhx2 export: use decimeter). So easiest way is either to use MPFB or MakeClothes

=== Create a new target ===

As an example a target named lower-eyesbrows (should look a bit like an early human) should be created. It does not involve clothes and also no bones are changed. So in this case a mesh without
helpers would be sufficient.

The name lower-eyebrows is used to create the target. The result are two shape keys. An initial one "Basis" and the shape key which has to be changed.

[[File:MTG CreateTarget.png]]

Now the mesh is changed (make sure lower-eyebrows is selected in shape keys) so that the eyebrows are lowered. Best is to use proportional edit for your work. Be aware not to influence the eyelash region, otherwise the helper mesh must be changed for the eyelashes also.

Lets only change one eyebrow like in the picture.

The other side will be created by mirroring the target, here "copy +x to -x" is used. The copy command symmetrizes left and right side. A vertex in the middle will be set to x=0, so the mesh will stay totally symmetrical.

[[File:MTG SymmetrizeTarget.png]]

''Hint: symmetrizing is done with a table, so it will not fail as long as the table matches the mesh you load.''

=== Save the target ===

The last step is to save the target. Search for your target path of MakeHuman (custom targets). You can create a sub-folder if you work with a lot of own targets, like in the picture.

In MakeHuman these folders must be scanned again. So press the rescan-button. Then a subfolder will be detected and the target is ready to use.

[[File:MTG SaveTarget.png]]

=== Load a target ===

You can reload this target into MakeTarget2. As an example it is also easy to load a target made by someone else and change it or to load the official targets (only available on GitHub, the targets of the distribution are compressed). Especially if the helper was not changed, something that is sometimes neglected: load the mesh with helper, load the target, do the corrections and save it again.

[[File:MTG LoadTarget.png]]

Releases:120a2

2018-12-18T09:33:01Z

Robbaer:

MakeHuman Community 1.2.0-alpha2 was released 2018-12-10.

'''It is important to understand that 1.2.0 alpha 2 is an alpha release. This means that things ''will'' behave strangely. Before downloading the build, you should at least read the "known issues" section in these notes.'''

These notes are under construction and may be incomplete. Further, the notes describe, as of now, an alpha version of a coming release. The final release might be different from what is described below.

== General ==

In most cases, there should be no problem running versions 1.1.1 and 1.2.0 on the same system. They will not interfere with each other's files. You can find download links for 1.2.0 at the bottom of this page.

"MakeHuman Community 1.2.0" is a major update of the underlying code, where the focus has been to replace outdated dependencies and modernize the system. Further, a shift in focus has been made to position MakeHuman as a shared tool serving the larger community through integrated access to third party assets and extended functionality.

== Where to download ==

You can [http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/makehuman-community-1.2.0-alpha2-win32.zip download the windows build here].

For linux, [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-community there is a new PPA].

== Providing feedback and bug reports ==

As always with an alpha release, the important part is getting feedback and bug reports.

If in doubt, feedback and bug reports can always be posted on the forums. But more formal bug trackers are here:

* For MakeHuman as such: [http://bugtracker.makehumancommunity.org/ http://bugtracker.makehumancommunity.org/]
* For the asset downloader: [https://github.com/makehumancommunity/community-plugins-assetdownload/issues https://github.com/makehumancommunity/community-plugins-assetdownload/issues]
* For the makehuman side of the new blender integration: [https://github.com/makehumancommunity/community-plugins-socket/issues https://github.com/makehumancommunity/community-plugins-socket/issues]
* For the blender side of the new blender integration: [https://github.com/makehumancommunity/makehuman-plugin-for-blender/issues https://github.com/makehumancommunity/makehuman-plugin-for-blender/issues]
* For issues specific to MHX2: [https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange/issues?status=new&status=open https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange/issues]

The following are the changes since version 1.1.1.

== Changes since alpha 1 ==

Note that the graphics card issue has ''not'' been addressed yet. So if alpha 1 did not work for you, alpha 2 will not either.

The following are fixes made since the release of 1.2.0 alpha 1:

* LINUX: makehuman root is now ~/Documents/makehuman/v1py3 (or whatever your platform name for "Documents" is, it is fetched from the XDG configuration) rather than ~/makehuman/v1py3. This is the standard used on other platforms, but it will mean that you will have to manually move data you want to keep from the old location to the new.
* UI: Core MakeHuman assets now have a tag "MakeHumanTM", making it easier to only show bundled assets when many third-part assets have been downloaded
* MATERIALS: Core assets will now also look in user directories for extra materials
* ASSET DOWNLOADER: When downloading materials that belong to a core asset, these will now be placed so they show up as materials for said asset
* ASSET DOWNLOADER: It is now possible to filter materials to show only those belonging to a core asset
* ASSET DOWNLOADER: Drastically reduced the size of the initial download
* ASSET DOWNLOADER: Provide better visual feedback so it doesn't look as if the system hanged
* ASSET DOWNLOADER: Made downloading screenshots for assets optional
* PPA: Remove strong dependency on blender. We recommend against using Ubuntu's version of blender since it's broken in many ways.
* PPA: Specify minimum allowed versions of central dependencies.

== Highlights ==

* The codebase has received a major overhaul to bring it up to date with modern versions of Python and Qt
* Third party assets can be downloaded from within MakeHuman with a simple point and click procedure
* There is a completely new Blender integration, with support for socket transfers, IK and Kinect
* Improved internationalization support for non-ASCII characters (backported)
* Plugins in user space
* Plugins activation at runtime
* Improved tag sorting capabilities, including sticky tag provisions
* Tags for models (with configurable tag count)
* Show Name Tags instead of file names in the file loader.
* Saving model as target
* Real weight estimation
* Configurable location for the home folder
* MHX2 is bundled in the default installation
* There is a new installer for windows
* There is a new PPA for ubuntu. This PPA also offers builds of plugins.
* Using Jupyter for the shell utility, if available on the system (currently not working for MakeHuman windows builds)

== Known issues ==

* FBX skeleton will still misbehave
* There are still graphics card incompatibilities in the OpenGL code. '''On several graphics cards you may get no visible output whatsoever''', rendering the application unusable. If this happens, please report what operating system and what graphics card you are using so we can investigate it further.
* There is no build for OSX
* The user data folder is still makehuman/v1py3 rather than makehuman/v1, in order to guarrantee that the development version does not interfere with the stable version. This will probably be changed for the final release.
* The new blender importer will crash when used in a version of blender that is shipped with ubuntu 18.04. It works fine on ubuntu 18.04 if using a blender that is downloaded from blender's homepage though. Investigations are pending.
* The new blender importer requires blender 2.79. It will not work in earlier versions of blender and will not (yet) work in blender 2.80.

== Upgrading ==

This version uses the same file formats as 1.1.x in almost all cases. The only exception is MHM files (which are produced when clicking "save model" in MakeHuman). 1.2.x is able to open MHM files produced in 1.1.x, and the result will look exactly the same as in 1.1.x. However, 1.1.x will not be able to open MHM files saved by 1.2.x.

For all other assets, things should work the same and look the same in both versions, using the same files.

=== Running from source ===

If you want to run MakeHuman directly from source (rather than downloading a binary build), you will have to replace almost all dependencies. It is also possible that not all dependencies will install smoothly beside the dependencies for 1.1.x.

The following are the minimum required dependency versions for MakeHuman Community 1.2.0:

* Python: 3.6.4 or higher
* PyQt: 5.10.0 or higher
* NumPy: 1.13.0 or higher
* PyOpenGL: Any modern version will work, including the one used for MakeHuman 1.1.x

=== Ubuntu ===

In order to fulfill the minimum dependency requirements listed above, you will need Ubuntu 18.04 or later. For earlier Ubuntu versions, you would have use backports of the dependencies, as they are not available in the default installation.

The PPA for this build is here: [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-community ppa:makehuman-official/makehuman-community].

To enable it, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makehuman-official/makehuman-community
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install makehuman-community

== The upgraded codebase ==

The main focus of this release has been to modernize the code. In the prior version, large parts were written more than eight years ago, and relied on libraries and code structures which are no longer functional in a modern context. More in detail:

* The system was written for python 2.6 and then upgraded when needed to python 2.7. The expected end of life for python 2.7 is in less than two years.
* The user interface was implemented in Qt4, via PyQt4. Both Qt4 and PyQt4 got deprecated years ago, and Riverside (the authors of PyQt) removed all PyQt4 windows binaries, meaning we could no longer provide windows builds.

Thus, the need to bring the code up to modern times became critical. We realized that the system would soon not be possible to run or develop on several platforms.

Going through the code to update it has taken some considerable time (years actually), but it has had the added benefit that we have also reviewed almost all sections of the code and fixed a lot of minor
bugs and glitches.

Most users will probably not notice much difference: the user interfaces in 1.2.0 and 1.1.1 are almost identical. But it was work that needed to be done before we could move forward with implementing new features.

== Asset downloader ==

[[File:12x-assetdownloader.png|400px|thumb|right|The asset downloader]]

This version of MakeHuman bundles the asset downloader plugin. By using this you can access all the hundreds of user contributed assets that are available via the MakeHuman Community.

Within the UI you can search for assets, show screenshots, read about details and download. Downloaded assets are automatically placed in your local asset directory so that you can
immediately go to the geometries tabs and, for example, equip the newly downloaded clothes.
<br clear=all>

== New blender integration ==

[[File:12x-blender-import.png|300px|thumb|right|One click import directly from MakeHuman]]

[[File:12x-blender-ik.png|300px|thumb|right|Convert to IK rig]]

This release bundles a rich set of blender functionalitites, which can be added to blender in the form of an addon. Not all functionality will be listed here, but the following are
some highlights.

=== Import directly from MakeHuman ===

In blender it is now possible to fetch a toon directly from a running instance of MakeHuman, without having to first save the toon to a file. The importer will talk with the makehuman instance
and fetch all meshes (such as the body, hair clothes...), materials, rigs and poses. The process is almost instantaneous (a toon with a lot of clothes might take a few seconds to import).

The importer UI supports a wide range of settings and presets. By using a preset you can, for example, import a body mesh suitable for using together with MakeClothes. This will make it significantly easier
to develop assets aimed at a specific body type.

Note that for the importer to work, you will have to go to the Community -> Socket tab in MakeHuman and enable "Accept connections". Otherwise MakeHuman won't answer, and you will get an error in Blender.

=== IK and amputations ===

The importer will use the skeleton set in MakeHuman to rig the resulting character in Blender. The rig can then be extended with the "IK rig" functionality: By clicking a button you can get extra
IK controls, and IK chains set up for arms, legs and fingers.

Rigs can also be amputated in case detailed bones are not required.

All rigs currently available to MakeHuman are supported.

=== Kinect ===

To be written

<br clear=all>

== A new windows installer ==

The windows version is now distributed as an executable installer that supports uninstall. After installing MakeHuman, it can now be found on the start menu like all other normal windows application.

Note that it is no longer recommended to go to the installation folder and start MakeHuman manually there. In order to do so, you would have to manually set up an environment for python, something
which is handled automatically by the start menu entry.

== Other bundled functionality ==

Apart from the above, some other functionality that previously had to be downloaded separately is now bundled:

=== MHX2 ===

MHX2 is now enabled per default in MakeHuman. The blender side of MHX2 is bundled as a zip file which can
be added to blender via the user preferences.

=== MHAPI ===

MHAPI (a library with convenience calls for making addons for MakeHuman) is now included and enabled per default.

Documentation:Index

2018-12-01T15:38:43Z

Robbaer: /* MakeHuman for developers */

== Introduction ==

* [[Documentation:What is MakeHuman?|What is MakeHuman?]]: A quick introduction to MakeHuman.
* [[Documentation:Short and Long Pipeline|Short and Long Pipeline ]]: The goal of Makehuman is to see it used in 2 different professional pipelines.
* [[Documentation:Professional mesh topology|Professional mesh topology ]]: An overview of the professional topology provided by MakeHuman
* [[Documentation:Legal|Legal ]]: The various licenses that apply to MakeHuman and External tools

== General overview ==

* [[Documentation:Installing MakeHuman|Installing MakeHuman]]
* [[Documentation:Running MakeHuman from source|Running MakeHuman from source]]
* [[Documentation:Configuration and settings|Configuration and settings]]
* [[Documentation:The interface and its basic functions|The interface and its basic functions]]
* [[Documentation:The toolbar|The toolbar]]
* [[Documentation:The tabs|The tabs]]
* [[Documentation:The sliders|The sliders]]
* [[Documentation:Loading and saving|Loading and saving]]
* [[Documentation:Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera|Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera]]

== Working with the human ==

* [[Documentation:Gender, Random, Measure and Custom|Gender, Random, Measure and Custom]]
* [[Documentation:Hairstyles and Clothes|Hairstyles and Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling the body|Modeling the body]]
* [[Documentation:Alternative topologies|Alternative topologies]]
* [[Documentation:Skin and other materials|Skin and other materials]]
* [[Documentation:Rendering your work|Rendering your work]]

== Exporting your work to another application ==

* [[Documentation:Exports and file formats|Exports and file formats]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Blender and how to import them there|Saving models for Blender and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Maya and how to import them there|Saving models for Maya and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there|Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there|Saving models for Unity and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there|Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there]]

== Working with MakeHuman models in Blender ==

* [[Documentation:Corrective shape keys|Corrective shape keys]]

== Downloading or creating new assets ==

* [[Documentation:What is an asset?|What is an asset?]]
* [[Documentation:Finding and downloading more assets|Finding and downloading more assets]]
* [[Documentation:Getting and installing BlenderTools|Getting and installing BlenderTools]]
* [[Documentation:Targets|Targets]]
* [[Documentation:Clothes|Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Texture painting a skin in blender|Texture painting a skin in blender]]

==MakeClothes: In-depth tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Making a simple dress|Making a simple dress]]
* [[Documentation:Making diapers for a baby|Making diapers for a baby]]
* [[Documentation:Controlling the result with vertex groups|Controlling the result with vertex groups]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling a sword|Modeling a sword]]

== MakeWalk: General Background ==

* [[Documentation:MakeWalk|MakeWalk]]

== MakeWalk: In Depth Tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Running feet|Running feet]]
* [[Documentation:Automatic animation|Automatic animation]]

== Interacting with the community ==

* [[Documentation:Asking for help|Asking for help]]
* [[Documentation:Reporting a bug|Reporting a bug]]

== MakeHuman for developers ==

* [[Documentation: Plugin System|Plugin System]]
* [[Documentation: OpenGL Notes|OpenGL Notes]]
* [[Documentation: Directory structure and core modules|Directory structure and core modules]]
* [[Documentation: File formats and extensions|File formats and extensions]]
* [[Documentation: Libraries and build procedures|Libraries and build procedures]]
* [[Documentation: Development infrastructure|Development infrastructure]]
* [[Documentation: Application design and Code overview|Application design and Code overview]]
* [[Documentation: Getting started with MakeHuman code|Getting started with MakeHuman code]]
* [[Technical notes on MakeHuman]]

== Other / unsorted ==

* [[Documentation:Translation|Translation]]
* [[Documentation:Installing MHX2|Installing MHX2]]

== Meta ==

* [[Documentation:Planning on how to restructure the documentation]]

== Old documentation ==

The old documentation is available, but in a largely unformatted state:

[[Documentation:Big dump from drupal]]

(most of this should now have been ported to separate pages as per above)

The following have been merged in other pages, but they are left here if something got lost in the translation:

* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: Download and installation|MHBlenderTools: Download and installation ]]: How to download and install the addons for Blender
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget|MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget ]]: Description of the MakeTarget™ tool, to create custom morphings for MakeHuman.
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools:MakeClothes|MHBlenderTools: MakeClothes ]]: Description of the MakeClothes™ tool, to create custom clothes for MakeHuman.

Documentation Talk:OpenGL Notes

2018-12-01T09:51:27Z

Robbaer: Created page with "I am pretty sure makehuman only uses orthographic mode not perspective mode."

I am pretty sure makehuman only uses orthographic mode not perspective mode.

Documentation:OpenGL Notes

2018-12-01T09:47:40Z

Robbaer: /* Basics */

Most of the 3D mesh handling functionality is delivered using OpenGL embedded within the C application code. OpenGL is a 3D graphics library that enables a 3D world to be defined, with a camera, objects, lights, textures etc. It then enables that 3D world to be visualised as a 2D representation that can be displayed on a computer screen and provides functions to enable an application (in response to user input) to navigate around the scene.

==== Basics ====

OpenGL takes a 3D scene and draws it into a 2D viewing area on your screen known as the viewport. OpenGL can project the scene onto the viewport in a variety of different ways, but the most common are:
* Perspective projection, as you would get if you could place a camera in the scene
* Orthographic projection, as a draftsman may contstruct technical drawings such as plans and elevations.
MakeHuman only uses Orthographic projection.

==== Projection Transformation ====

You tell OpenGL how to project 3D objects onto the 2D viewport by defining a projection transformation, which indicates whether you wish to use perspective or orthographic projection (or an alternative projection pattern) and specifies other projection settings. This can be imagined as being comparable to specifying the characteristics of a camera (field of view, aspect ratio etc.) where an orthographic projection is equivalent to a camera at an infinite distance. The main difference being that with OpenGL you can change the settings between drawing different objects, which is a bit like taking a photo, changing the lens and moving the camera, then taking another photo without winding the film on.
MakeHuman sets a perspective projection using the function gluPerspective(fovAngle,aspectRatio,near,far) where:
* fovAngle: is the vertical field of view angle (45 degrees)
* aspectRatio: is the viewport width divided by the viewport height which, by default, is 800/600 (4/3)
* near: is the distance to the centre of the viewing plane (0.1)
* far: is the distance to the centre of the rear clippling plane (100)

==== Modelview Transformation ====

For OpenGL to know what to display in the viewport it also needs to know where the camera is relative to the 3D model. For this you need to define a modelview which defines the position and orientation of the camera and the position and orientation of objects that go to make up the model inside a virtual 3D world. You do this by moving through and around the 3D world and by creating objects relative to your current position. OpenGL keeps track of your current position and orientation in the 3D world by recording the modelview transformation.

Both the projection transformation and the modelview transformation are stored internally in 4x4 transformation matrices. You can modify these matrices by calling functions that apply direct transformations (translations and rotations) or by calling functions that calculate transformations (e.g. the gluPerspective function outlined above).

To apply transformations you need to first make one of these matrices the current matrix. Subsequent transformations are applied cumulatively to the current matrix. The glMatrixMode function is used to set the current matrix mode:
* glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION) makes the projection transformation the current matrix so that projection settings can be applied, such as the field of View angle and Aspect Ratio.
* glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW) makes the modelview transformation matrix the current matrix so that subsequent translations and rotations move the current location through the 3D world.

==== Resetting a transformation matrix ====

Matrix transformations that you apply are applied cumulatively. It is therefore often necessary to reset the matrix to its default ‘no transformation’ state so that you can apply a fresh set of transformations. OpenGL uses the transformation and modelview matrices to transform coordinates by performing a matrix multiplication. If you multiply by an identity matrix then the result is the same as the thing you started with, so to reset one of these matrices to an initial state where the transformation has no effect you can simply load the identity matrix using the function glLoadIdentity(). This loads the identity matrix into whichever transformation matrix is currently active, resetting it to the default ‘no transformation’ state.

==== Coordinates ====

OpenGL world space coordinates are unitless, so 2 units can represent milimeters, inches or light years. Interpretation of world space coordinates is up to the application. OpenGL uses a right handed coordinate system, so, if you are looking at the origin with the +X axis stretching away to the right and the +Y axis pointing straight up, the +Z axis will be heading out of the screen straight towards you and the -Z axis will be dissapearing away from you into the distance.

MakeHuman uses the default OpenGL modelview camera settings which are equivalent to invoking gluLookAt(0,0,0, 0,0,-1, 0,1,0). This places the camera at the origin, looking straight into the model along the -Z axis with the +Y axis pointing straight up. This means that a 2 unit wide and 2 unit high object centred at <0,0,-1> will roughly fill the viewport, as will a 4x4 object at twice the distance from the viewpoint.

==== Drawing objects ====

MakeHuman contains multiple objects. The Humanoid object is the main object, but it is surrounded by a set of control objects. Each object is constructed using triangular faces. The position and orientation of each face is defined relative to the object of which it is a part. The positions and orientations of the vertices and normals of the faces are defined relative to the face they’re on. The sequence in which face vertices are defined is significant in OpenGL. If the face is viewed from the front, the sequence of points runs counter clockwise. If the face is viewed from the back the points run clockwise. Faces viewed from behind may be invisible or may have a different color/texture defined to the front face. This order is also called the "winding order" of vertices, and is used by MakeHuman to calculate the normal of each face. If the winding order is reversed, the normal will be flipped. The glPushMatrix and glPopMatrix functions can be used to store away a copy of a matrix that can subsequently restored. MakeHuman uses this before and after drawing each object to store a copy of the modelview matrix and restore it.

Releases:120a1

2018-11-20T21:51:38Z

Robbaer:

These notes are under construction and may be incomplete. Further, the notes describe, as of now, an alpha version of a coming release. The final release might be different from what is described below.

"MakeHuman Community 1.2.0" is a major update of the underlying code, where the focus has been to replace outdated dependencies and modernize the system. Further, a shift in focus has been made to position MakeHuman as a shared tool serving the larger community through integrated access to third party assets and extended functionality.

The following are the changes since version 1.1.1.

== Highlights ==

* The codebase has received a major overhaul to bring it up to date with modern versions of Python and Qt
* Third party assets can be downloaded from within MakeHuman with a simple point and click procedure
* There is a completely new Blender integration, with support for socket transfers, IK and Kinect
* Improved internationalization support for non-ASCII characters (backported)
* Plugins in user space
* Plugins activation at runtime
* Improved tag sorting capabilities, including sticky tag provisions
* Tags for models (with configurable tag count)
* Show Name Tags instead of file names in the file loader.
* Saving model as target
* Real weight estimation
* Configurable location for the home folder
* MHX2 is bundled in the default installation
* There is a new installer for windows
* There is a new PPA for ubuntu. This PPA also offers build of plugins.
* Using Jupyter for the shell utility, if available on the system (currently not working for MakeHuman windows builds)

== Known issues ==

* FBX skeleton will still misbehave
* There are still graphics card incompatibilities in the OpenGL code
* There is no build for OSX
* The user data folder is still makehuman/v1py3 rather than makehuman/v1, in order to guarrantee that the development version does not interfere with the stable version. This will probably be changed for the final release.
* The new blender importer will crash when used in a version of blender that is shipped with ubuntu 18.04. It works fine on ubuntu 18.04 if using a blender that is downloaded from blender's homepage though. Investigations are pending.

== Upgrading ==

This version uses the same file formats as 1.1.x in almost all cases. The only exception is MHM files (which are produced when clicking "save model" in MakeHuman). 1.2.x is able to open MHM files produced in 1.1.x, and the result will look exactly the same as in 1.1.x. However, 1.1.x will not be able to open MHM files saved by 1.2.x.

For all other assets, things should work the same and look the same in both versions, using the same files.

=== Running from source ===

If you want to run MakeHuman directly from source (rather than downloading a binary build), you will have to replace almost all dependencies. It is also possible that not all dependencies will install smoothly beside the dependencies for 1.1.x.

The following are the minimum required dependency versions for MakeHuman Community 1.2.0:

* Python: 3.6.4 or higher
* PyQt: 5.10.0 or higher
* NumPy: 1.13.0 or higher
* PyOpenGL: Any modern version will work, including the one used for MakeHuman 1.1.x

=== Ubuntu ===

In order to fulfill the minimum dependency requirements listed above, you will need Ubuntu 18.04 or later. For earlier Ubuntu versions, you would have use backports of the dependencies, as they are not available in the default installation.

The PPA for this build is here: [https://launchpad.net/~makehuman-official/+archive/ubuntu/makehuman-community ppa:makehuman-official/makehuman-community].

To enable it, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:makehuman-official/makehuman-community
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install makehuman-community

== The upgraded codebase ==

The main focus of this release has been to modernize the code. In the prior version, large parts was written more than eight years ago, and relied on libraries and code structures which are no longer functional in a modern context. More in detail:

* The system was written for python 2.6 and then upgraded when needed to python 2.7. The expected end of life for python 2.7 is in less than two years.
* The user interface was implemented in Qt4, via PyQt4. Both Qt4 and PyQt4 got deprecated years ago, and Riverside (the authors of PyQt) removed all PyQt4 windows binaries, meaning we could no longer provide windows builds.

Thus, the need to bring the code up to modern times became critical. We realized that the system would soon not be possible to run or develop on several platforms.

Going through the code to update it has taken some considerable time (years actually), but it has had the added benefit that we have also reviewed almost all sections of the code and fixed a lot of minor
bugs and glitches.

Most users will probably not notice much difference: the user interfaces in 1.2.0 and 1.1.1 are almost identical. But it was work that needed to be done before we could move forward with implementing new features.

== Asset downloader ==

[[File:12x-assetdownloader.png|400px|thumb|right|The asset downloader]]

This version of MakeHuman bundles the asset downloader plugin. By using this you can access all the hundreds of user contributed assets that are available via the MakeHuman Community.

Within the UI you can search for assets, show screenshots, read about details and download. Downloaded assets are automatically placed in your local asset directory so that you can
immediately go to the geometries tabs and, for example, equip the newly downloaded clothes.
<br clear=all>

== New blender integration ==

[[File:12x-blender-import.png|300px|thumb|right|One click import directly from MakeHuman]]

[[File:12x-blender-ik.png|300px|thumb|right|Convert to IK rig]]

This release bundles a rich set of blender functionalitites, which can be added to blender in the form of an addon. Not all functionality will be listed here, but the following are
some highlights.

=== Import directly from MakeHuman ===

In blender it is now possible to fetch a toon directly from a running instance of MakeHuman, without having to first save the toon to a file. The importer will talk with the makehuman instance
and fetch all meshes (such as the body, hair clothes...), materials, rigs and poses. The process is almost instantaneous (a toon with a lot of clothes might take a few seconds to import).

The importer UI supports a wide range of settings and presets. By using a preset you can, for example, import a body mesh suitable for using together with MakeClothes. This will make it significantly easier
to develop assets aimed at a specific body type.

Note that for the importer to work, you will have to go to the Community -> Socket tab in MakeHuman and enable "Accept connections". Otherwise MakeHuman won't answer, and you will get an error in Blender.

=== IK and amputations ===

The importer will use the skeleton set in MakeHuman to rig the resulting character in Blender. The rig can then be extended with the "IK rig" functionality: By clicking a button you can get extra
IK controls, and IK chains set up for arms, legs and fingers.

Rigs can also be amputated in case detailed bones are not required.

All rigs currently available to MakeHuman are supported.

=== Kinect ===

To be written

<br clear=all>

== A new windows installer ==

The windows version is now distributed as an executable installer that supports uninstall. After installing MakeHuman, it can now be found on the start menu like all other normal windows application.

Note that it is no longer recommended to go to the installation folder and start MakeHuman manually there. In order to do so, you would have to manually set up an environment for python, something
which is handled automatically by the start menu entry.

== Other bundled functionality ==

Apart from the above, some other functionality that previously had to be downloaded separately is now bundled:

=== MHX2 ===

MHX2 is now enabled per default in MakeHuman. The blender side of MHX2 is bundled as a zip file which can
be added to blender via the user preferences.

=== MHAPI ===

MHAPI (a library with convenience calls for making addons for MakeHuman) is now included and enabled per default.

Releases:120a1

2018-11-10T18:23:06Z

Robbaer:

These notes are under construction and may be incomplete

"MakeHuman Community 1.2.0" is a major update of the underlying code, where the focus has been to replace outdated dependencies and modernize the system. Further, a shift in focus has been made to position MakeHuman as a shared tool serving the larger community through integrated access to third party assets and extended functionality.

The following are the changes since version 1.1.1.

== Highlights ==

* The codebase has received a major overhaul to make bring it up to date with modern versions of Python and Qt
* Third party assets can be downloaded from within MakeHuman with a simple point and click procedure
* There is a completely new Blender integration (socket transfer)
* Improved internationalization support for non-ASCII characters (backported?)
* ... (Aranuvir: can you add a list of the new features you've written?)
* Improved tag sorting capabilities
* MHX2 is bundled in the default installation

== Known issues ==

* FBX skeleton will still misbehave
* There are still graphics card incompatibilities in the OpenGL code

== Upgrading ==

To be written

== The upgraded codebase ==

Information about the upgrade and the new base requirements...

== Asset downloader ==

To be written

== New blender integration ==

To be written

== Bundled functionality ==

MHX2, maybe more bundled materials...

Releases:120a1

2018-11-10T18:22:04Z

Robbaer:

These notes are under construction and may be incomplete

"MakeHuman Community 1.2.0" is a major update of the underlying code, where the focus has been to replace outdated dependencies and modernize the system. Further, a shift in focus has been made to position MakeHuman as a shared tool serving a larger community through integrated access to third party assets and extended functionality.

The following are the changes since version 1.1.1.

== Highlights ==

* The codebase has received a major overhaul to make bring it up to date with modern versions of Python and Qt
* Third party assets can be downloaded from within MakeHuman with a simple point and click procedure
* There is a completely new Blender integration (socket transfer)
* Improved internationalization support for non-ASCII characters (backported?)
* ... (Aranuvir: can you add a list of the new features you've written?)
* Improved tag sorting capabilities
* MHX2 is bundled in the default installation

== Known issues ==

* FBX skeleton will still misbehave
* There are still graphics card incompatibilities in the OpenGL code

== Upgrading ==

To be written

== The upgraded codebase ==

Information about the upgrade and the new base requirements...

== Asset downloader ==

To be written

== New blender integration ==

To be written

== Bundled functionality ==

MHX2, maybe more bundled materials...

Releases:120a1

2018-11-10T18:14:19Z

Robbaer:

These notes are under construction and may be incomplete

"MakeHuman Community 1.2.0" is a major update of the underlying code, where the focus has been to replace outdated dependencies and modernize the system. Further, a shift in focus has been made to make MakeHuman an integrated part in a larger community that provides integrated access to third party assets and extended functionality.

The following are the changes since version 1.1.1.

== Highlights ==

* The codebase has received a major overhaul to make bring it up to date with modern versions of Python and Qt
* Third party assets can be downloaded from within MakeHuman with a simple point and click procedure
* There is a completely new Blender integration (socket transfer)
* Improved internationalization support for non-ASCII characters (backported?)
* ... (Aranuvir: can you add a list of the new features you've written?)
* Improved tag sorting capabilities
* MHX2 is bundled in the default installation

== Known issues ==

* FBX skeleton will still misbehave
* There are still graphics card incompatibilities in the OpenGL code

== Upgrading ==

To be written

== The upgraded codebase ==

Information about the upgrade and the new base requirements...

== Asset downloader ==

To be written

== New blender integration ==

To be written

== Bundled functionality ==

MHX2, maybe more bundled materials...

FAQ:The eyes look flat and "dead" in blender

2017-06-06T15:13:04Z

Robbaer:

The default MHX2 material is a least common denominator, and you'll most likely want to tweak it a bit for the eyes.

There are usually two problems.

The first is that the eyewhites look gray, which is because you have too little light entering the eyes. To solve this, try to increase the light, ambient or otherwise, which shines on the eye area.

The second is that eyes usually have "reflective shine", in the sense that the outer surface looks wet and has hard glossy highlights.

By default the MHX2 eyes material looks like this when rendered:

[[File:Glitter1.png]]

With with relatively easy means, you can add "reflective shine" so that the eyes look like this:

[[File:Glitter2.png]]

To achieve this, select the outer layer of the high-poly eyes:

[[File:Glitter3.png]]

And assign a new transparent material with an "add" shader adding a hard glossy:

[[File:Glitter4.png]]

FAQ:The eyes look flat and "dead" in blender

2017-06-06T15:12:28Z

Robbaer:

The default MHX2 material is a least common denominator, and you'll most likely want to tweak it a bit for the eyes.

There are usually two problems.

The first is that the eyewhites look gray, which is because you have too little light entering the eyes. To solve this, try to increase the light, ambient or otherwise, which shines on the eye area.

The second is that eyes usually "reflective shine", in the sense that the outer surface looks wet and has hard glossy highlights.

By default the MHX2 eyes material looks like this when rendered:

[[File:Glitter1.png]]

With with relatively easy means, you can add "reflective shine" so that the eyes look like this:

[[File:Glitter2.png]]

To achieve this, select the outer layer of the high-poly eyes:

[[File:Glitter3.png]]

And assign a new transparent material with an "add" shader adding a hard glossy:

[[File:Glitter4.png]]

FAQ:The eyes look flat and "dead" in blender

2017-06-06T15:11:24Z

Robbaer:

The default MHX2 material is a least common denominator, and you'll most likely want to tweak it a bit for the eyes.

There are usually two problems.

The first is that the eyewhites look gray, which is because you have too little light entering the eyes. To solve this, try to increase the light, ambient or otherwise, which shines on the eye area.

The second is that eyes usually "shine", in the sense that the outer surface looks wet and has hard glossy highlights.

By default the MHX2 eyes material looks like this when rendered:

[[File:Glitter1.png]]

With with relatively easy means, you can add "shine" so that the eyes look like this:

[[File:Glitter2.png]]

To achieve this, select the outer layer of the high-poly eyes:

[[File:Glitter3.png]]

And assign a new transparent material with an "add" shader adding a hard glossy:

[[File:Glitter4.png]]

Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there

2017-03-29T09:08:44Z

Robbaer: /* Making the toon ready for animation */

Getting toons to work in Unity may seem a bit intimidating at first, but in practice it only requires relatively few mouse clicks.

== Preparations ==

If you don't have a unity project already, create one. Things will be a lot easier for you if you export directly to the Assets directory, so before exporting from MH the Assets directory should exist.

For this documentation, let's create a new empty Unity project:

[[File:00_create_unity_project.png|400px|link={{filepath:00_create_unity_project.png}}]]

== Exporting from MakeHuman ==

Let's start with modeling a toon. We will here select some clothes/hair pieces with transparent areas so that we can see that we get those things right inside unity.

[[File:01_export_mh_1.png|400px|link={{filepath:01_export_mh_1.png}}]]

An important step is selecting an appropriate rig. Unless you know what you are doing, you will most likely want to use the game rig one here (there are cases where the other ones may be appropriate).

[[File:02_export_mh_2.PNG|400px|link={{filepath:02_export_mh_2.PNG}}]]

You are now ready to export. You will want to use FBX, and the default settings are fine.

[[File:03_export_mh_3.png|400px|link={{filepath:03_export_mh_3.png}}]]

However, before exporting, click the three-dots-button and browse to your Assets folder, so that the toon is exported there:

[[File:04_export_mh_4.png|400px|link={{filepath:04_export_mh_4.png}}]]

You can now click export, and the toon will be exported to Unity.

In Unity you will now see that the toon is available. By exporting directly to the Assets directory, you also got "materials" and "textures" autocreated. Otherwise you would have had to configure these manually.

[[File:05_import_unity.png|400px|link={{filepath:05_import_unity.png}}]]

== Fixing materials ==

If we now drag the toon into the scene, and move around the camera a bit so we can see it in the game view, we can see that it looks a bit odd.

[[File:06_unity_transparency_fail.png|400px|link={{filepath:06_unity_transparency_fail.png}}]]

The reason for this is that Unity fails to take into account that textures may have an alpha channel (or maybe thinks that the user needs to know what he's doing before enabling such). We will thus need to fix
the materials. For each material that has a transparent component, you will need to set the material type to "legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "diffuse". If the piece has a normalmap too, you will instead want "legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "bumped diffuse". With Unity 5, an alternative shader approach is to use is "Standard (Specular setup)" -> Rendering Mode: "Fade / Transparent" -> Specular: Black color -> Smoothness: 0.1 or below. You can add a normal image and assign a value (1 by default).

[[File:07_fix_material.png|400px|link={{filepath:07_fix_material.png}}]]

Do this for each material that should have a transparent component. In all likelihood you will want to do it for all materials except the skin (which would look odd if it was transparent).

Having done this, the toon should now look more pleasing.

[[File:08_transparency_fixed.png|400px|link={{filepath:08_transparency_fixed.png}}]]

== Making the toon ready for animation ==

As you remember, we assigned a skeleton to the toon in MakeHuman before exporting it. However, we also need to tell Unity how to use it.

Select the toon in the asset list (IMPORTANT! In the ''asset list'', not in the scene hierarchy). Click the rig tab. Set animation type to "humanoid". Click "configure".

[[File:09_humanoid.png|400px|link={{filepath:09_humanoid.png}}]]

Unity will now ask you to save the scene and apply changes. Do so. You will get to a panel where you can match the toon's bones with Unity's idea of bones. If you are using the game rig, everything should have been matched perfectly from start.

[[File:10_assign_bones.png|x400px|link={{filepath:10_assign_bones.png}}]]

The above is the most important step where things are likely to get messy if you are using another type of rig. If, for example, you use the MHX rig or Rigify, you might have to tinker a bit with the bone-to-bone mappings in the above dialog to get it all right.

To test if things look as if they are working, switch to the "muscles and settings" tab and drag the handles around. If the toon follows, things are working correctly.

[[File:11_bones_working.png|x400px|link={{filepath:11_bones_working.png}}]]

Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there

2017-03-29T09:07:01Z

Robbaer: /* Fixing materials */

Getting toons to work in Unity may seem a bit intimidating at first, but in practice it only requires relatively few mouse clicks.

== Preparations ==

If you don't have a unity project already, create one. Things will be a lot easier for you if you export directly to the Assets directory, so before exporting from MH the Assets directory should exist.

For this documentation, let's create a new empty Unity project:

[[File:00_create_unity_project.png|400px|link={{filepath:00_create_unity_project.png}}]]

== Exporting from MakeHuman ==

Let's start with modeling a toon. We will here select some clothes/hair pieces with transparent areas so that we can see that we get those things right inside unity.

[[File:01_export_mh_1.png|400px|link={{filepath:01_export_mh_1.png}}]]

An important step is selecting an appropriate rig. Unless you know what you are doing, you will most likely want to use the game rig one here (there are cases where the other ones may be appropriate).

[[File:02_export_mh_2.PNG|400px|link={{filepath:02_export_mh_2.PNG}}]]

You are now ready to export. You will want to use FBX, and the default settings are fine.

[[File:03_export_mh_3.png|400px|link={{filepath:03_export_mh_3.png}}]]

However, before exporting, click the three-dots-button and browse to your Assets folder, so that the toon is exported there:

[[File:04_export_mh_4.png|400px|link={{filepath:04_export_mh_4.png}}]]

You can now click export, and the toon will be exported to Unity.

In Unity you will now see that the toon is available. By exporting directly to the Assets directory, you also got "materials" and "textures" autocreated. Otherwise you would have had to configure these manually.

[[File:05_import_unity.png|400px|link={{filepath:05_import_unity.png}}]]

== Fixing materials ==

If we now drag the toon into the scene, and move around the camera a bit so we can see it in the game view, we can see that it looks a bit odd.

[[File:06_unity_transparency_fail.png|400px|link={{filepath:06_unity_transparency_fail.png}}]]

The reason for this is that Unity fails to take into account that textures may have an alpha channel (or maybe thinks that the user needs to know what he's doing before enabling such). We will thus need to fix
the materials. For each material that has a transparent component, you will need to set the material type to "legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "diffuse". If the piece has a normalmap too, you will instead want "legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "bumped diffuse". With Unity 5, an alternative shader approach is to use is "Standard (Specular setup)" -> Rendering Mode: "Fade / Transparent" -> Specular: Black color -> Smoothness: 0.1 or below. You can add a normal image and assign a value (1 by default).

[[File:07_fix_material.png|400px|link={{filepath:07_fix_material.png}}]]

Do this for each material that should have a transparent component. In all likelihood you will want to do it for all materials except the skin (which would look odd if it was transparent).

Having done this, the toon should now look more pleasing.

[[File:08_transparency_fixed.png|400px|link={{filepath:08_transparency_fixed.png}}]]

== Making the toon ready for animation ==

As you remember, we assigned a rig to the toon in MakeHuman before exporting it. However, we also need to tell Unity how to use it.

Select the toon in the asset list (IMPORTANT! In the ''asset list'', not in the scene hierarchy). Click the rig tab. Set animation type to "humanoid". Click "configure".

[[File:09_humanoid.png|400px|link={{filepath:09_humanoid.png}}]]

Unity will now ask you to save the scene and apply changes. Do so. You will get to a panel where you can match the toon's bones with Unity's idea of bones. If you are using the game rig, everything should have been matched perfectly from start.

[[File:10_assign_bones.png|x400px|link={{filepath:10_assign_bones.png}}]]

The above is the most important step where things are likely to get messy if you are using another type of rig. If, for example, you use the MHX rig or Rigify, you might have to tinker a bit with the bone-to-bone mappings in the above dialog to get it all right.

To test if things look as if they are working, switch to the "muscles and settings" tab and drag the handles around. If the toon follows, things are working correctly.

[[File:11_bones_working.png|x400px|link={{filepath:11_bones_working.png}}]]

Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there

2017-03-29T09:01:03Z

Robbaer: /* Fixing materials */

Getting toons to work in Unity may seem a bit intimidating at first, but in practice it only requires relatively few mouse clicks.

== Preparations ==

If you don't have a unity project already, create one. Things will be a lot easier for you if you export directly to the Assets directory, so before exporting from MH the Assets directory should exist.

For this documentation, let's create a new empty Unity project:

[[File:00_create_unity_project.png|400px|link={{filepath:00_create_unity_project.png}}]]

== Exporting from MakeHuman ==

Let's start with modeling a toon. We will here select some clothes/hair pieces with transparent areas so that we can see that we get those things right inside unity.

[[File:01_export_mh_1.png|400px|link={{filepath:01_export_mh_1.png}}]]

An important step is selecting an appropriate rig. Unless you know what you are doing, you will most likely want to use the game rig one here (there are cases where the other ones may be appropriate).

[[File:02_export_mh_2.PNG|400px|link={{filepath:02_export_mh_2.PNG}}]]

You are now ready to export. You will want to use FBX, and the default settings are fine.

[[File:03_export_mh_3.png|400px|link={{filepath:03_export_mh_3.png}}]]

However, before exporting, click the three-dots-button and browse to your Assets folder, so that the toon is exported there:

[[File:04_export_mh_4.png|400px|link={{filepath:04_export_mh_4.png}}]]

You can now click export, and the toon will be exported to Unity.

In Unity you will now see that the toon is available. By exporting directly to the Assets directory, you also got "materials" and "textures" autocreated. Otherwise you would have had to configure these manually.

[[File:05_import_unity.png|400px|link={{filepath:05_import_unity.png}}]]

== Fixing materials ==

If we now drag the toon into the scene, and move around the camera a bit so we can see it in the game view, we can see that it looks a bit odd.

[[File:06_unity_transparency_fail.png|400px|link={{filepath:06_unity_transparency_fail.png}}]]

The reason for this is that Unity fails to take into account that textures may have an alpha channel (or maybe thinks that the user needs to know what he's doing before enabling such). We will thus need to fix
the materials. For each material that has a transparent component, you will need to set the material type to "legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "diffuse". If the piece has a normalmap too, you will instead want
"legacy shaders" -> "transparent" -> "bumped diffuse". With Unity 5, an alternative is "Standard (Specular setup)" -> Rendering Mode: "Fade / Transparent" -> Specular: Black color -> Smoothness: 0.1 or below

[[File:07_fix_material.png|400px|link={{filepath:07_fix_material.png}}]]

Do this for each material that should have a transparent component. In all likelihood you will want to do it for all materials except the skin (which would look odd if it was transparent).

Having done this, the toon should now look more pleasing.

[[File:08_transparency_fixed.png|400px|link={{filepath:08_transparency_fixed.png}}]]

== Making the toon ready for animation ==

As you remember, we assigned a rig to the toon in MakeHuman before exporting it. However, we also need to tell Unity how to use it.

Select the toon in the asset list (IMPORTANT! In the ''asset list'', not in the scene hierarchy). Click the rig tab. Set animation type to "humanoid". Click "configure".

[[File:09_humanoid.png|400px|link={{filepath:09_humanoid.png}}]]

Unity will now ask you to save the scene and apply changes. Do so. You will get to a panel where you can match the toon's bones with Unity's idea of bones. If you are using the game rig, everything should have been matched perfectly from start.

[[File:10_assign_bones.png|x400px|link={{filepath:10_assign_bones.png}}]]

The above is the most important step where things are likely to get messy if you are using another type of rig. If, for example, you use the MHX rig or Rigify, you might have to tinker a bit with the bone-to-bone mappings in the above dialog to get it all right.

To test if things look as if they are working, switch to the "muscles and settings" tab and drag the handles around. If the toon follows, things are working correctly.

[[File:11_bones_working.png|x400px|link={{filepath:11_bones_working.png}}]]

FAQ:Index

2017-03-27T21:08:05Z

Robbaer:

This page lists frequently asked questions.

== Top questions ==

* [[FAQ: What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?]]
* [[FAQ: MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]
* [[FAQ: What happened to the special assets genitalia?]]

== General / unsorted ==

* [[FAQ: What is MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: What is the prefered method for contacting the MakeHuman crew?]]
* [[FAQ: Is there an IRC channel?]]
* [[FAQ: How much does MakeHuman cost?]]
* [[FAQ: What happened to the XYZ asset?]]
* [[FAQ: I want to make a code fork of MakeHuman, but I hate mercurial or BitBucket]]
* [[FAQ: Do you have some quick tips on how to make a nice image with a makehuman toon?]]
* [[FAQ: What is a fashion render?]]

== Terminology ==

* [[FAQ: What is a nightly build?]]
* [[FAQ: What is Open Source?]]
* [[FAQ: What is a target?]]
* [[FAQ: What is the meaning of the numbers in MakeHuman release?]]
* [[FAQ: What is a proxy?]]

== Technology ==

* [[FAQ: Why quadrilaterals?]]
* [[FAQ: What happened to the specific skeletons (the UE and SL rigs for example)?]]
* [[FAQ: Why is there no perspective mode?]]

== Installation ==

* [[FAQ: Where can I download MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: Where can I find older Versions of MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: I'm using ubuntu. Is there a PPA?]]
* [[FAQ: Which version of MakeHuman should I download?]]
* [[FAQ: Where are my MakeHuman files found (where is my HOME directory)?]]
* [[FAQ: Where can I unzip MakeHuman (in Windows)?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I run MakeHuman from a BitBucket source clone?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I build MakeHuman from source?]]
* [[FAQ: I downloaded third party clothes. How do I install them?]]
* [[FAQ: I downloaded a third party model. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ: I downloaded a third party proxy. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ: I downloaded a third party target. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ: I downloaded a third party plug-in. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ: How do I uninstall MakeHuman?]]

== Legal questions ==

* [[FAQ: Can I sell models created with MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: Can I create a commercial closed source game with models generated by MakeHuman?]]

== Creating assets ==

* [[FAQ: How can I create targets?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create skin textures?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create clothes?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create hair?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create extra bodyparts?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create proxies or alternative topologies?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create poses?]]
* [[FAQ: How can I create a thumbnail file?]]
* [[FAQ: I already have a 3d object from elsewhere. How can I use it in MH?]]
* [[FAQ: Can I export an asset from Blender and get it back into MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: I have photos of a real person. Can I use those for making a skin?]]
* [[FAQ: How do I make and upload a fashion render?]]

== Contributing ==

* [[FAQ: How do I submit a bug report?]]
* [[FAQ: How to provide a makehuman log for a good bug report?]]
* [[FAQ: I want to contribute code in a more structured manner. What is the recommended procedure?]]
* [[FAQ: I want an easy code task to get to learn the makehuman code. Where should I start?]]
* [[FAQ: I have made a code patch. Where do I send it?]]
* [[FAQ: I'm not a coder. How can I contribute?]]
* [[FAQ: I have made a new asset for MakeHuman. How can I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ: I have made a tutorial. How do I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ: I want to help write documentation. How do I do that?]]

== Troubleshooting ==

* [[FAQ: The publisher could not be verified]]
* [[FAQ: My Antivirus tool blocks MakeHuman or Norton Antivirus reports WS.Reputation.1]]
* [[FAQ: There seems to be a version mismatch between MHX and blender]]
* [[FAQ: I am using the ubuntu or debian version of MakeHuman and...]]
* [[FAQ: MakeHuman fails to start in windows, nothing seems to happen when I click the exe]]
* [[FAQ: Eyes are rendered completely white (or black) in blender]]
* [[FAQ: I can't download from the user repos, all files are saved as HTML]]

FAQ:Index

2017-03-27T21:06:00Z

Robbaer:

This page lists frequently asked questions.

== Top questions ==

* [[FAQ: What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?]]
* [[FAQ: MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]
* [[FAQ: What happened to the special assets genitalia?]]

== General / unsorted ==

* [[FAQ: What is MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ: What is the prefered method for contacting the MakeHuman crew?]]
* [[FAQ: Is there an IRC channel?]]
* [[FAQ: How much does MakeHuman cost?]]
* [[FAQ: What happened to the XYZ asset?]]
* [[FAQ: I want to make a code fork of MakeHuman, but I hate mercurial or BitBucket]]
* [[FAQ: Do you have some quick tips on how to make a nice image with a makehuman toon?]]
* [[FAQ: What is a fashion render?]]

== Terminology ==

* [[FAQ:What is a nightly build?]]
* [[FAQ:What is Open Source?]]
* [[FAQ:What is a target?]]
* [[FAQ:What is the meaning of the numbers in MakeHuman release?]]
* [[FAQ:What is a proxy?]]

== Technology ==

* [[FAQ:Why quadrilaterals?]]
* [[FAQ:What happened to the specific skeletons (the UE and SL rigs for example)?]]
* [[FAQ:Why is there no perspective mode?]]

== Installation ==

* [[FAQ:Where can I download MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:Where can I find older Versions of MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:I'm using ubuntu. Is there a PPA?]]
* [[FAQ:Which version of MakeHuman should I download?]]
* [[FAQ:Where are my MakeHuman files found (where is my HOME directory)?]]
* [[FAQ:Where can I unzip MakeHuman (in Windows)?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I run MakeHuman from a BitBucket source clone?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I build MakeHuman from source?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded third party clothes. How do I install them?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party model. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party proxy. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party target. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party plug-in. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:How do I uninstall MakeHuman?]]

== Legal questions ==

* [[FAQ:Can I sell models created with MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:Can I create a commercial closed source game with models generated by MakeHuman?]]

== Creating assets ==

* [[FAQ:How can I create targets?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create skin textures?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create clothes?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create hair?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create extra bodyparts?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create proxies or alternative topologies?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create poses?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create a thumbnail file?]]
* [[FAQ:I already have a 3d object from elsewhere. How can I use it in MH?]]
* [[FAQ:I have photos of a real person. Can I use those for making a skin?]]
* [[FAQ:How do I make and upload a fashion render?]]
* [[FAQ:Can I export an asset from Blender and get it back into MakeHuman?]]

== Contributing ==

* [[FAQ:How do I submit a bug report?]]
* [[FAQ:How to provide a makehuman log for a good bug report?]]
* [[FAQ:I want to contribute code in a more structured manner. What is the recommended procedure?]]
* [[FAQ:I want an easy code task to get to learn the makehuman code. Where should I start?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a code patch. Where do I send it?]]
* [[FAQ:I'm not a coder. How can I contribute?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a new asset for MakeHuman. How can I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a tutorial. How do I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ:I want to help write documentation. How do I do that?]]

== Troubleshooting ==

* [[FAQ:The publisher could not be verified]]
* [[FAQ:My Antivirus tool blocks MakeHuman or Norton Antivirus reports WS.Reputation.1]]
* [[FAQ:There seems to be a version mismatch between MHX and blender]]
* [[FAQ:I am using the ubuntu or debian version of MakeHuman and...]]
* [[FAQ:MakeHuman fails to start in windows, nothing seems to happen when I click the exe]]
* [[FAQ:Eyes are rendered completely white (or black) in blender]]
* [[FAQ:I can't download from the user repos, all files are saved as HTML]]

FAQ:Can I export an asset from Blender and get it back into MakeHuman?

2017-03-27T21:02:09Z

Robbaer:

Short answer: No, not for typical workflows.

The .mhx2 format, so far, has only one exporter (and it is for MakeHuman) and only one importer (and it is for Blender). You can go from MakeHuman to Blender, but not back again to MakeHuman with .mhx2. You can save what you do in Blender, of course, as .blend files, but MakeHuman can not read these either. If you want to use the .blend file on another computer, consider using the [ File | External data | pack all into .blend ] menu in Blender so that your textures follow you automatically to the second computer.

If you want to go from MakeHuman to Blender for the animator, then get feedback from her (the animator), and then make changes specified by the animator, you should save the MakeHuman file as both an .mhm file which saves what you have in the MakeHuman interface, and as .mhx2 which can be read by Blender. You can start from where you left off with the .mhm, make the changes specified by the animator, and then create a NEW .mhx2 for her. You cannot take changes the animator has made in Blender and get them back into MakeHuman. Not possible with any file format. That is not how MakeHuman works. It is not a regular 3D modeling program. It is the initial program in a workflow chain. Once you have moved to Blender (or Max or Maya) you are stuck there.

The one other thing you might want to do is make clothes that you can put on different characters in MakeHuman. This you CAN get back into MakeHuman with some work, but the format is NOT .mhx2. You use the MakeClothes plugin in Blender to produce the clothes, and they are saved from that plugin in a form that can be used directly by MakeHuman. There is documentation on the MakeClothes plugin here, and there are many user contributed assets made with it on the community assets page. See http://www.makehumancommunity.org/conte ... ssets.html for these assets.

See this documentation for making your own assets:
http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/ ... new_assets
http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/ ... _tutorials

FAQ:Can I export an asset from Blender and get it back into MakeHuman?

2017-03-27T21:01:19Z

Robbaer: MakeHuman sits upstream of Blender in most workflows, and Blender files can not be directly imported into MakeHuman in any format.

Short answer: No.

The .mhx2 format, so far, has only one exporter (and it is for MakeHuman) and only one importer (and it is for Blender). You can go from MakeHuman to Blender, but not back again to MakeHuman with .mhx2. You can save what you do in Blender, of course, as .blend files, but MakeHuman can not read these either. If you want to use the .blend file on another computer, consider using the [ File | External data | pack all into .blend ] menu in Blender so that your textures follow you automatically to the second computer.

If you want to go from MakeHuman to Blender for the animator, then get feedback from her (the animator), and then make changes specified by the animator, you should save the MakeHuman file as both an .mhm file which saves what you have in the MakeHuman interface, and as .mhx2 which can be read by Blender. You can start from where you left off with the .mhm, make the changes specified by the animator, and then create a NEW .mhx2 for her. You cannot take changes the animator has made in Blender and get them back into MakeHuman. Not possible with any file format. That is not how MakeHuman works. It is not a regular 3D modeling program. It is the initial program in a workflow chain. Once you have moved to Blender (or Max or Maya) you are stuck there.

The one other thing you might want to do is make clothes that you can put on different characters in MakeHuman. This you CAN get back into MakeHuman with some work, but the format is NOT .mhx2. You use the MakeClothes plugin in Blender to produce the clothes, and they are saved from that plugin in a form that can be used directly by MakeHuman. There is documentation on the MakeClothes plugin here, and there are many user contributed assets made with it on the community assets page. See http://www.makehumancommunity.org/conte ... ssets.html for these assets.

See this documentation for making your own assets:
http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/ ... new_assets
http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/ ... _tutorials

FAQ:Index

2017-03-27T20:58:33Z

Robbaer: /* Creating assets */

This page lists frequently asked questions.

== Top questions ==

* [[FAQ:What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?]]
* [[FAQ:MakeHuman renders odd colours and weird transparency artefacts. Can you help me?]]
* [[FAQ:What happened to the special assets genitalia?]]

== General / unsorted ==

* [[FAQ:What is MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:What is the prefered method for contacting the MakeHuman crew?]]
* [[FAQ:Is there an IRC channel?]]
* [[FAQ:How much does MakeHuman cost?]]
* [[FAQ:What happened to the XYZ asset?]]
* [[FAQ:I want to make a code fork of MakeHuman, but I hate mercurial or BitBucket]]
* [[FAQ:Do you have some quick tips on how to make a nice image with a makehuman toon?]]
* [[FAQ:What is a fashion render?]]

== Terminology ==

* [[FAQ:What is a nightly build?]]
* [[FAQ:What is Open Source?]]
* [[FAQ:What is a target?]]
* [[FAQ:What is the meaning of the numbers in MakeHuman release?]]
* [[FAQ:What is a proxy?]]

== Technology ==

* [[FAQ:Why quadrilaterals?]]
* [[FAQ:What happened to the specific skeletons (the UE and SL rigs for example)?]]
* [[FAQ:Why is there no perspective mode?]]

== Installation ==

* [[FAQ:Where can I download MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:Where can I find older Versions of MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:I'm using ubuntu. Is there a PPA?]]
* [[FAQ:Which version of MakeHuman should I download?]]
* [[FAQ:Where are my MakeHuman files found (where is my HOME directory)?]]
* [[FAQ:Where can I unzip MakeHuman (in Windows)?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I run MakeHuman from a BitBucket source clone?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I build MakeHuman from source?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded third party clothes. How do I install them?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party model. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party proxy. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party target. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:I downloaded a third party plug-in. How do I install it?]]
* [[FAQ:How do I uninstall MakeHuman?]]

== Legal questions ==

* [[FAQ:Can I sell models created with MakeHuman?]]
* [[FAQ:Can I create a commercial closed source game with models generated by MakeHuman?]]

== Creating assets ==

* [[FAQ:How can I create targets?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create skin textures?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create clothes?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create hair?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create extra bodyparts?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create proxies or alternative topologies?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create poses?]]
* [[FAQ:How can I create a thumbnail file?]]
* [[FAQ:I already have a 3d object from elsewhere. How can I use it in MH?]]
* [[FAQ:I have photos of a real person. Can I use those for making a skin?]]
* [[FAQ:How do I make and upload a fashion render?]]
* [[FAQ:Can I export an asset from Blender and get it back into MakeHuman?]]

== Contributing ==

* [[FAQ:How do I submit a bug report?]]
* [[FAQ:How to provide a makehuman log for a good bug report?]]
* [[FAQ:I want to contribute code in a more structured manner. What is the recommended procedure?]]
* [[FAQ:I want an easy code task to get to learn the makehuman code. Where should I start?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a code patch. Where do I send it?]]
* [[FAQ:I'm not a coder. How can I contribute?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a new asset for MakeHuman. How can I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ:I have made a tutorial. How do I contribute it?]]
* [[FAQ:I want to help write documentation. How do I do that?]]

== Troubleshooting ==

* [[FAQ:The publisher could not be verified]]
* [[FAQ:My Antivirus tool blocks MakeHuman or Norton Antivirus reports WS.Reputation.1]]
* [[FAQ:There seems to be a version mismatch between MHX and blender]]
* [[FAQ:I am using the ubuntu or debian version of MakeHuman and...]]
* [[FAQ:MakeHuman fails to start in windows, nothing seems to happen when I click the exe]]
* [[FAQ:Eyes are rendered completely white (or black) in blender]]
* [[FAQ:I can't download from the user repos, all files are saved as HTML]]

FAQ:Where are my MakeHuman files found (where is my HOME directory)?

2017-03-24T15:11:59Z

Robbaer:

The [BASE] folder location for saving MakeHuman user data depends on your operating system (Windows, Linux, OSX, etc..). In the guide below, replace <username> with your actual login name. Typically, your <root> will be 'c:\\' (without quotes) on Windows machines, and just plain "/" (without quotes) on Linux and Mac OSX. Take in account that your operating system might be case sensitive on filenames (Unix-like OSs !). In case of doubt use lower case directory names.

Here is the basic guide to finding the [BASE] folder on your operating system:
* Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10: c:/Users/<username>/Documents/
* Linux: /home/<username>/ or simply ~/
* Mac OSX: /Users/<username>/Documents/
* MakeHumanPortable (all Windows versions): X:\PortableApps\MakeHumanPortable\AppData (where X: is the drive letter of your removable device)

Your [BASE] folder, by default, contains an "asset folder" called '''"makehuman"''' which will, in turn, contain a subfolder named 'v1' for MH version 1.X.X releases. The ./makehuman/v1/ subfolder contains a series of additional subfolders containing your personal MakeHuman asset files: '''backgrounds, cache, data, exports, grab, models, and render'''.

The ./models/ folder will contain the .mhm '''model''' files you "save". The ./exports/ folder will contain the files you "'''export'''" in .dae (collada), .fbx, .mhx2, .obj, or .stl formats. The ./backgrounds/ folder is where you can place '''background reference images''' to use in model construction. The '''data folder''', itself, contains many subfoders. The ./data/... subfolders are where you will find '''clothes and other proxy objects''' that you import using the asset manager.

'''Notes:'''
* On Windows systems, "Documents" is subject to internationalization.

For older/deprecated versions of Windows you may find the [BASE]/makehuman/v1/ subfolder here:
* Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and 2003: c:\\Documents and Settings\<username>
* Microsoft Windows NT: <root>\WINNT\Profiles\<username>

FAQ:Where are my MakeHuman files found (where is my HOME directory)?

2017-03-24T15:09:14Z

Robbaer:

The [BASE] folder location for saving MakeHuman user data depends on your operating system (Windows, Linux, OSX, etc..). In the guide below, replace <username> with your actual login name. Typically, your <root> will be 'c:\\' (without quotes) on Windows machines, and just plain "/" (without quotes) on Linux and Mac OSX. Take in account that your operating system might be case sensitive on filenames (Unix-like OSs !). In case of doubt use lower case directory names.

Here is the basic guide to finding the [BASE] folder on your operating system:
* Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10: c:/Users/<username>/Documents/
* Linux: /home/<username>/ or simply ~/
* Mac OSX: /Users/<username>/Documents/
* MakeHumanPortable (all Windows versions): X:\PortableApps\MakeHumanPortable\AppData (where X: is the drive letter of your removable device)

Your [BASE] folder, by default, contains an "asset folder" called '''"makehuman"''' which will, in turn, contain a subfolder named 'v1' for MH version 1.X.X releases. The ./makehuman/v1/ subfolder contains a series of additional subfolders containing your personal MakeHuman asset files: '''backgrounds, cache, data, exports, grab, models, and render'''.

The ./models/ folder will contain the .mhm '''model''' files you "save". The ./exports/ folder will contain the files you "'''export'''" in .dae (collada), .fbx, .mhx2, .obj, or .stl formats. The ./backgrounds/ folder is where you can place '''background reference images''' to use in model construction. The '''data folder''', itself, contains many subfoders. The ./data/... subfolders are where you will find '''clothes and other proxy objects''' that you import using the asset manager.

'''Notes:'''
* On Windows systems, "Documents and Settings" is subject to internationalization.

For older/deprecated versions of Windows you may find the [BASE]/makehuman/v1/ subfolder here:
* Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and 2003: c:\\Documents and Settings\<username>
* Microsoft Windows NT: <root>\WINNT\Profiles\<username>

FAQ:What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?

2017-03-15T02:16:55Z

Robbaer:

'''Short version:'''

MHX2 is now a plugin you download from https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

If you use Blender you will most likely want to install this. If you don't use Blender, there is not yet an importer available for your application.

For installation of the MakeHuman exporter component, you should save the ''9_export_mhx2'' folder into you MakeHuman plugins folder.

The location of this plugins folder will vary with operating system.
* '''MacIntosh OSX''': Macintosh HD/Applications/MakeHuman.app/Contents/Resources/plugins
* '''Windows 7/8/10''': C:\MakeHuman\plugins (Assuming you installed as C:\MakeHuman)
* '''Debian/Ubuntu Linux''': ~/bin/makehuman/plugins (double check accuracy of this)

'''Long version:'''

The old MHX format has been deprecated (both by MakeHuman and by its author, Thomas Larsson).

Thomas Larsson has replaced MHX with MHX2 which is available as an external, separately maintained plugin. The major change from mhx to mhx2 is that it is now divided into separate exporter and importer components. This means it is theoretically possible to use .mhx2 with any application for which there is a suitable importer. Currently, the only importer available is for Blender.

For details on this MHX2 plugin (as well as download the MakeHuman Exporter and Blender Importer) see https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

MHX2 is not integrated into the core distribution because of separate maintenance and release cycles. However, it remains one of the most high fidelity ways to move assets from MakeHuman to Blender (and other applications when suitable importers become available). The alternative is to use the generic transfer formats: DAE and FBX. Because of their generic nature, however, these will not give you the full convenience of using .mhx2.

If you need the specific features of MHX2, visit the link above and follow the instructions.

There is also a tutorial video on how to install MHX2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CCHGX-6Mtk

Documentation:MakeWalk

2017-03-15T01:55:10Z

Robbaer: /* NOTE */

====== NOTE ======
There is a wealth of important information in this document, but some of the detail is badly out of date. Most of the fundamental information is quite usable, nevertheless. Things that need repairing:
* Broken links
* Reference to armatures in older version of MakeHuman
* The MakeWalk tool is now found as a tab on the T-side-panel in Blender
------------------------------------
MakeWalk is a Blender add-on for retargeting mocap data (.bvh files) to a given armature.

==== Retargeting: how it works ====

The goal of retargeting is to transfer a motion from a source armature (e.g. from a BVH file) to a given target armature (e.g. the MHX rig). However, it is not straightforward to assign the source action to the target rig, even if the bones have identical names. The motion of each bone is specified in local coordinates, relative to the parent and the bone's own rest pose. If the rest poses of the source and target armatures differ, the source F-curves can not be used directly by the target armature.
[[File:makewalk-1.png]]
The picture above shows a transformation in the local coordinate system. Since the parent's local Y points along its axis and its local Z points up, the child bone is rotated around the local X axis. This is not very useful if the target armature has a diffent rest pose. To retarget the pose, we therefore reexpress the transformation in the global coordinate system, as shown below. The local X rotation corresponds to a global Y rotation, and by a different angle. Once the global transformation matrix is known, we can reexpress it in the target bone's local coordinate system.

The retargeting process thus consists of making two coordinate transformations:
Source local => Global => Target local.
This will ensure that the source bone and the target bone will have the same global orientation.
[[File:makewalk_2.png]]
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated. We do not always want the source and target bones to have identical orientation. In particular, the root or pelvis bone may point in entirely different directions in different armatures. E.g. in the CMU armature rest pose the pelvis points forward-down, and in the MHX rig it points straight up.
[[File:makewalk-3.png]]
If we insisted that the root bone in the MHX rig would point in the same direction as in the CMU rig, the retargeting would not be very successful, as shown in the figure above. If we instead keep the rotation offset from the rest poses, the target pose becomes much better, as shown below.
To calibrate the source and target armature against each other, MalkWalk introduces extra keyframes at frame 0, where both armatures are posed in T-pose.
[[File:mcp-ret-060-calibrate.png]]
In the rest of the animation, bones in the target armature copy the global rotations of the source armature, apart from differences present in the T-poses. In this way we can transfer animations from CMU to the MHX rig, despite the fact that the rest poses are very different.

==== Basic Workflow ====

=== Retargeting ===
The MakeWalk panels appear in the tool shelf whenever an armature is the active object. Select the armature and press the Load And Retarget button. In the file selector, select the .bvh file. We choose the file 90_04.bvh from the CMU database. It is a cartwheel animation.
[[File:makewalk-4.png]]
After a short wait, the armature is doing gymnastics.
[[File:makewalk-5.png]]
At frame 0 of the animation the armature has been placed in T-pose. This is not part of the originial .bvh file, but inserted by MakeWalk to calibrate the source armature (defined by the bvh file) and the target armature (the selected armature in the viewport) against each other.
=== Supported armatures ===
MakeWalk works with most straightforward biped rigs with FK arms and legs, such as the Rigify meta-rig. There is also built-in support for some more complex rigs: the MHX advanced rig from MakeHuman, the MHX rig from MakeHuman and Rigify.
[[File:makewalk-6.png]]
It is often possible to use MakeWalk with other complex rig, but in that case the automatic bone identification may fail. If so, a bone map must be defined manually, see -- [[Defining a Target Rig Manually]].

=== Troubleshooting ===
Retargeting is a rather involved subject, and it can sometimes result in poor motion. The process may even fail completely, usually because MakeWalk failed to automatically identify the bones of a complex rig. If this should happen, see!LINK!http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/Documentation:MakeWalk#Errors_and_Corrective_Actions -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.

==== Where to find BVH files ====

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. MakeHuman's mocap tool can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites I found useful.
* CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: Hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University, this is a huge library of mocap files which can be downloaded for free. The web address is!LINK!http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/ -- http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu!/LINK!. CMU hosts mocap files in three formats: tvd, c3d and amc. However, the mocap tool can only read BVH files, so none of these files can be used directly. Fortunately, B. Hahne at!LINK!http://www.cgspeed.com/ -- www.cgspeed.com!/LINK!has converted the CMU files to BVH. The converted files are located at!LINK!http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture -- http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture!/LINK!.

* Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD): Hosted at the Ohio State University, this is another great source of free mocap files. BVH files can be downloaded from!LINK!http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm -- http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm!/LINK!
* Eyes Japan (mocapdata.com):This is a Japanese company that sells mocap data commercially, but they also offer a huge number of motions for free. According to their homepage, mocapdata.com provides 744 premium motion data and 4197 free motion data. The only catch is that downloading requires registration. Not surprisingly, the homepage of mocapdata.com has the address!LINK!http://www.mocapdata.com/ -- http://www.mocapdata.com/!/LINK!.

* The Trailer's Park: Free mocap data can also be found at the Trailer's Park,!LINK!http://www.thetrailerspark.com/ -- http://www.thetrailerspark.com!/LINK!. This site does not offer original data, but offer repacks of mocap data from other free sites for download. Free download is limited to some five packs per day, so some patience is required here.

* Hochschule der Medien, Universität Bonn (HDM):!LINK!http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05/ -- http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05!/LINK!
* The Perfume global site project #001:!LINK!http://perfume-dev.github.com/ -- http://perfume-dev.github.com/!/LINK!

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk user interface ===

==== The user interface ====

The user > interface of MakeWalk is located in under the Armature tab, and becomes visible when an armature is selected. It consists of six panels; the first one is open by default and the others are closed.
[[File:makewalk-7_0.png]]
* Load And Retarget: Select a BVH file and retarget it to the active armature.
* Start Frame: The first frame in the BVH file to considered.
* Last Frame: The last frame to be considered, unless the animation stops earlier. The difference last_frame - first_frame is the maximal number of frames after retargeting. The number of frames in the BVH file may be larger, if some frames are skipped due to subsampling
* Detailed steps: When this options is selected, further buttons are show below
* Load BVH File (.bvh). Load a BVH file, and create an animated armature from it.
* Rename And Rescale BVH Rig. With the BVH armature active, and a target armature selected, rename and rescale the bones of the active armature to fit the target.
* Load And Rename BVH File (.bvh). A combination of the previous two buttons. With a target armature active, load a BVH file, and create an animated armature with renamed and rescaled bones.
* Retarget Selected To Active. Retarget the animation from a renamed and rescaled BVH armature to the active armature.
* Simplify FCurves. Simplify the F-curves of the active armature.
* Rescale FCurves. Rescale F-curevs of the active armature.What if retargeting fails?
MakeWalk is designed to retarget animations to a given armature with a minimum of user intervention. However, retargeting is a complex process, and entirely automatic retargeting may fail or result in suboptimal motion. Information about how to identify and correct problems is found in!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.
A common problem is that automatic identification of bones in the target armature fails. A bone map can then be assigned manually, cf.!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually.!/LINK!

==== Options panel ====

[[File:makewalk-8.png]]
* Use Default Subsample. Blender normally plays the animation in 24 fps or 25 fps, but the animation in the BVH file may be recorded at a different speed. In particular, the BVH files from CMU were filmed at 120 fps. Enable this option to have the animation play at natural speed, irrespective of the frame rate in the BVH file. Other subsample options are described below.
* Auto scale. Set the scale automatically based on the size of the left thigh. This choice has two motivations:
* Almost all character do have a left leg.
* The leg size is crucial for making walk cycles look good.

* Scale. The default MakeHuman scale is decimeters - 1 unit = 1 decimeter. Translations in a BVH file are expressed in different units; often the base unit is inches, meters or centimeters, but more obscure units can also occur, e.g. in BVH files from CMU. If the scale is set incorrectly, rotations will still be correctly retargeted, but the character will appear to take giant leaps or miniscule steps.
* Use Limits: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk honors any Limit Rotation constraints, and will not allow excessive rotations. If the animation in the bvh files exceeds some rotation limits, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. On the other hand, the rig may not be built for excessive rotations, so unchecking this option can lead to other problems.
* Unlock Rotation: If this option is disabled, MakeWalk honors any rotation locks. If the animation in the bvh files bend around locked axes, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. If Unlock Rotation is enabled, any X or Z rotation locks are disabled. Y rotation locks (bone twisting) are never disabled. The reason for this is that in the MHX and Rigify rigs, forearm rotation is handled by deform bones controlled by hand twisting.
* Auto source rig. The source rig (i.e. the armature defined by the BVH file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Source Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the source rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Auto target rig. The target rig (i.e. the armature in the blend file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Target Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the target rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Ignore Hidden Layers. Ignore bones on hidden layers when identifying the target rig.
=== Subsample and Rescale ===
If the Use Default Subsample option is set, the mocap tool will rescale the animation to fit the current frame rate. However, there are at least two reasons why you may want to load an animation at a different frame rate:
* * To obtain a slow-motion or rapid-motion effect.
* To quickly load an animation to see if the gross features will work out.
If the Use Default Subsample option is disabled, the SubSample section becomes visible.
* Subsample. Enable subsampling.
* Subsample Factor. If the value of this property is n, only every n:th frame of the BVH animation is loaded.
* Rescale. Enable rescaling.
* Rescale Factor. If the value of this property is n, the time distance between keyframes is changed to n.
* Rescale FCurves. Apply the settings above to existing F-curves rather than to the loaded animation.
Rescaling differs from simply scaling F-curves in the F-curve editor.
=== Simplification ===
* Simplify FCurves. Remove unnecessary keyframes.
* Max Loc Error. The maximal allowed error for location keyframes, in Blender units. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Max Rot Error. The maximal allowed error for rotation keyframes, in degrees. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Only Visible. Simplification only affect F-curves visible in the Graph editor.
* Only Between Markers. Simplification only affects F-curves between the two outermost selected markers. The timeline must have at least two selected markers.

==== Edit panel ====

Loading and retargeting is normally only the first step in the creation of an animation from mocap data. There are many reasons why a loaded animation does not behave exactly the way you want it to: artifacts in the mocap data, differences in armature structure not compensated for correctly by the retargeting process, differences in body stature between the mocap actor and the target character, or simply that the filmed sequence does not do exactly what you intend.. It is of course possible to edit the action directly in the graph editor, but this is unpractical due to the amount of mocap data. The mocap tool offers several possibilities to edit an action at a higher level. These tools are colleted in the Edit Action panel which is located just below the Options panel.
[[File:edit-action.png]]
=== Inverse Kinematics ===
* Transfer FK => IK: The load and retarget steps transfers an animation from a bvh file to the target character. However, only the FK bones are animated. Press this button to transfer the FK animation to the IK bones. Only works for the advanced MHX armature. If two markers are selected, only the animation between the markers is transferred.
* Transfer IK => FK: Transfer the animation back from the IK bones to the FK bones. Useful if the IK animation has been edited,
* Clear IK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all IK bones (arms and legs).
* Clear FK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all FK bones (arms and legs).
=== Global Edit ===
* Shift Animation. Shift the keys for the selected bones at all keyframes.If two markers are selected, only the keyframes between the markers are deleted.
* X,Y,Z: F-curves affected by the next button.
* Fixate Bone Locations:Replace all location keys by their average. Only selected bones and keyframes between selected markers are affected.
* Rescale Factor: Factor used by next button.
* Rescale FCurves: Rescale all F-curves by the factor above. This is similar to scaling F-curves in the curve editor, but jumps are treated correctly. E.g., rotations of +180 degrees and -180 degrees are the same, but if we scale an F-curve with a factor two, the intermedate keyframe will have the average rotation 0 degrees, The Rescale FCurves button handles this case correctly.
=== Local Edit ===
This section could be called "Poor man's animation layers". A loaded mocap animation usually has imperfections that must be edited, but without changing the overall feel of the motion. The Start Edit button creates a new animation layer where differences from the original motion are stored as keys, called delta keys since delta often denotes a difference.
* Start Edit: Start editing F-curves.
* Undo Edit: Quit F-curve editing, without modifying the original F-curves.
* Loc: Set a location delta keyframe.
* Rot: Set a rotation delta keyframe.
* LocRot: Set a location and rotation delta keyframe.
* Delete: Remove all delta keyframes at the current time.
* |<: Move to first delta keyframe
* <: Move to previous delta keyframe.
* >: Move to next delta keyframe.
* >|: Move to last delta keyframe.
* Confirm Edit: Modify the original F-curves and quit F-curve editing.
The delta keys are represented by markers in the timeline.
[[File:mwe-315-local-keys.png]]
A delta key can be added with the Loc, Rot and LocRot buttons, and removed with Delete. There is no way to view the delta keys directly. In the viewport and the curve editor, the final pose is shown, which is the sum of the original pose and the delta key.
A common use for delta keys is to correct for intersection with other objects or the character herself. The typical workflow is as follows:
* * Start Edit.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just before the intersection.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just after the intersection.
* Edit the pose a the frame(s) where intersection occurs.
* If the intersection has been removed, Confirm Edit. If not, set new delta keys until it has, or Undo Edit to remove the delta layer.
=== Feet ===
* Left: Affect the left foot.
* Right: Affect the right foot.
* Hips: Affect the characters hip (COM) bone.
* Offset Toes: Ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot at all keyframes. Primarily useful for rigs with a reverse foot setup as explained below.
* Keep Feet Above Floor: If a mesh object (typically a plane) is selected, shift the keyframes to keep the affected feet above the plane. The plane does not necessarily lie in the XY plane; if the plane is tilted, the feet are kept on the plane's upper side. If no plane is selected, the feet are kept above the XY plane (z = 0). The IK feet are affected if the rig has and uses IK legs, otherwise the FK feet are kept above the floor. If two markers are selected, only the keyframes inbetween are shifted.
In a rig with a reverse foot setup, such as the MHX rig, the foot can rotate around the toe, ball, and heel. The reverse foot and toe bones are completely fixed by the corresponding FK bones, but the IK effector can be placed arbitrarily, as long as it ends at the toe tip. The transfer tool uses this freedom to make the IK effector perfectly horizontal, provided that the toe is below the ball and heel.
[[File:refoot.png]]

To use this feature we must ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot, which is done by the Offset Toes button.
=== Loop And Repeat ===
!LINK! -- Loop Animation!/LINK!
Create a loop of the action between two selected time markers, by blending the keyframes in the beginning and end of the loop. This is useful e.g. to create walk and run cycles for games. For good results, the poses at the beginning and end of the selected region should be similar.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending.
* Loop in place: Remove the X and Y components of the root bone's location.
* Loop F-curves: Loop the animation.
!LINK! -- Repeat Animation!/LINK!

Repeat the action between two selected time markers. The actions should preferably be looped before it is repeated, to make the beginning and end match seamlessly.
* Repeat Number: The number of repetitions.
* Repeat F-curves: Repeat the animation.
=== Stitching ===
Create a new action by stitching two actions together seamlessly.
* Update Action List: Update the first and second action drop-down lists.
* First Action: The name of the first action.
* First End Frame: Last frame of the first action
* Set Current Action: Set the first action as the current action.
* Second Action: The name of the second action.
* Second Start Frame: First frame of the second action.
* Set Current Action: Set the second action as the current action.
* Action Target: Choose between creating a new action and prepending the second action.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending. Same parameter as in Loop Animations section.
* Output Action Name:
* Stitch Actions: Stitch the actions together.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk armatures ===

==== Source Armature panel ====

MakeWalk transfers an animation from a source armature, defined in a bvh file, to a given target armature. It uses an intermediate standard rig described in!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. The bone map from the source armature to the target armature hence consists of two parts:
* A map from the source rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the MakeWalk: Source Armature panel.
* A map from the target rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_target_armature_panel.html -- MakeWalk: Target Armature panel!/LINK!.
[[File:mws-010-panel.png]]
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Source Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mws-020-auto.png]]
* Reinit Source Panel: Reinitialization.
* Auto Source Rig: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the source rig automatically. It may happen that MakeWalk fails to identify the source rig automatically, but this is very unusual. If it should nevertheless happen, it is possible to define the bone map manually in analogy with !LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- how it is done for target rigs!/LINK!.
* Source rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected source rig (if Auto Source Rig is disabled) or to Automatic.
* Bones in the active source rig.

==== Target Armature panel ====

The second part of the mapping from source to target armatures is defined by the panel labelled MH Mocap: Target armature. It is the top-most of the mocap tool panels, and is closed by default.
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Target Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mwt-011-panel.png]]
* Reinit Target Panel. Reinitialization.
* Target rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected Target rig (if Auto Target rig guessing is disabled), or is set to a matching rig (if automatic target rig identificiation is enabled).
* Auto Target Rig. If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the target rig automatically. However, automatic rig identification is not trivial for complex rigs, and it may fail. If so, the bone map may be specified manually, cf!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. If the bone map is defined. The target rigs available by default correspond mostly to the rig presets that can be exported from MakeHuman
* MHX. An advanced rig from MakeHuman alpha 8.
* MH Alpha 7. The MHX rig from MakeHuman alpha 7.
* Rigify.

* Ignore Hidden Layers: Ignore bones on hidden layers during automatic rig identification.
* Reverse Hip. Select this option if the armature has an reverse hip. It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
* Identify Target Rig: Identify the target rig, i.e. find out how bone names in the active armature correspond to the internal names. This step is performed automatically during retargeting, but the identification can also be done separately for debugging purposes. The bone map appears in the area called FK bones below.
* Set T-pose. Pose the active armature in T-pose.
* Save T-pose. Option used by the next button.
* Save Target File. Save the current bone map as a .trg file. If the Save T-pose option is set, also save a json file defining the T-pose.
* FK bones. The bone map.
The picture below shows automatic rig identification of the Rigify meta-rig (Add > Armature > Advanced Human).
[[File:mwt-020-metarig.png]]

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk troubleshooting. ===

==== What if retargeting fails? ====

=== Errors and Corrective Actions ===
This document will describe common errors and corrective actions.
It may happen that MakeWalk fails to retarget an animation to a given armature. In that case an error message is displayed.
[[File:mwa-100-error.png]]
The error message consists of the following:
Mocap error

Category

Detailed error message

A link to this page
MakeWalk errors are grouped into the following categories:
* Load Bvh File
* Rename And Rescale
* Identify Target Rig
* Automatic Target Rig
* Manual Target Rig
* Identify Source Rig
* Retarget
* General Error
Load Bvh File

Rename And Rescale

Identify Target Rig
=== Automatic Target Rig ===
The most common problem is probably that MakeWalk fails to identify the target rig automatically. There are several possible reasons for this:
* The character is not oriented correctly. In the rest pose, the character should be standing with up being the positive Z axis and facing -Y.
* The armature is complex with extra bones not corresponding to a standard biped rig.
* The armature only has IK arms or legs. MakeWalk retargets animations to the FK limbs, so if no such bones exist, the program will not work.
[[File:mwa-110-reverse-hip.png]]
It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
[[File:mwa-120-reversehip.png]]
The advantage of such a setup is that the upper and lower body can be posed independently. However, MakeWalk failes to identify the bones, unless the Reverse Hip option has been enabled.
If automatic bone identification still fails, bone mapping has to be made manually. How this is done is described in the next section.
=== Defining the Target Rig Manually ===
Internally, MakeWalk retargets animations to an armature with the following bone hierarchy.
Here is a visual illustration of the bone hierarchy:
[[File:mwa-010-armature.png]]
In order to retarget to an armature with different bone names, we must define a map between the given bones and the internal names. By default, MakeWalk attempts to do this automatically. However, automatic bone mapping may easily be confused for non-trivial rigs. If this happens, one can define the bone map manually.
A bone map for a target armature is defined by a .trg file located in the target_rigs folder under the makewalk directory. The folder already contains three files, for retargeting the MHX advanced rig, the MakeHuman, and Rigify. These rigs are too complicated to identify the bone map automatically, so MakeWalk recognizes these rigs and use the predefined bone map.
Create a .trg file using an existing file as a template. E.g., a .trg file could look like this:
Note that it is not necessary to define maps to all bones. Bone names must not contain spaces, since whitespace is used as a delimiter in the .trg file. If the bones in your armature do contain spaces, replace them by underscore ( _ ). MakeWalk treats space and underscore as equivalent, so this is not a problem, except for very strange naming convention.
[[File:mwa-020-myrig.png]]
Save the .trg file with the name my_rig.trg in the target_rigs folder and press the Reinit Target Panel button. My_Rig should now appear in the Target rig list. Select it. In the FK bones sections, the My_Rig bone names are now listed. Make sure that the Auto Target Rig option is deselected, to override automatic bone mapping. Finally go to the main panel and press Load And Retarget. The animation should now be loaded.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk utilities ===

==== Utilities panel ====

This panel contains material that does not naturally fit into the other panels.
[[File:mwu-010-panel.png]]
=== Default Settings ===
* Save Defaults: Save current settings as the default settings.
* Load Defaults: Load the default settings from file.
=== Manage Actions ===
* Actions: A list of all actions in the scene, at the time when the Update Action List button was last pressed.
* Filter: If selected, only actions belonging to the active character are included in the action list. When the mocap tool creates an action, the first four letters in the action name are taken from the rig name.
* Update Action List:
* Set Current Action: Set the action selected in the Actions list as the active action.
* Delete Action: Permanently delete the action selected in the Actions list. The action must have zero users. It is quite cumbersome to permanently delete actions in Blender. The reason is that creating an action with hand animation takes much work, which should not be lost accidentally. The situation is different with mocap, where it is easy to fill up a blend file with many irrelevant actions. This button makes it easier to clean out such junk motions.
* Delete Temporary Actions: Some tools create temporary actions, whose names start with a hash sign (#). Deletes all such actions.
=== Temporary properties ===
* Delete Temporary Properties. MakeWalk creates some properties for relevant posebones during retargeting. Pressing this button removes these properties. However, be aware that some of the tools in the Edit panel may fail if the temporrary properties are deleted.
The temporary properties for the active posebone can be inspected in the N-panel.
[[File:mwu-030-temp-props.png]]
* McpBone: The name of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpParent: The parent of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpQuatW, McpQuatX, McpQuatY, McpQuatZ: The rotation of this bone in T-pose, represented as a quaternion.
=== T-pose ===
* Set T-pose: Set the current pose to T-pose.
* Clear T-pose: Set the current pose to the default pose.
* Load T-pose: Load a T-pose from a .json file to the active armature.
* Save T-pose: Save the current pose as a .json file.
=== Rest Pose ===
* Current Pose => Rest Pose: Set the current pose to rest pose.

Documentation:MakeWalk

2017-03-15T01:48:19Z

Robbaer: /* Supported armatures */

=== NOTE ===
There is a wealth of important information in this document, but some of the detail is badly out of date. Most of the fundamental information is quite usable, nevertheless. Things that need repairing:
* Broken links
* Reference to armatures in older version of MakeHuman
* The MakeWalk tool is now found as a tab on the T-side-panel in Blender
------------------------------------
MakeWalk is a Blender add-on for retargeting mocap data (.bvh files) to a given armature.

==== Retargeting: how it works ====

The goal of retargeting is to transfer a motion from a source armature (e.g. from a BVH file) to a given target armature (e.g. the MHX rig). However, it is not straightforward to assign the source action to the target rig, even if the bones have identical names. The motion of each bone is specified in local coordinates, relative to the parent and the bone's own rest pose. If the rest poses of the source and target armatures differ, the source F-curves can not be used directly by the target armature.
[[File:makewalk-1.png]]
The picture above shows a transformation in the local coordinate system. Since the parent's local Y points along its axis and its local Z points up, the child bone is rotated around the local X axis. This is not very useful if the target armature has a diffent rest pose. To retarget the pose, we therefore reexpress the transformation in the global coordinate system, as shown below. The local X rotation corresponds to a global Y rotation, and by a different angle. Once the global transformation matrix is known, we can reexpress it in the target bone's local coordinate system.

The retargeting process thus consists of making two coordinate transformations:
Source local => Global => Target local.
This will ensure that the source bone and the target bone will have the same global orientation.
[[File:makewalk_2.png]]
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated. We do not always want the source and target bones to have identical orientation. In particular, the root or pelvis bone may point in entirely different directions in different armatures. E.g. in the CMU armature rest pose the pelvis points forward-down, and in the MHX rig it points straight up.
[[File:makewalk-3.png]]
If we insisted that the root bone in the MHX rig would point in the same direction as in the CMU rig, the retargeting would not be very successful, as shown in the figure above. If we instead keep the rotation offset from the rest poses, the target pose becomes much better, as shown below.
To calibrate the source and target armature against each other, MalkWalk introduces extra keyframes at frame 0, where both armatures are posed in T-pose.
[[File:mcp-ret-060-calibrate.png]]
In the rest of the animation, bones in the target armature copy the global rotations of the source armature, apart from differences present in the T-poses. In this way we can transfer animations from CMU to the MHX rig, despite the fact that the rest poses are very different.

==== Basic Workflow ====

=== Retargeting ===
The MakeWalk panels appear in the tool shelf whenever an armature is the active object. Select the armature and press the Load And Retarget button. In the file selector, select the .bvh file. We choose the file 90_04.bvh from the CMU database. It is a cartwheel animation.
[[File:makewalk-4.png]]
After a short wait, the armature is doing gymnastics.
[[File:makewalk-5.png]]
At frame 0 of the animation the armature has been placed in T-pose. This is not part of the originial .bvh file, but inserted by MakeWalk to calibrate the source armature (defined by the bvh file) and the target armature (the selected armature in the viewport) against each other.
=== Supported armatures ===
MakeWalk works with most straightforward biped rigs with FK arms and legs, such as the Rigify meta-rig. There is also built-in support for some more complex rigs: the MHX advanced rig from MakeHuman, the MHX rig from MakeHuman and Rigify.
[[File:makewalk-6.png]]
It is often possible to use MakeWalk with other complex rig, but in that case the automatic bone identification may fail. If so, a bone map must be defined manually, see -- [[Defining a Target Rig Manually]].

=== Troubleshooting ===
Retargeting is a rather involved subject, and it can sometimes result in poor motion. The process may even fail completely, usually because MakeWalk failed to automatically identify the bones of a complex rig. If this should happen, see!LINK!http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/Documentation:MakeWalk#Errors_and_Corrective_Actions -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.

==== Where to find BVH files ====

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. MakeHuman's mocap tool can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites I found useful.
* CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: Hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University, this is a huge library of mocap files which can be downloaded for free. The web address is!LINK!http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/ -- http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu!/LINK!. CMU hosts mocap files in three formats: tvd, c3d and amc. However, the mocap tool can only read BVH files, so none of these files can be used directly. Fortunately, B. Hahne at!LINK!http://www.cgspeed.com/ -- www.cgspeed.com!/LINK!has converted the CMU files to BVH. The converted files are located at!LINK!http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture -- http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture!/LINK!.

* Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD): Hosted at the Ohio State University, this is another great source of free mocap files. BVH files can be downloaded from!LINK!http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm -- http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm!/LINK!
* Eyes Japan (mocapdata.com):This is a Japanese company that sells mocap data commercially, but they also offer a huge number of motions for free. According to their homepage, mocapdata.com provides 744 premium motion data and 4197 free motion data. The only catch is that downloading requires registration. Not surprisingly, the homepage of mocapdata.com has the address!LINK!http://www.mocapdata.com/ -- http://www.mocapdata.com/!/LINK!.

* The Trailer's Park: Free mocap data can also be found at the Trailer's Park,!LINK!http://www.thetrailerspark.com/ -- http://www.thetrailerspark.com!/LINK!. This site does not offer original data, but offer repacks of mocap data from other free sites for download. Free download is limited to some five packs per day, so some patience is required here.

* Hochschule der Medien, Universität Bonn (HDM):!LINK!http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05/ -- http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05!/LINK!
* The Perfume global site project #001:!LINK!http://perfume-dev.github.com/ -- http://perfume-dev.github.com/!/LINK!

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk user interface ===

==== The user interface ====

The user > interface of MakeWalk is located in under the Armature tab, and becomes visible when an armature is selected. It consists of six panels; the first one is open by default and the others are closed.
[[File:makewalk-7_0.png]]
* Load And Retarget: Select a BVH file and retarget it to the active armature.
* Start Frame: The first frame in the BVH file to considered.
* Last Frame: The last frame to be considered, unless the animation stops earlier. The difference last_frame - first_frame is the maximal number of frames after retargeting. The number of frames in the BVH file may be larger, if some frames are skipped due to subsampling
* Detailed steps: When this options is selected, further buttons are show below
* Load BVH File (.bvh). Load a BVH file, and create an animated armature from it.
* Rename And Rescale BVH Rig. With the BVH armature active, and a target armature selected, rename and rescale the bones of the active armature to fit the target.
* Load And Rename BVH File (.bvh). A combination of the previous two buttons. With a target armature active, load a BVH file, and create an animated armature with renamed and rescaled bones.
* Retarget Selected To Active. Retarget the animation from a renamed and rescaled BVH armature to the active armature.
* Simplify FCurves. Simplify the F-curves of the active armature.
* Rescale FCurves. Rescale F-curevs of the active armature.What if retargeting fails?
MakeWalk is designed to retarget animations to a given armature with a minimum of user intervention. However, retargeting is a complex process, and entirely automatic retargeting may fail or result in suboptimal motion. Information about how to identify and correct problems is found in!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.
A common problem is that automatic identification of bones in the target armature fails. A bone map can then be assigned manually, cf.!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually.!/LINK!

==== Options panel ====

[[File:makewalk-8.png]]
* Use Default Subsample. Blender normally plays the animation in 24 fps or 25 fps, but the animation in the BVH file may be recorded at a different speed. In particular, the BVH files from CMU were filmed at 120 fps. Enable this option to have the animation play at natural speed, irrespective of the frame rate in the BVH file. Other subsample options are described below.
* Auto scale. Set the scale automatically based on the size of the left thigh. This choice has two motivations:
* Almost all character do have a left leg.
* The leg size is crucial for making walk cycles look good.

* Scale. The default MakeHuman scale is decimeters - 1 unit = 1 decimeter. Translations in a BVH file are expressed in different units; often the base unit is inches, meters or centimeters, but more obscure units can also occur, e.g. in BVH files from CMU. If the scale is set incorrectly, rotations will still be correctly retargeted, but the character will appear to take giant leaps or miniscule steps.
* Use Limits: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk honors any Limit Rotation constraints, and will not allow excessive rotations. If the animation in the bvh files exceeds some rotation limits, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. On the other hand, the rig may not be built for excessive rotations, so unchecking this option can lead to other problems.
* Unlock Rotation: If this option is disabled, MakeWalk honors any rotation locks. If the animation in the bvh files bend around locked axes, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. If Unlock Rotation is enabled, any X or Z rotation locks are disabled. Y rotation locks (bone twisting) are never disabled. The reason for this is that in the MHX and Rigify rigs, forearm rotation is handled by deform bones controlled by hand twisting.
* Auto source rig. The source rig (i.e. the armature defined by the BVH file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Source Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the source rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Auto target rig. The target rig (i.e. the armature in the blend file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Target Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the target rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Ignore Hidden Layers. Ignore bones on hidden layers when identifying the target rig.
=== Subsample and Rescale ===
If the Use Default Subsample option is set, the mocap tool will rescale the animation to fit the current frame rate. However, there are at least two reasons why you may want to load an animation at a different frame rate:
* * To obtain a slow-motion or rapid-motion effect.
* To quickly load an animation to see if the gross features will work out.
If the Use Default Subsample option is disabled, the SubSample section becomes visible.
* Subsample. Enable subsampling.
* Subsample Factor. If the value of this property is n, only every n:th frame of the BVH animation is loaded.
* Rescale. Enable rescaling.
* Rescale Factor. If the value of this property is n, the time distance between keyframes is changed to n.
* Rescale FCurves. Apply the settings above to existing F-curves rather than to the loaded animation.
Rescaling differs from simply scaling F-curves in the F-curve editor.
=== Simplification ===
* Simplify FCurves. Remove unnecessary keyframes.
* Max Loc Error. The maximal allowed error for location keyframes, in Blender units. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Max Rot Error. The maximal allowed error for rotation keyframes, in degrees. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Only Visible. Simplification only affect F-curves visible in the Graph editor.
* Only Between Markers. Simplification only affects F-curves between the two outermost selected markers. The timeline must have at least two selected markers.

==== Edit panel ====

Loading and retargeting is normally only the first step in the creation of an animation from mocap data. There are many reasons why a loaded animation does not behave exactly the way you want it to: artifacts in the mocap data, differences in armature structure not compensated for correctly by the retargeting process, differences in body stature between the mocap actor and the target character, or simply that the filmed sequence does not do exactly what you intend.. It is of course possible to edit the action directly in the graph editor, but this is unpractical due to the amount of mocap data. The mocap tool offers several possibilities to edit an action at a higher level. These tools are colleted in the Edit Action panel which is located just below the Options panel.
[[File:edit-action.png]]
=== Inverse Kinematics ===
* Transfer FK => IK: The load and retarget steps transfers an animation from a bvh file to the target character. However, only the FK bones are animated. Press this button to transfer the FK animation to the IK bones. Only works for the advanced MHX armature. If two markers are selected, only the animation between the markers is transferred.
* Transfer IK => FK: Transfer the animation back from the IK bones to the FK bones. Useful if the IK animation has been edited,
* Clear IK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all IK bones (arms and legs).
* Clear FK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all FK bones (arms and legs).
=== Global Edit ===
* Shift Animation. Shift the keys for the selected bones at all keyframes.If two markers are selected, only the keyframes between the markers are deleted.
* X,Y,Z: F-curves affected by the next button.
* Fixate Bone Locations:Replace all location keys by their average. Only selected bones and keyframes between selected markers are affected.
* Rescale Factor: Factor used by next button.
* Rescale FCurves: Rescale all F-curves by the factor above. This is similar to scaling F-curves in the curve editor, but jumps are treated correctly. E.g., rotations of +180 degrees and -180 degrees are the same, but if we scale an F-curve with a factor two, the intermedate keyframe will have the average rotation 0 degrees, The Rescale FCurves button handles this case correctly.
=== Local Edit ===
This section could be called "Poor man's animation layers". A loaded mocap animation usually has imperfections that must be edited, but without changing the overall feel of the motion. The Start Edit button creates a new animation layer where differences from the original motion are stored as keys, called delta keys since delta often denotes a difference.
* Start Edit: Start editing F-curves.
* Undo Edit: Quit F-curve editing, without modifying the original F-curves.
* Loc: Set a location delta keyframe.
* Rot: Set a rotation delta keyframe.
* LocRot: Set a location and rotation delta keyframe.
* Delete: Remove all delta keyframes at the current time.
* |<: Move to first delta keyframe
* <: Move to previous delta keyframe.
* >: Move to next delta keyframe.
* >|: Move to last delta keyframe.
* Confirm Edit: Modify the original F-curves and quit F-curve editing.
The delta keys are represented by markers in the timeline.
[[File:mwe-315-local-keys.png]]
A delta key can be added with the Loc, Rot and LocRot buttons, and removed with Delete. There is no way to view the delta keys directly. In the viewport and the curve editor, the final pose is shown, which is the sum of the original pose and the delta key.
A common use for delta keys is to correct for intersection with other objects or the character herself. The typical workflow is as follows:
* * Start Edit.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just before the intersection.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just after the intersection.
* Edit the pose a the frame(s) where intersection occurs.
* If the intersection has been removed, Confirm Edit. If not, set new delta keys until it has, or Undo Edit to remove the delta layer.
=== Feet ===
* Left: Affect the left foot.
* Right: Affect the right foot.
* Hips: Affect the characters hip (COM) bone.
* Offset Toes: Ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot at all keyframes. Primarily useful for rigs with a reverse foot setup as explained below.
* Keep Feet Above Floor: If a mesh object (typically a plane) is selected, shift the keyframes to keep the affected feet above the plane. The plane does not necessarily lie in the XY plane; if the plane is tilted, the feet are kept on the plane's upper side. If no plane is selected, the feet are kept above the XY plane (z = 0). The IK feet are affected if the rig has and uses IK legs, otherwise the FK feet are kept above the floor. If two markers are selected, only the keyframes inbetween are shifted.
In a rig with a reverse foot setup, such as the MHX rig, the foot can rotate around the toe, ball, and heel. The reverse foot and toe bones are completely fixed by the corresponding FK bones, but the IK effector can be placed arbitrarily, as long as it ends at the toe tip. The transfer tool uses this freedom to make the IK effector perfectly horizontal, provided that the toe is below the ball and heel.
[[File:refoot.png]]

To use this feature we must ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot, which is done by the Offset Toes button.
=== Loop And Repeat ===
!LINK! -- Loop Animation!/LINK!
Create a loop of the action between two selected time markers, by blending the keyframes in the beginning and end of the loop. This is useful e.g. to create walk and run cycles for games. For good results, the poses at the beginning and end of the selected region should be similar.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending.
* Loop in place: Remove the X and Y components of the root bone's location.
* Loop F-curves: Loop the animation.
!LINK! -- Repeat Animation!/LINK!

Repeat the action between two selected time markers. The actions should preferably be looped before it is repeated, to make the beginning and end match seamlessly.
* Repeat Number: The number of repetitions.
* Repeat F-curves: Repeat the animation.
=== Stitching ===
Create a new action by stitching two actions together seamlessly.
* Update Action List: Update the first and second action drop-down lists.
* First Action: The name of the first action.
* First End Frame: Last frame of the first action
* Set Current Action: Set the first action as the current action.
* Second Action: The name of the second action.
* Second Start Frame: First frame of the second action.
* Set Current Action: Set the second action as the current action.
* Action Target: Choose between creating a new action and prepending the second action.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending. Same parameter as in Loop Animations section.
* Output Action Name:
* Stitch Actions: Stitch the actions together.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk armatures ===

==== Source Armature panel ====

MakeWalk transfers an animation from a source armature, defined in a bvh file, to a given target armature. It uses an intermediate standard rig described in!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. The bone map from the source armature to the target armature hence consists of two parts:
* A map from the source rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the MakeWalk: Source Armature panel.
* A map from the target rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_target_armature_panel.html -- MakeWalk: Target Armature panel!/LINK!.
[[File:mws-010-panel.png]]
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Source Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mws-020-auto.png]]
* Reinit Source Panel: Reinitialization.
* Auto Source Rig: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the source rig automatically. It may happen that MakeWalk fails to identify the source rig automatically, but this is very unusual. If it should nevertheless happen, it is possible to define the bone map manually in analogy with !LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- how it is done for target rigs!/LINK!.
* Source rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected source rig (if Auto Source Rig is disabled) or to Automatic.
* Bones in the active source rig.

==== Target Armature panel ====

The second part of the mapping from source to target armatures is defined by the panel labelled MH Mocap: Target armature. It is the top-most of the mocap tool panels, and is closed by default.
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Target Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mwt-011-panel.png]]
* Reinit Target Panel. Reinitialization.
* Target rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected Target rig (if Auto Target rig guessing is disabled), or is set to a matching rig (if automatic target rig identificiation is enabled).
* Auto Target Rig. If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the target rig automatically. However, automatic rig identification is not trivial for complex rigs, and it may fail. If so, the bone map may be specified manually, cf!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. If the bone map is defined. The target rigs available by default correspond mostly to the rig presets that can be exported from MakeHuman
* MHX. An advanced rig from MakeHuman alpha 8.
* MH Alpha 7. The MHX rig from MakeHuman alpha 7.
* Rigify.

* Ignore Hidden Layers: Ignore bones on hidden layers during automatic rig identification.
* Reverse Hip. Select this option if the armature has an reverse hip. It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
* Identify Target Rig: Identify the target rig, i.e. find out how bone names in the active armature correspond to the internal names. This step is performed automatically during retargeting, but the identification can also be done separately for debugging purposes. The bone map appears in the area called FK bones below.
* Set T-pose. Pose the active armature in T-pose.
* Save T-pose. Option used by the next button.
* Save Target File. Save the current bone map as a .trg file. If the Save T-pose option is set, also save a json file defining the T-pose.
* FK bones. The bone map.
The picture below shows automatic rig identification of the Rigify meta-rig (Add > Armature > Advanced Human).
[[File:mwt-020-metarig.png]]

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk troubleshooting. ===

==== What if retargeting fails? ====

=== Errors and Corrective Actions ===
This document will describe common errors and corrective actions.
It may happen that MakeWalk fails to retarget an animation to a given armature. In that case an error message is displayed.
[[File:mwa-100-error.png]]
The error message consists of the following:
Mocap error

Category

Detailed error message

A link to this page
MakeWalk errors are grouped into the following categories:
* Load Bvh File
* Rename And Rescale
* Identify Target Rig
* Automatic Target Rig
* Manual Target Rig
* Identify Source Rig
* Retarget
* General Error
Load Bvh File

Rename And Rescale

Identify Target Rig
=== Automatic Target Rig ===
The most common problem is probably that MakeWalk fails to identify the target rig automatically. There are several possible reasons for this:
* The character is not oriented correctly. In the rest pose, the character should be standing with up being the positive Z axis and facing -Y.
* The armature is complex with extra bones not corresponding to a standard biped rig.
* The armature only has IK arms or legs. MakeWalk retargets animations to the FK limbs, so if no such bones exist, the program will not work.
[[File:mwa-110-reverse-hip.png]]
It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
[[File:mwa-120-reversehip.png]]
The advantage of such a setup is that the upper and lower body can be posed independently. However, MakeWalk failes to identify the bones, unless the Reverse Hip option has been enabled.
If automatic bone identification still fails, bone mapping has to be made manually. How this is done is described in the next section.
=== Defining the Target Rig Manually ===
Internally, MakeWalk retargets animations to an armature with the following bone hierarchy.
Here is a visual illustration of the bone hierarchy:
[[File:mwa-010-armature.png]]
In order to retarget to an armature with different bone names, we must define a map between the given bones and the internal names. By default, MakeWalk attempts to do this automatically. However, automatic bone mapping may easily be confused for non-trivial rigs. If this happens, one can define the bone map manually.
A bone map for a target armature is defined by a .trg file located in the target_rigs folder under the makewalk directory. The folder already contains three files, for retargeting the MHX advanced rig, the MakeHuman, and Rigify. These rigs are too complicated to identify the bone map automatically, so MakeWalk recognizes these rigs and use the predefined bone map.
Create a .trg file using an existing file as a template. E.g., a .trg file could look like this:
Note that it is not necessary to define maps to all bones. Bone names must not contain spaces, since whitespace is used as a delimiter in the .trg file. If the bones in your armature do contain spaces, replace them by underscore ( _ ). MakeWalk treats space and underscore as equivalent, so this is not a problem, except for very strange naming convention.
[[File:mwa-020-myrig.png]]
Save the .trg file with the name my_rig.trg in the target_rigs folder and press the Reinit Target Panel button. My_Rig should now appear in the Target rig list. Select it. In the FK bones sections, the My_Rig bone names are now listed. Make sure that the Auto Target Rig option is deselected, to override automatic bone mapping. Finally go to the main panel and press Load And Retarget. The animation should now be loaded.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk utilities ===

==== Utilities panel ====

This panel contains material that does not naturally fit into the other panels.
[[File:mwu-010-panel.png]]
=== Default Settings ===
* Save Defaults: Save current settings as the default settings.
* Load Defaults: Load the default settings from file.
=== Manage Actions ===
* Actions: A list of all actions in the scene, at the time when the Update Action List button was last pressed.
* Filter: If selected, only actions belonging to the active character are included in the action list. When the mocap tool creates an action, the first four letters in the action name are taken from the rig name.
* Update Action List:
* Set Current Action: Set the action selected in the Actions list as the active action.
* Delete Action: Permanently delete the action selected in the Actions list. The action must have zero users. It is quite cumbersome to permanently delete actions in Blender. The reason is that creating an action with hand animation takes much work, which should not be lost accidentally. The situation is different with mocap, where it is easy to fill up a blend file with many irrelevant actions. This button makes it easier to clean out such junk motions.
* Delete Temporary Actions: Some tools create temporary actions, whose names start with a hash sign (#). Deletes all such actions.
=== Temporary properties ===
* Delete Temporary Properties. MakeWalk creates some properties for relevant posebones during retargeting. Pressing this button removes these properties. However, be aware that some of the tools in the Edit panel may fail if the temporrary properties are deleted.
The temporary properties for the active posebone can be inspected in the N-panel.
[[File:mwu-030-temp-props.png]]
* McpBone: The name of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpParent: The parent of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpQuatW, McpQuatX, McpQuatY, McpQuatZ: The rotation of this bone in T-pose, represented as a quaternion.
=== T-pose ===
* Set T-pose: Set the current pose to T-pose.
* Clear T-pose: Set the current pose to the default pose.
* Load T-pose: Load a T-pose from a .json file to the active armature.
* Save T-pose: Save the current pose as a .json file.
=== Rest Pose ===
* Current Pose => Rest Pose: Set the current pose to rest pose.

Documentation:MakeWalk

2017-03-15T01:36:24Z

Robbaer: /* Troubleshooting */

=== NOTE ===
There is a wealth of important information in this document, but some of the detail is badly out of date. Most of the fundamental information is quite usable, nevertheless. Things that need repairing:
* Broken links
* Reference to armatures in older version of MakeHuman
* The MakeWalk tool is now found as a tab on the T-side-panel in Blender
------------------------------------
MakeWalk is a Blender add-on for retargeting mocap data (.bvh files) to a given armature.

==== Retargeting: how it works ====

The goal of retargeting is to transfer a motion from a source armature (e.g. from a BVH file) to a given target armature (e.g. the MHX rig). However, it is not straightforward to assign the source action to the target rig, even if the bones have identical names. The motion of each bone is specified in local coordinates, relative to the parent and the bone's own rest pose. If the rest poses of the source and target armatures differ, the source F-curves can not be used directly by the target armature.
[[File:makewalk-1.png]]
The picture above shows a transformation in the local coordinate system. Since the parent's local Y points along its axis and its local Z points up, the child bone is rotated around the local X axis. This is not very useful if the target armature has a diffent rest pose. To retarget the pose, we therefore reexpress the transformation in the global coordinate system, as shown below. The local X rotation corresponds to a global Y rotation, and by a different angle. Once the global transformation matrix is known, we can reexpress it in the target bone's local coordinate system.

The retargeting process thus consists of making two coordinate transformations:
Source local => Global => Target local.
This will ensure that the source bone and the target bone will have the same global orientation.
[[File:makewalk_2.png]]
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated. We do not always want the source and target bones to have identical orientation. In particular, the root or pelvis bone may point in entirely different directions in different armatures. E.g. in the CMU armature rest pose the pelvis points forward-down, and in the MHX rig it points straight up.
[[File:makewalk-3.png]]
If we insisted that the root bone in the MHX rig would point in the same direction as in the CMU rig, the retargeting would not be very successful, as shown in the figure above. If we instead keep the rotation offset from the rest poses, the target pose becomes much better, as shown below.
To calibrate the source and target armature against each other, MalkWalk introduces extra keyframes at frame 0, where both armatures are posed in T-pose.
[[File:mcp-ret-060-calibrate.png]]
In the rest of the animation, bones in the target armature copy the global rotations of the source armature, apart from differences present in the T-poses. In this way we can transfer animations from CMU to the MHX rig, despite the fact that the rest poses are very different.

==== Basic Workflow ====

=== Retargeting ===
The MakeWalk panels appear in the tool shelf whenever an armature is the active object. Select the armature and press the Load And Retarget button. In the file selector, select the .bvh file. We choose the file 90_04.bvh from the CMU database. It is a cartwheel animation.
[[File:makewalk-4.png]]
After a short wait, the armature is doing gymnastics.
[[File:makewalk-5.png]]
At frame 0 of the animation the armature has been placed in T-pose. This is not part of the originial .bvh file, but inserted by MakeWalk to calibrate the source armature (defined by the bvh file) and the target armature (the selected armature in the viewport) against each other.
=== Supported armatures ===
MakeWalk works with most straightforward biped rigs with FK arms and legs, such as the Rigify meta-rig. There is also built-in support for some more complex rigs: the MHX advanced rig from MakeHuman, the MHX rig from MakeHuman and Rigify.
[[File:makewalk-6.png]]
It is often possible to use MakeWalk with other complex rig, but in that case the automatic bone identification may fail. If so, a bone map must be defined manually, see!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining a Target Rig Manually!/LINK!.
=== Troubleshooting ===
Retargeting is a rather involved subject, and it can sometimes result in poor motion. The process may even fail completely, usually because MakeWalk failed to automatically identify the bones of a complex rig. If this should happen, see!LINK!http://www.makehumancommunity.org/wiki/Documentation:MakeWalk#Errors_and_Corrective_Actions -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.

==== Where to find BVH files ====

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. MakeHuman's mocap tool can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites I found useful.
* CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: Hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University, this is a huge library of mocap files which can be downloaded for free. The web address is!LINK!http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/ -- http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu!/LINK!. CMU hosts mocap files in three formats: tvd, c3d and amc. However, the mocap tool can only read BVH files, so none of these files can be used directly. Fortunately, B. Hahne at!LINK!http://www.cgspeed.com/ -- www.cgspeed.com!/LINK!has converted the CMU files to BVH. The converted files are located at!LINK!http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture -- http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture!/LINK!.

* Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD): Hosted at the Ohio State University, this is another great source of free mocap files. BVH files can be downloaded from!LINK!http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm -- http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm!/LINK!
* Eyes Japan (mocapdata.com):This is a Japanese company that sells mocap data commercially, but they also offer a huge number of motions for free. According to their homepage, mocapdata.com provides 744 premium motion data and 4197 free motion data. The only catch is that downloading requires registration. Not surprisingly, the homepage of mocapdata.com has the address!LINK!http://www.mocapdata.com/ -- http://www.mocapdata.com/!/LINK!.

* The Trailer's Park: Free mocap data can also be found at the Trailer's Park,!LINK!http://www.thetrailerspark.com/ -- http://www.thetrailerspark.com!/LINK!. This site does not offer original data, but offer repacks of mocap data from other free sites for download. Free download is limited to some five packs per day, so some patience is required here.

* Hochschule der Medien, Universität Bonn (HDM):!LINK!http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05/ -- http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05!/LINK!
* The Perfume global site project #001:!LINK!http://perfume-dev.github.com/ -- http://perfume-dev.github.com/!/LINK!

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk user interface ===

==== The user interface ====

The user > interface of MakeWalk is located in under the Armature tab, and becomes visible when an armature is selected. It consists of six panels; the first one is open by default and the others are closed.
[[File:makewalk-7_0.png]]
* Load And Retarget: Select a BVH file and retarget it to the active armature.
* Start Frame: The first frame in the BVH file to considered.
* Last Frame: The last frame to be considered, unless the animation stops earlier. The difference last_frame - first_frame is the maximal number of frames after retargeting. The number of frames in the BVH file may be larger, if some frames are skipped due to subsampling
* Detailed steps: When this options is selected, further buttons are show below
* Load BVH File (.bvh). Load a BVH file, and create an animated armature from it.
* Rename And Rescale BVH Rig. With the BVH armature active, and a target armature selected, rename and rescale the bones of the active armature to fit the target.
* Load And Rename BVH File (.bvh). A combination of the previous two buttons. With a target armature active, load a BVH file, and create an animated armature with renamed and rescaled bones.
* Retarget Selected To Active. Retarget the animation from a renamed and rescaled BVH armature to the active armature.
* Simplify FCurves. Simplify the F-curves of the active armature.
* Rescale FCurves. Rescale F-curevs of the active armature.What if retargeting fails?
MakeWalk is designed to retarget animations to a given armature with a minimum of user intervention. However, retargeting is a complex process, and entirely automatic retargeting may fail or result in suboptimal motion. Information about how to identify and correct problems is found in!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.
A common problem is that automatic identification of bones in the target armature fails. A bone map can then be assigned manually, cf.!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually.!/LINK!

==== Options panel ====

[[File:makewalk-8.png]]
* Use Default Subsample. Blender normally plays the animation in 24 fps or 25 fps, but the animation in the BVH file may be recorded at a different speed. In particular, the BVH files from CMU were filmed at 120 fps. Enable this option to have the animation play at natural speed, irrespective of the frame rate in the BVH file. Other subsample options are described below.
* Auto scale. Set the scale automatically based on the size of the left thigh. This choice has two motivations:
* Almost all character do have a left leg.
* The leg size is crucial for making walk cycles look good.

* Scale. The default MakeHuman scale is decimeters - 1 unit = 1 decimeter. Translations in a BVH file are expressed in different units; often the base unit is inches, meters or centimeters, but more obscure units can also occur, e.g. in BVH files from CMU. If the scale is set incorrectly, rotations will still be correctly retargeted, but the character will appear to take giant leaps or miniscule steps.
* Use Limits: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk honors any Limit Rotation constraints, and will not allow excessive rotations. If the animation in the bvh files exceeds some rotation limits, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. On the other hand, the rig may not be built for excessive rotations, so unchecking this option can lead to other problems.
* Unlock Rotation: If this option is disabled, MakeWalk honors any rotation locks. If the animation in the bvh files bend around locked axes, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. If Unlock Rotation is enabled, any X or Z rotation locks are disabled. Y rotation locks (bone twisting) are never disabled. The reason for this is that in the MHX and Rigify rigs, forearm rotation is handled by deform bones controlled by hand twisting.
* Auto source rig. The source rig (i.e. the armature defined by the BVH file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Source Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the source rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Auto target rig. The target rig (i.e. the armature in the blend file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Target Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the target rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Ignore Hidden Layers. Ignore bones on hidden layers when identifying the target rig.
=== Subsample and Rescale ===
If the Use Default Subsample option is set, the mocap tool will rescale the animation to fit the current frame rate. However, there are at least two reasons why you may want to load an animation at a different frame rate:
* * To obtain a slow-motion or rapid-motion effect.
* To quickly load an animation to see if the gross features will work out.
If the Use Default Subsample option is disabled, the SubSample section becomes visible.
* Subsample. Enable subsampling.
* Subsample Factor. If the value of this property is n, only every n:th frame of the BVH animation is loaded.
* Rescale. Enable rescaling.
* Rescale Factor. If the value of this property is n, the time distance between keyframes is changed to n.
* Rescale FCurves. Apply the settings above to existing F-curves rather than to the loaded animation.
Rescaling differs from simply scaling F-curves in the F-curve editor.
=== Simplification ===
* Simplify FCurves. Remove unnecessary keyframes.
* Max Loc Error. The maximal allowed error for location keyframes, in Blender units. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Max Rot Error. The maximal allowed error for rotation keyframes, in degrees. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Only Visible. Simplification only affect F-curves visible in the Graph editor.
* Only Between Markers. Simplification only affects F-curves between the two outermost selected markers. The timeline must have at least two selected markers.

==== Edit panel ====

Loading and retargeting is normally only the first step in the creation of an animation from mocap data. There are many reasons why a loaded animation does not behave exactly the way you want it to: artifacts in the mocap data, differences in armature structure not compensated for correctly by the retargeting process, differences in body stature between the mocap actor and the target character, or simply that the filmed sequence does not do exactly what you intend.. It is of course possible to edit the action directly in the graph editor, but this is unpractical due to the amount of mocap data. The mocap tool offers several possibilities to edit an action at a higher level. These tools are colleted in the Edit Action panel which is located just below the Options panel.
[[File:edit-action.png]]
=== Inverse Kinematics ===
* Transfer FK => IK: The load and retarget steps transfers an animation from a bvh file to the target character. However, only the FK bones are animated. Press this button to transfer the FK animation to the IK bones. Only works for the advanced MHX armature. If two markers are selected, only the animation between the markers is transferred.
* Transfer IK => FK: Transfer the animation back from the IK bones to the FK bones. Useful if the IK animation has been edited,
* Clear IK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all IK bones (arms and legs).
* Clear FK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all FK bones (arms and legs).
=== Global Edit ===
* Shift Animation. Shift the keys for the selected bones at all keyframes.If two markers are selected, only the keyframes between the markers are deleted.
* X,Y,Z: F-curves affected by the next button.
* Fixate Bone Locations:Replace all location keys by their average. Only selected bones and keyframes between selected markers are affected.
* Rescale Factor: Factor used by next button.
* Rescale FCurves: Rescale all F-curves by the factor above. This is similar to scaling F-curves in the curve editor, but jumps are treated correctly. E.g., rotations of +180 degrees and -180 degrees are the same, but if we scale an F-curve with a factor two, the intermedate keyframe will have the average rotation 0 degrees, The Rescale FCurves button handles this case correctly.
=== Local Edit ===
This section could be called "Poor man's animation layers". A loaded mocap animation usually has imperfections that must be edited, but without changing the overall feel of the motion. The Start Edit button creates a new animation layer where differences from the original motion are stored as keys, called delta keys since delta often denotes a difference.
* Start Edit: Start editing F-curves.
* Undo Edit: Quit F-curve editing, without modifying the original F-curves.
* Loc: Set a location delta keyframe.
* Rot: Set a rotation delta keyframe.
* LocRot: Set a location and rotation delta keyframe.
* Delete: Remove all delta keyframes at the current time.
* |<: Move to first delta keyframe
* <: Move to previous delta keyframe.
* >: Move to next delta keyframe.
* >|: Move to last delta keyframe.
* Confirm Edit: Modify the original F-curves and quit F-curve editing.
The delta keys are represented by markers in the timeline.
[[File:mwe-315-local-keys.png]]
A delta key can be added with the Loc, Rot and LocRot buttons, and removed with Delete. There is no way to view the delta keys directly. In the viewport and the curve editor, the final pose is shown, which is the sum of the original pose and the delta key.
A common use for delta keys is to correct for intersection with other objects or the character herself. The typical workflow is as follows:
* * Start Edit.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just before the intersection.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just after the intersection.
* Edit the pose a the frame(s) where intersection occurs.
* If the intersection has been removed, Confirm Edit. If not, set new delta keys until it has, or Undo Edit to remove the delta layer.
=== Feet ===
* Left: Affect the left foot.
* Right: Affect the right foot.
* Hips: Affect the characters hip (COM) bone.
* Offset Toes: Ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot at all keyframes. Primarily useful for rigs with a reverse foot setup as explained below.
* Keep Feet Above Floor: If a mesh object (typically a plane) is selected, shift the keyframes to keep the affected feet above the plane. The plane does not necessarily lie in the XY plane; if the plane is tilted, the feet are kept on the plane's upper side. If no plane is selected, the feet are kept above the XY plane (z = 0). The IK feet are affected if the rig has and uses IK legs, otherwise the FK feet are kept above the floor. If two markers are selected, only the keyframes inbetween are shifted.
In a rig with a reverse foot setup, such as the MHX rig, the foot can rotate around the toe, ball, and heel. The reverse foot and toe bones are completely fixed by the corresponding FK bones, but the IK effector can be placed arbitrarily, as long as it ends at the toe tip. The transfer tool uses this freedom to make the IK effector perfectly horizontal, provided that the toe is below the ball and heel.
[[File:refoot.png]]

To use this feature we must ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot, which is done by the Offset Toes button.
=== Loop And Repeat ===
!LINK! -- Loop Animation!/LINK!
Create a loop of the action between two selected time markers, by blending the keyframes in the beginning and end of the loop. This is useful e.g. to create walk and run cycles for games. For good results, the poses at the beginning and end of the selected region should be similar.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending.
* Loop in place: Remove the X and Y components of the root bone's location.
* Loop F-curves: Loop the animation.
!LINK! -- Repeat Animation!/LINK!

Repeat the action between two selected time markers. The actions should preferably be looped before it is repeated, to make the beginning and end match seamlessly.
* Repeat Number: The number of repetitions.
* Repeat F-curves: Repeat the animation.
=== Stitching ===
Create a new action by stitching two actions together seamlessly.
* Update Action List: Update the first and second action drop-down lists.
* First Action: The name of the first action.
* First End Frame: Last frame of the first action
* Set Current Action: Set the first action as the current action.
* Second Action: The name of the second action.
* Second Start Frame: First frame of the second action.
* Set Current Action: Set the second action as the current action.
* Action Target: Choose between creating a new action and prepending the second action.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending. Same parameter as in Loop Animations section.
* Output Action Name:
* Stitch Actions: Stitch the actions together.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk armatures ===

==== Source Armature panel ====

MakeWalk transfers an animation from a source armature, defined in a bvh file, to a given target armature. It uses an intermediate standard rig described in!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. The bone map from the source armature to the target armature hence consists of two parts:
* A map from the source rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the MakeWalk: Source Armature panel.
* A map from the target rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_target_armature_panel.html -- MakeWalk: Target Armature panel!/LINK!.
[[File:mws-010-panel.png]]
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Source Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mws-020-auto.png]]
* Reinit Source Panel: Reinitialization.
* Auto Source Rig: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the source rig automatically. It may happen that MakeWalk fails to identify the source rig automatically, but this is very unusual. If it should nevertheless happen, it is possible to define the bone map manually in analogy with !LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- how it is done for target rigs!/LINK!.
* Source rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected source rig (if Auto Source Rig is disabled) or to Automatic.
* Bones in the active source rig.

==== Target Armature panel ====

The second part of the mapping from source to target armatures is defined by the panel labelled MH Mocap: Target armature. It is the top-most of the mocap tool panels, and is closed by default.
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Target Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mwt-011-panel.png]]
* Reinit Target Panel. Reinitialization.
* Target rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected Target rig (if Auto Target rig guessing is disabled), or is set to a matching rig (if automatic target rig identificiation is enabled).
* Auto Target Rig. If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the target rig automatically. However, automatic rig identification is not trivial for complex rigs, and it may fail. If so, the bone map may be specified manually, cf!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. If the bone map is defined. The target rigs available by default correspond mostly to the rig presets that can be exported from MakeHuman
* MHX. An advanced rig from MakeHuman alpha 8.
* MH Alpha 7. The MHX rig from MakeHuman alpha 7.
* Rigify.

* Ignore Hidden Layers: Ignore bones on hidden layers during automatic rig identification.
* Reverse Hip. Select this option if the armature has an reverse hip. It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
* Identify Target Rig: Identify the target rig, i.e. find out how bone names in the active armature correspond to the internal names. This step is performed automatically during retargeting, but the identification can also be done separately for debugging purposes. The bone map appears in the area called FK bones below.
* Set T-pose. Pose the active armature in T-pose.
* Save T-pose. Option used by the next button.
* Save Target File. Save the current bone map as a .trg file. If the Save T-pose option is set, also save a json file defining the T-pose.
* FK bones. The bone map.
The picture below shows automatic rig identification of the Rigify meta-rig (Add > Armature > Advanced Human).
[[File:mwt-020-metarig.png]]

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk troubleshooting. ===

==== What if retargeting fails? ====

=== Errors and Corrective Actions ===
This document will describe common errors and corrective actions.
It may happen that MakeWalk fails to retarget an animation to a given armature. In that case an error message is displayed.
[[File:mwa-100-error.png]]
The error message consists of the following:
Mocap error

Category

Detailed error message

A link to this page
MakeWalk errors are grouped into the following categories:
* Load Bvh File
* Rename And Rescale
* Identify Target Rig
* Automatic Target Rig
* Manual Target Rig
* Identify Source Rig
* Retarget
* General Error
Load Bvh File

Rename And Rescale

Identify Target Rig
=== Automatic Target Rig ===
The most common problem is probably that MakeWalk fails to identify the target rig automatically. There are several possible reasons for this:
* The character is not oriented correctly. In the rest pose, the character should be standing with up being the positive Z axis and facing -Y.
* The armature is complex with extra bones not corresponding to a standard biped rig.
* The armature only has IK arms or legs. MakeWalk retargets animations to the FK limbs, so if no such bones exist, the program will not work.
[[File:mwa-110-reverse-hip.png]]
It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
[[File:mwa-120-reversehip.png]]
The advantage of such a setup is that the upper and lower body can be posed independently. However, MakeWalk failes to identify the bones, unless the Reverse Hip option has been enabled.
If automatic bone identification still fails, bone mapping has to be made manually. How this is done is described in the next section.
=== Defining the Target Rig Manually ===
Internally, MakeWalk retargets animations to an armature with the following bone hierarchy.
Here is a visual illustration of the bone hierarchy:
[[File:mwa-010-armature.png]]
In order to retarget to an armature with different bone names, we must define a map between the given bones and the internal names. By default, MakeWalk attempts to do this automatically. However, automatic bone mapping may easily be confused for non-trivial rigs. If this happens, one can define the bone map manually.
A bone map for a target armature is defined by a .trg file located in the target_rigs folder under the makewalk directory. The folder already contains three files, for retargeting the MHX advanced rig, the MakeHuman, and Rigify. These rigs are too complicated to identify the bone map automatically, so MakeWalk recognizes these rigs and use the predefined bone map.
Create a .trg file using an existing file as a template. E.g., a .trg file could look like this:
Note that it is not necessary to define maps to all bones. Bone names must not contain spaces, since whitespace is used as a delimiter in the .trg file. If the bones in your armature do contain spaces, replace them by underscore ( _ ). MakeWalk treats space and underscore as equivalent, so this is not a problem, except for very strange naming convention.
[[File:mwa-020-myrig.png]]
Save the .trg file with the name my_rig.trg in the target_rigs folder and press the Reinit Target Panel button. My_Rig should now appear in the Target rig list. Select it. In the FK bones sections, the My_Rig bone names are now listed. Make sure that the Auto Target Rig option is deselected, to override automatic bone mapping. Finally go to the main panel and press Load And Retarget. The animation should now be loaded.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk utilities ===

==== Utilities panel ====

This panel contains material that does not naturally fit into the other panels.
[[File:mwu-010-panel.png]]
=== Default Settings ===
* Save Defaults: Save current settings as the default settings.
* Load Defaults: Load the default settings from file.
=== Manage Actions ===
* Actions: A list of all actions in the scene, at the time when the Update Action List button was last pressed.
* Filter: If selected, only actions belonging to the active character are included in the action list. When the mocap tool creates an action, the first four letters in the action name are taken from the rig name.
* Update Action List:
* Set Current Action: Set the action selected in the Actions list as the active action.
* Delete Action: Permanently delete the action selected in the Actions list. The action must have zero users. It is quite cumbersome to permanently delete actions in Blender. The reason is that creating an action with hand animation takes much work, which should not be lost accidentally. The situation is different with mocap, where it is easy to fill up a blend file with many irrelevant actions. This button makes it easier to clean out such junk motions.
* Delete Temporary Actions: Some tools create temporary actions, whose names start with a hash sign (#). Deletes all such actions.
=== Temporary properties ===
* Delete Temporary Properties. MakeWalk creates some properties for relevant posebones during retargeting. Pressing this button removes these properties. However, be aware that some of the tools in the Edit panel may fail if the temporrary properties are deleted.
The temporary properties for the active posebone can be inspected in the N-panel.
[[File:mwu-030-temp-props.png]]
* McpBone: The name of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpParent: The parent of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpQuatW, McpQuatX, McpQuatY, McpQuatZ: The rotation of this bone in T-pose, represented as a quaternion.
=== T-pose ===
* Set T-pose: Set the current pose to T-pose.
* Clear T-pose: Set the current pose to the default pose.
* Load T-pose: Load a T-pose from a .json file to the active armature.
* Save T-pose: Save the current pose as a .json file.
=== Rest Pose ===
* Current Pose => Rest Pose: Set the current pose to rest pose.

Documentation:MakeWalk

2017-03-15T01:08:24Z

Robbaer: /* NOTE */

=== NOTE ===
There is a wealth of important information in this document, but some of the detail is badly out of date. Most of the fundamental information is quite usable, nevertheless. Things that need repairing:
* Broken links
* Reference to armatures in older version of MakeHuman
* The MakeWalk tool is now found as a tab on the T-side-panel in Blender
------------------------------------
MakeWalk is a Blender add-on for retargeting mocap data (.bvh files) to a given armature.

==== Retargeting: how it works ====

The goal of retargeting is to transfer a motion from a source armature (e.g. from a BVH file) to a given target armature (e.g. the MHX rig). However, it is not straightforward to assign the source action to the target rig, even if the bones have identical names. The motion of each bone is specified in local coordinates, relative to the parent and the bone's own rest pose. If the rest poses of the source and target armatures differ, the source F-curves can not be used directly by the target armature.
[[File:makewalk-1.png]]
The picture above shows a transformation in the local coordinate system. Since the parent's local Y points along its axis and its local Z points up, the child bone is rotated around the local X axis. This is not very useful if the target armature has a diffent rest pose. To retarget the pose, we therefore reexpress the transformation in the global coordinate system, as shown below. The local X rotation corresponds to a global Y rotation, and by a different angle. Once the global transformation matrix is known, we can reexpress it in the target bone's local coordinate system.

The retargeting process thus consists of making two coordinate transformations:
Source local => Global => Target local.
This will ensure that the source bone and the target bone will have the same global orientation.
[[File:makewalk_2.png]]
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated. We do not always want the source and target bones to have identical orientation. In particular, the root or pelvis bone may point in entirely different directions in different armatures. E.g. in the CMU armature rest pose the pelvis points forward-down, and in the MHX rig it points straight up.
[[File:makewalk-3.png]]
If we insisted that the root bone in the MHX rig would point in the same direction as in the CMU rig, the retargeting would not be very successful, as shown in the figure above. If we instead keep the rotation offset from the rest poses, the target pose becomes much better, as shown below.
To calibrate the source and target armature against each other, MalkWalk introduces extra keyframes at frame 0, where both armatures are posed in T-pose.
[[File:mcp-ret-060-calibrate.png]]
In the rest of the animation, bones in the target armature copy the global rotations of the source armature, apart from differences present in the T-poses. In this way we can transfer animations from CMU to the MHX rig, despite the fact that the rest poses are very different.

==== Basic Workflow ====

=== Retargeting ===
The MakeWalk panels appear in the tool shelf whenever an armature is the active object. Select the armature and press the Load And Retarget button. In the file selector, select the .bvh file. We choose the file 90_04.bvh from the CMU database. It is a cartwheel animation.
[[File:makewalk-4.png]]
After a short wait, the armature is doing gymnastics.
[[File:makewalk-5.png]]
At frame 0 of the animation the armature has been placed in T-pose. This is not part of the originial .bvh file, but inserted by MakeWalk to calibrate the source armature (defined by the bvh file) and the target armature (the selected armature in the viewport) against each other.
=== Supported armatures ===
MakeWalk works with most straightforward biped rigs with FK arms and legs, such as the Rigify meta-rig. There is also built-in support for some more complex rigs: the MHX advanced rig from MakeHuman, the MHX rig from MakeHuman and Rigify.
[[File:makewalk-6.png]]
It is often possible to use MakeWalk with other complex rig, but in that case the automatic bone identification may fail. If so, a bone map must be defined manually, see!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining a Target Rig Manually!/LINK!.
=== Troubleshooting ===
Retargeting is a rather involved subject, and it can sometimes result in poor motion. The process may even fail completely, usually because MakeWalk failed to automatically identify the bones of a complex rig. If this should happen, see!LINK!http://www.makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_errors_and_corrective_actions.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.

==== Where to find BVH files ====

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. MakeHuman's mocap tool can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites I found useful.
* CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: Hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University, this is a huge library of mocap files which can be downloaded for free. The web address is!LINK!http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/ -- http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu!/LINK!. CMU hosts mocap files in three formats: tvd, c3d and amc. However, the mocap tool can only read BVH files, so none of these files can be used directly. Fortunately, B. Hahne at!LINK!http://www.cgspeed.com/ -- www.cgspeed.com!/LINK!has converted the CMU files to BVH. The converted files are located at!LINK!http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture -- http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture!/LINK!.

* Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD): Hosted at the Ohio State University, this is another great source of free mocap files. BVH files can be downloaded from!LINK!http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm -- http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm!/LINK!
* Eyes Japan (mocapdata.com):This is a Japanese company that sells mocap data commercially, but they also offer a huge number of motions for free. According to their homepage, mocapdata.com provides 744 premium motion data and 4197 free motion data. The only catch is that downloading requires registration. Not surprisingly, the homepage of mocapdata.com has the address!LINK!http://www.mocapdata.com/ -- http://www.mocapdata.com/!/LINK!.

* The Trailer's Park: Free mocap data can also be found at the Trailer's Park,!LINK!http://www.thetrailerspark.com/ -- http://www.thetrailerspark.com!/LINK!. This site does not offer original data, but offer repacks of mocap data from other free sites for download. Free download is limited to some five packs per day, so some patience is required here.

* Hochschule der Medien, Universität Bonn (HDM):!LINK!http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05/ -- http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05!/LINK!
* The Perfume global site project #001:!LINK!http://perfume-dev.github.com/ -- http://perfume-dev.github.com/!/LINK!

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk user interface ===

==== The user interface ====

The user > interface of MakeWalk is located in under the Armature tab, and becomes visible when an armature is selected. It consists of six panels; the first one is open by default and the others are closed.
[[File:makewalk-7_0.png]]
* Load And Retarget: Select a BVH file and retarget it to the active armature.
* Start Frame: The first frame in the BVH file to considered.
* Last Frame: The last frame to be considered, unless the animation stops earlier. The difference last_frame - first_frame is the maximal number of frames after retargeting. The number of frames in the BVH file may be larger, if some frames are skipped due to subsampling
* Detailed steps: When this options is selected, further buttons are show below
* Load BVH File (.bvh). Load a BVH file, and create an animated armature from it.
* Rename And Rescale BVH Rig. With the BVH armature active, and a target armature selected, rename and rescale the bones of the active armature to fit the target.
* Load And Rename BVH File (.bvh). A combination of the previous two buttons. With a target armature active, load a BVH file, and create an animated armature with renamed and rescaled bones.
* Retarget Selected To Active. Retarget the animation from a renamed and rescaled BVH armature to the active armature.
* Simplify FCurves. Simplify the F-curves of the active armature.
* Rescale FCurves. Rescale F-curevs of the active armature.What if retargeting fails?
MakeWalk is designed to retarget animations to a given armature with a minimum of user intervention. However, retargeting is a complex process, and entirely automatic retargeting may fail or result in suboptimal motion. Information about how to identify and correct problems is found in!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.
A common problem is that automatic identification of bones in the target armature fails. A bone map can then be assigned manually, cf.!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually.!/LINK!

==== Options panel ====

[[File:makewalk-8.png]]
* Use Default Subsample. Blender normally plays the animation in 24 fps or 25 fps, but the animation in the BVH file may be recorded at a different speed. In particular, the BVH files from CMU were filmed at 120 fps. Enable this option to have the animation play at natural speed, irrespective of the frame rate in the BVH file. Other subsample options are described below.
* Auto scale. Set the scale automatically based on the size of the left thigh. This choice has two motivations:
* Almost all character do have a left leg.
* The leg size is crucial for making walk cycles look good.

* Scale. The default MakeHuman scale is decimeters - 1 unit = 1 decimeter. Translations in a BVH file are expressed in different units; often the base unit is inches, meters or centimeters, but more obscure units can also occur, e.g. in BVH files from CMU. If the scale is set incorrectly, rotations will still be correctly retargeted, but the character will appear to take giant leaps or miniscule steps.
* Use Limits: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk honors any Limit Rotation constraints, and will not allow excessive rotations. If the animation in the bvh files exceeds some rotation limits, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. On the other hand, the rig may not be built for excessive rotations, so unchecking this option can lead to other problems.
* Unlock Rotation: If this option is disabled, MakeWalk honors any rotation locks. If the animation in the bvh files bend around locked axes, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. If Unlock Rotation is enabled, any X or Z rotation locks are disabled. Y rotation locks (bone twisting) are never disabled. The reason for this is that in the MHX and Rigify rigs, forearm rotation is handled by deform bones controlled by hand twisting.
* Auto source rig. The source rig (i.e. the armature defined by the BVH file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Source Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the source rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Auto target rig. The target rig (i.e. the armature in the blend file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Target Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the target rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Ignore Hidden Layers. Ignore bones on hidden layers when identifying the target rig.
=== Subsample and Rescale ===
If the Use Default Subsample option is set, the mocap tool will rescale the animation to fit the current frame rate. However, there are at least two reasons why you may want to load an animation at a different frame rate:
* * To obtain a slow-motion or rapid-motion effect.
* To quickly load an animation to see if the gross features will work out.
If the Use Default Subsample option is disabled, the SubSample section becomes visible.
* Subsample. Enable subsampling.
* Subsample Factor. If the value of this property is n, only every n:th frame of the BVH animation is loaded.
* Rescale. Enable rescaling.
* Rescale Factor. If the value of this property is n, the time distance between keyframes is changed to n.
* Rescale FCurves. Apply the settings above to existing F-curves rather than to the loaded animation.
Rescaling differs from simply scaling F-curves in the F-curve editor.
=== Simplification ===
* Simplify FCurves. Remove unnecessary keyframes.
* Max Loc Error. The maximal allowed error for location keyframes, in Blender units. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Max Rot Error. The maximal allowed error for rotation keyframes, in degrees. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Only Visible. Simplification only affect F-curves visible in the Graph editor.
* Only Between Markers. Simplification only affects F-curves between the two outermost selected markers. The timeline must have at least two selected markers.

==== Edit panel ====

Loading and retargeting is normally only the first step in the creation of an animation from mocap data. There are many reasons why a loaded animation does not behave exactly the way you want it to: artifacts in the mocap data, differences in armature structure not compensated for correctly by the retargeting process, differences in body stature between the mocap actor and the target character, or simply that the filmed sequence does not do exactly what you intend.. It is of course possible to edit the action directly in the graph editor, but this is unpractical due to the amount of mocap data. The mocap tool offers several possibilities to edit an action at a higher level. These tools are colleted in the Edit Action panel which is located just below the Options panel.
[[File:edit-action.png]]
=== Inverse Kinematics ===
* Transfer FK => IK: The load and retarget steps transfers an animation from a bvh file to the target character. However, only the FK bones are animated. Press this button to transfer the FK animation to the IK bones. Only works for the advanced MHX armature. If two markers are selected, only the animation between the markers is transferred.
* Transfer IK => FK: Transfer the animation back from the IK bones to the FK bones. Useful if the IK animation has been edited,
* Clear IK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all IK bones (arms and legs).
* Clear FK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all FK bones (arms and legs).
=== Global Edit ===
* Shift Animation. Shift the keys for the selected bones at all keyframes.If two markers are selected, only the keyframes between the markers are deleted.
* X,Y,Z: F-curves affected by the next button.
* Fixate Bone Locations:Replace all location keys by their average. Only selected bones and keyframes between selected markers are affected.
* Rescale Factor: Factor used by next button.
* Rescale FCurves: Rescale all F-curves by the factor above. This is similar to scaling F-curves in the curve editor, but jumps are treated correctly. E.g., rotations of +180 degrees and -180 degrees are the same, but if we scale an F-curve with a factor two, the intermedate keyframe will have the average rotation 0 degrees, The Rescale FCurves button handles this case correctly.
=== Local Edit ===
This section could be called "Poor man's animation layers". A loaded mocap animation usually has imperfections that must be edited, but without changing the overall feel of the motion. The Start Edit button creates a new animation layer where differences from the original motion are stored as keys, called delta keys since delta often denotes a difference.
* Start Edit: Start editing F-curves.
* Undo Edit: Quit F-curve editing, without modifying the original F-curves.
* Loc: Set a location delta keyframe.
* Rot: Set a rotation delta keyframe.
* LocRot: Set a location and rotation delta keyframe.
* Delete: Remove all delta keyframes at the current time.
* |<: Move to first delta keyframe
* <: Move to previous delta keyframe.
* >: Move to next delta keyframe.
* >|: Move to last delta keyframe.
* Confirm Edit: Modify the original F-curves and quit F-curve editing.
The delta keys are represented by markers in the timeline.
[[File:mwe-315-local-keys.png]]
A delta key can be added with the Loc, Rot and LocRot buttons, and removed with Delete. There is no way to view the delta keys directly. In the viewport and the curve editor, the final pose is shown, which is the sum of the original pose and the delta key.
A common use for delta keys is to correct for intersection with other objects or the character herself. The typical workflow is as follows:
* * Start Edit.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just before the intersection.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just after the intersection.
* Edit the pose a the frame(s) where intersection occurs.
* If the intersection has been removed, Confirm Edit. If not, set new delta keys until it has, or Undo Edit to remove the delta layer.
=== Feet ===
* Left: Affect the left foot.
* Right: Affect the right foot.
* Hips: Affect the characters hip (COM) bone.
* Offset Toes: Ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot at all keyframes. Primarily useful for rigs with a reverse foot setup as explained below.
* Keep Feet Above Floor: If a mesh object (typically a plane) is selected, shift the keyframes to keep the affected feet above the plane. The plane does not necessarily lie in the XY plane; if the plane is tilted, the feet are kept on the plane's upper side. If no plane is selected, the feet are kept above the XY plane (z = 0). The IK feet are affected if the rig has and uses IK legs, otherwise the FK feet are kept above the floor. If two markers are selected, only the keyframes inbetween are shifted.
In a rig with a reverse foot setup, such as the MHX rig, the foot can rotate around the toe, ball, and heel. The reverse foot and toe bones are completely fixed by the corresponding FK bones, but the IK effector can be placed arbitrarily, as long as it ends at the toe tip. The transfer tool uses this freedom to make the IK effector perfectly horizontal, provided that the toe is below the ball and heel.
[[File:refoot.png]]

To use this feature we must ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot, which is done by the Offset Toes button.
=== Loop And Repeat ===
!LINK! -- Loop Animation!/LINK!
Create a loop of the action between two selected time markers, by blending the keyframes in the beginning and end of the loop. This is useful e.g. to create walk and run cycles for games. For good results, the poses at the beginning and end of the selected region should be similar.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending.
* Loop in place: Remove the X and Y components of the root bone's location.
* Loop F-curves: Loop the animation.
!LINK! -- Repeat Animation!/LINK!

Repeat the action between two selected time markers. The actions should preferably be looped before it is repeated, to make the beginning and end match seamlessly.
* Repeat Number: The number of repetitions.
* Repeat F-curves: Repeat the animation.
=== Stitching ===
Create a new action by stitching two actions together seamlessly.
* Update Action List: Update the first and second action drop-down lists.
* First Action: The name of the first action.
* First End Frame: Last frame of the first action
* Set Current Action: Set the first action as the current action.
* Second Action: The name of the second action.
* Second Start Frame: First frame of the second action.
* Set Current Action: Set the second action as the current action.
* Action Target: Choose between creating a new action and prepending the second action.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending. Same parameter as in Loop Animations section.
* Output Action Name:
* Stitch Actions: Stitch the actions together.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk armatures ===

==== Source Armature panel ====

MakeWalk transfers an animation from a source armature, defined in a bvh file, to a given target armature. It uses an intermediate standard rig described in!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. The bone map from the source armature to the target armature hence consists of two parts:
* A map from the source rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the MakeWalk: Source Armature panel.
* A map from the target rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_target_armature_panel.html -- MakeWalk: Target Armature panel!/LINK!.
[[File:mws-010-panel.png]]
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Source Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mws-020-auto.png]]
* Reinit Source Panel: Reinitialization.
* Auto Source Rig: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the source rig automatically. It may happen that MakeWalk fails to identify the source rig automatically, but this is very unusual. If it should nevertheless happen, it is possible to define the bone map manually in analogy with !LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- how it is done for target rigs!/LINK!.
* Source rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected source rig (if Auto Source Rig is disabled) or to Automatic.
* Bones in the active source rig.

==== Target Armature panel ====

The second part of the mapping from source to target armatures is defined by the panel labelled MH Mocap: Target armature. It is the top-most of the mocap tool panels, and is closed by default.
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Target Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mwt-011-panel.png]]
* Reinit Target Panel. Reinitialization.
* Target rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected Target rig (if Auto Target rig guessing is disabled), or is set to a matching rig (if automatic target rig identificiation is enabled).
* Auto Target Rig. If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the target rig automatically. However, automatic rig identification is not trivial for complex rigs, and it may fail. If so, the bone map may be specified manually, cf!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. If the bone map is defined. The target rigs available by default correspond mostly to the rig presets that can be exported from MakeHuman
* MHX. An advanced rig from MakeHuman alpha 8.
* MH Alpha 7. The MHX rig from MakeHuman alpha 7.
* Rigify.

* Ignore Hidden Layers: Ignore bones on hidden layers during automatic rig identification.
* Reverse Hip. Select this option if the armature has an reverse hip. It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
* Identify Target Rig: Identify the target rig, i.e. find out how bone names in the active armature correspond to the internal names. This step is performed automatically during retargeting, but the identification can also be done separately for debugging purposes. The bone map appears in the area called FK bones below.
* Set T-pose. Pose the active armature in T-pose.
* Save T-pose. Option used by the next button.
* Save Target File. Save the current bone map as a .trg file. If the Save T-pose option is set, also save a json file defining the T-pose.
* FK bones. The bone map.
The picture below shows automatic rig identification of the Rigify meta-rig (Add > Armature > Advanced Human).
[[File:mwt-020-metarig.png]]

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk troubleshooting. ===

==== What if retargeting fails? ====

=== Errors and Corrective Actions ===
This document will describe common errors and corrective actions.
It may happen that MakeWalk fails to retarget an animation to a given armature. In that case an error message is displayed.
[[File:mwa-100-error.png]]
The error message consists of the following:
Mocap error

Category

Detailed error message

A link to this page
MakeWalk errors are grouped into the following categories:
* Load Bvh File
* Rename And Rescale
* Identify Target Rig
* Automatic Target Rig
* Manual Target Rig
* Identify Source Rig
* Retarget
* General Error
Load Bvh File

Rename And Rescale

Identify Target Rig
=== Automatic Target Rig ===
The most common problem is probably that MakeWalk fails to identify the target rig automatically. There are several possible reasons for this:
* The character is not oriented correctly. In the rest pose, the character should be standing with up being the positive Z axis and facing -Y.
* The armature is complex with extra bones not corresponding to a standard biped rig.
* The armature only has IK arms or legs. MakeWalk retargets animations to the FK limbs, so if no such bones exist, the program will not work.
[[File:mwa-110-reverse-hip.png]]
It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
[[File:mwa-120-reversehip.png]]
The advantage of such a setup is that the upper and lower body can be posed independently. However, MakeWalk failes to identify the bones, unless the Reverse Hip option has been enabled.
If automatic bone identification still fails, bone mapping has to be made manually. How this is done is described in the next section.
=== Defining the Target Rig Manually ===
Internally, MakeWalk retargets animations to an armature with the following bone hierarchy.
Here is a visual illustration of the bone hierarchy:
[[File:mwa-010-armature.png]]
In order to retarget to an armature with different bone names, we must define a map between the given bones and the internal names. By default, MakeWalk attempts to do this automatically. However, automatic bone mapping may easily be confused for non-trivial rigs. If this happens, one can define the bone map manually.
A bone map for a target armature is defined by a .trg file located in the target_rigs folder under the makewalk directory. The folder already contains three files, for retargeting the MHX advanced rig, the MakeHuman, and Rigify. These rigs are too complicated to identify the bone map automatically, so MakeWalk recognizes these rigs and use the predefined bone map.
Create a .trg file using an existing file as a template. E.g., a .trg file could look like this:
Note that it is not necessary to define maps to all bones. Bone names must not contain spaces, since whitespace is used as a delimiter in the .trg file. If the bones in your armature do contain spaces, replace them by underscore ( _ ). MakeWalk treats space and underscore as equivalent, so this is not a problem, except for very strange naming convention.
[[File:mwa-020-myrig.png]]
Save the .trg file with the name my_rig.trg in the target_rigs folder and press the Reinit Target Panel button. My_Rig should now appear in the Target rig list. Select it. In the FK bones sections, the My_Rig bone names are now listed. Make sure that the Auto Target Rig option is deselected, to override automatic bone mapping. Finally go to the main panel and press Load And Retarget. The animation should now be loaded.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk utilities ===

==== Utilities panel ====

This panel contains material that does not naturally fit into the other panels.
[[File:mwu-010-panel.png]]
=== Default Settings ===
* Save Defaults: Save current settings as the default settings.
* Load Defaults: Load the default settings from file.
=== Manage Actions ===
* Actions: A list of all actions in the scene, at the time when the Update Action List button was last pressed.
* Filter: If selected, only actions belonging to the active character are included in the action list. When the mocap tool creates an action, the first four letters in the action name are taken from the rig name.
* Update Action List:
* Set Current Action: Set the action selected in the Actions list as the active action.
* Delete Action: Permanently delete the action selected in the Actions list. The action must have zero users. It is quite cumbersome to permanently delete actions in Blender. The reason is that creating an action with hand animation takes much work, which should not be lost accidentally. The situation is different with mocap, where it is easy to fill up a blend file with many irrelevant actions. This button makes it easier to clean out such junk motions.
* Delete Temporary Actions: Some tools create temporary actions, whose names start with a hash sign (#). Deletes all such actions.
=== Temporary properties ===
* Delete Temporary Properties. MakeWalk creates some properties for relevant posebones during retargeting. Pressing this button removes these properties. However, be aware that some of the tools in the Edit panel may fail if the temporrary properties are deleted.
The temporary properties for the active posebone can be inspected in the N-panel.
[[File:mwu-030-temp-props.png]]
* McpBone: The name of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpParent: The parent of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpQuatW, McpQuatX, McpQuatY, McpQuatZ: The rotation of this bone in T-pose, represented as a quaternion.
=== T-pose ===
* Set T-pose: Set the current pose to T-pose.
* Clear T-pose: Set the current pose to the default pose.
* Load T-pose: Load a T-pose from a .json file to the active armature.
* Save T-pose: Save the current pose as a .json file.
=== Rest Pose ===
* Current Pose => Rest Pose: Set the current pose to rest pose.

Documentation:MakeWalk

2017-03-15T01:04:50Z

Robbaer:

=== NOTE ===
There is a wealth of important information in this document, but some of the detail is badly out of date. Things that need repairing:
* Broken links
* Reference to armatures in older version of MakeHuman
* The MakeWalk tool is now found as a tab on the T-side-panel in Blender
------------------------------------
MakeWalk is a Blender add-on for retargeting mocap data (.bvh files) to a given armature.

==== Retargeting: how it works ====

The goal of retargeting is to transfer a motion from a source armature (e.g. from a BVH file) to a given target armature (e.g. the MHX rig). However, it is not straightforward to assign the source action to the target rig, even if the bones have identical names. The motion of each bone is specified in local coordinates, relative to the parent and the bone's own rest pose. If the rest poses of the source and target armatures differ, the source F-curves can not be used directly by the target armature.
[[File:makewalk-1.png]]
The picture above shows a transformation in the local coordinate system. Since the parent's local Y points along its axis and its local Z points up, the child bone is rotated around the local X axis. This is not very useful if the target armature has a diffent rest pose. To retarget the pose, we therefore reexpress the transformation in the global coordinate system, as shown below. The local X rotation corresponds to a global Y rotation, and by a different angle. Once the global transformation matrix is known, we can reexpress it in the target bone's local coordinate system.

The retargeting process thus consists of making two coordinate transformations:
Source local => Global => Target local.
This will ensure that the source bone and the target bone will have the same global orientation.
[[File:makewalk_2.png]]
Unfortunately, things are a little more complicated. We do not always want the source and target bones to have identical orientation. In particular, the root or pelvis bone may point in entirely different directions in different armatures. E.g. in the CMU armature rest pose the pelvis points forward-down, and in the MHX rig it points straight up.
[[File:makewalk-3.png]]
If we insisted that the root bone in the MHX rig would point in the same direction as in the CMU rig, the retargeting would not be very successful, as shown in the figure above. If we instead keep the rotation offset from the rest poses, the target pose becomes much better, as shown below.
To calibrate the source and target armature against each other, MalkWalk introduces extra keyframes at frame 0, where both armatures are posed in T-pose.
[[File:mcp-ret-060-calibrate.png]]
In the rest of the animation, bones in the target armature copy the global rotations of the source armature, apart from differences present in the T-poses. In this way we can transfer animations from CMU to the MHX rig, despite the fact that the rest poses are very different.

==== Basic Workflow ====

=== Retargeting ===
The MakeWalk panels appear in the tool shelf whenever an armature is the active object. Select the armature and press the Load And Retarget button. In the file selector, select the .bvh file. We choose the file 90_04.bvh from the CMU database. It is a cartwheel animation.
[[File:makewalk-4.png]]
After a short wait, the armature is doing gymnastics.
[[File:makewalk-5.png]]
At frame 0 of the animation the armature has been placed in T-pose. This is not part of the originial .bvh file, but inserted by MakeWalk to calibrate the source armature (defined by the bvh file) and the target armature (the selected armature in the viewport) against each other.
=== Supported armatures ===
MakeWalk works with most straightforward biped rigs with FK arms and legs, such as the Rigify meta-rig. There is also built-in support for some more complex rigs: the MHX advanced rig from MakeHuman, the MHX rig from MakeHuman and Rigify.
[[File:makewalk-6.png]]
It is often possible to use MakeWalk with other complex rig, but in that case the automatic bone identification may fail. If so, a bone map must be defined manually, see!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining a Target Rig Manually!/LINK!.
=== Troubleshooting ===
Retargeting is a rather involved subject, and it can sometimes result in poor motion. The process may even fail completely, usually because MakeWalk failed to automatically identify the bones of a complex rig. If this should happen, see!LINK!http://www.makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_errors_and_corrective_actions.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.

==== Where to find BVH files ====

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. MakeHuman's mocap tool can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites I found useful.
* CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database: Hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University, this is a huge library of mocap files which can be downloaded for free. The web address is!LINK!http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/ -- http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu!/LINK!. CMU hosts mocap files in three formats: tvd, c3d and amc. However, the mocap tool can only read BVH files, so none of these files can be used directly. Fortunately, B. Hahne at!LINK!http://www.cgspeed.com/ -- www.cgspeed.com!/LINK!has converted the CMU files to BVH. The converted files are located at!LINK!http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture -- http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture!/LINK!.

* Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD): Hosted at the Ohio State University, this is another great source of free mocap files. BVH files can be downloaded from!LINK!http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm -- http://accad.osu.edu/research/mocap/mocap_data.htm!/LINK!
* Eyes Japan (mocapdata.com):This is a Japanese company that sells mocap data commercially, but they also offer a huge number of motions for free. According to their homepage, mocapdata.com provides 744 premium motion data and 4197 free motion data. The only catch is that downloading requires registration. Not surprisingly, the homepage of mocapdata.com has the address!LINK!http://www.mocapdata.com/ -- http://www.mocapdata.com/!/LINK!.

* The Trailer's Park: Free mocap data can also be found at the Trailer's Park,!LINK!http://www.thetrailerspark.com/ -- http://www.thetrailerspark.com!/LINK!. This site does not offer original data, but offer repacks of mocap data from other free sites for download. Free download is limited to some five packs per day, so some patience is required here.

* Hochschule der Medien, Universität Bonn (HDM):!LINK!http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05/ -- http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/resources/HDM05!/LINK!
* The Perfume global site project #001:!LINK!http://perfume-dev.github.com/ -- http://perfume-dev.github.com/!/LINK!

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk user interface ===

==== The user interface ====

The user > interface of MakeWalk is located in under the Armature tab, and becomes visible when an armature is selected. It consists of six panels; the first one is open by default and the others are closed.
[[File:makewalk-7_0.png]]
* Load And Retarget: Select a BVH file and retarget it to the active armature.
* Start Frame: The first frame in the BVH file to considered.
* Last Frame: The last frame to be considered, unless the animation stops earlier. The difference last_frame - first_frame is the maximal number of frames after retargeting. The number of frames in the BVH file may be larger, if some frames are skipped due to subsampling
* Detailed steps: When this options is selected, further buttons are show below
* Load BVH File (.bvh). Load a BVH file, and create an animated armature from it.
* Rename And Rescale BVH Rig. With the BVH armature active, and a target armature selected, rename and rescale the bones of the active armature to fit the target.
* Load And Rename BVH File (.bvh). A combination of the previous two buttons. With a target armature active, load a BVH file, and create an animated armature with renamed and rescaled bones.
* Retarget Selected To Active. Retarget the animation from a renamed and rescaled BVH armature to the active armature.
* Simplify FCurves. Simplify the F-curves of the active armature.
* Rescale FCurves. Rescale F-curevs of the active armature.What if retargeting fails?
MakeWalk is designed to retarget animations to a given armature with a minimum of user intervention. However, retargeting is a complex process, and entirely automatic retargeting may fail or result in suboptimal motion. Information about how to identify and correct problems is found in!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Errors and Corrective Actions!/LINK!.
A common problem is that automatic identification of bones in the target armature fails. A bone map can then be assigned manually, cf.!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_troubleshooting.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually.!/LINK!

==== Options panel ====

[[File:makewalk-8.png]]
* Use Default Subsample. Blender normally plays the animation in 24 fps or 25 fps, but the animation in the BVH file may be recorded at a different speed. In particular, the BVH files from CMU were filmed at 120 fps. Enable this option to have the animation play at natural speed, irrespective of the frame rate in the BVH file. Other subsample options are described below.
* Auto scale. Set the scale automatically based on the size of the left thigh. This choice has two motivations:
* Almost all character do have a left leg.
* The leg size is crucial for making walk cycles look good.

* Scale. The default MakeHuman scale is decimeters - 1 unit = 1 decimeter. Translations in a BVH file are expressed in different units; often the base unit is inches, meters or centimeters, but more obscure units can also occur, e.g. in BVH files from CMU. If the scale is set incorrectly, rotations will still be correctly retargeted, but the character will appear to take giant leaps or miniscule steps.
* Use Limits: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk honors any Limit Rotation constraints, and will not allow excessive rotations. If the animation in the bvh files exceeds some rotation limits, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. On the other hand, the rig may not be built for excessive rotations, so unchecking this option can lead to other problems.
* Unlock Rotation: If this option is disabled, MakeWalk honors any rotation locks. If the animation in the bvh files bend around locked axes, this makes the retargeted animation less faithful. If Unlock Rotation is enabled, any X or Z rotation locks are disabled. Y rotation locks (bone twisting) are never disabled. The reason for this is that in the MHX and Rigify rigs, forearm rotation is handled by deform bones controlled by hand twisting.
* Auto source rig. The source rig (i.e. the armature defined by the BVH file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Source Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the source rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Auto target rig. The target rig (i.e. the armature in the blend file) is specified in the!LINK!/doc/node/blendertools_makewalk_source_and_target_armature.html -- Target Armature panel!/LINK!. Enable this option if the mocap tool should attempt to automatically identify the target rig, based on the structure of the bone hierarchy.
* Ignore Hidden Layers. Ignore bones on hidden layers when identifying the target rig.
=== Subsample and Rescale ===
If the Use Default Subsample option is set, the mocap tool will rescale the animation to fit the current frame rate. However, there are at least two reasons why you may want to load an animation at a different frame rate:
* * To obtain a slow-motion or rapid-motion effect.
* To quickly load an animation to see if the gross features will work out.
If the Use Default Subsample option is disabled, the SubSample section becomes visible.
* Subsample. Enable subsampling.
* Subsample Factor. If the value of this property is n, only every n:th frame of the BVH animation is loaded.
* Rescale. Enable rescaling.
* Rescale Factor. If the value of this property is n, the time distance between keyframes is changed to n.
* Rescale FCurves. Apply the settings above to existing F-curves rather than to the loaded animation.
Rescaling differs from simply scaling F-curves in the F-curve editor.
=== Simplification ===
* Simplify FCurves. Remove unnecessary keyframes.
* Max Loc Error. The maximal allowed error for location keyframes, in Blender units. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Max Rot Error. The maximal allowed error for rotation keyframes, in degrees. A larger error results in fewer keyframes but less accuracy.
* Only Visible. Simplification only affect F-curves visible in the Graph editor.
* Only Between Markers. Simplification only affects F-curves between the two outermost selected markers. The timeline must have at least two selected markers.

==== Edit panel ====

Loading and retargeting is normally only the first step in the creation of an animation from mocap data. There are many reasons why a loaded animation does not behave exactly the way you want it to: artifacts in the mocap data, differences in armature structure not compensated for correctly by the retargeting process, differences in body stature between the mocap actor and the target character, or simply that the filmed sequence does not do exactly what you intend.. It is of course possible to edit the action directly in the graph editor, but this is unpractical due to the amount of mocap data. The mocap tool offers several possibilities to edit an action at a higher level. These tools are colleted in the Edit Action panel which is located just below the Options panel.
[[File:edit-action.png]]
=== Inverse Kinematics ===
* Transfer FK => IK: The load and retarget steps transfers an animation from a bvh file to the target character. However, only the FK bones are animated. Press this button to transfer the FK animation to the IK bones. Only works for the advanced MHX armature. If two markers are selected, only the animation between the markers is transferred.
* Transfer IK => FK: Transfer the animation back from the IK bones to the FK bones. Useful if the IK animation has been edited,
* Clear IK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all IK bones (arms and legs).
* Clear FK Animation: Remove all keyframes from all FK bones (arms and legs).
=== Global Edit ===
* Shift Animation. Shift the keys for the selected bones at all keyframes.If two markers are selected, only the keyframes between the markers are deleted.
* X,Y,Z: F-curves affected by the next button.
* Fixate Bone Locations:Replace all location keys by their average. Only selected bones and keyframes between selected markers are affected.
* Rescale Factor: Factor used by next button.
* Rescale FCurves: Rescale all F-curves by the factor above. This is similar to scaling F-curves in the curve editor, but jumps are treated correctly. E.g., rotations of +180 degrees and -180 degrees are the same, but if we scale an F-curve with a factor two, the intermedate keyframe will have the average rotation 0 degrees, The Rescale FCurves button handles this case correctly.
=== Local Edit ===
This section could be called "Poor man's animation layers". A loaded mocap animation usually has imperfections that must be edited, but without changing the overall feel of the motion. The Start Edit button creates a new animation layer where differences from the original motion are stored as keys, called delta keys since delta often denotes a difference.
* Start Edit: Start editing F-curves.
* Undo Edit: Quit F-curve editing, without modifying the original F-curves.
* Loc: Set a location delta keyframe.
* Rot: Set a rotation delta keyframe.
* LocRot: Set a location and rotation delta keyframe.
* Delete: Remove all delta keyframes at the current time.
* |<: Move to first delta keyframe
* <: Move to previous delta keyframe.
* >: Move to next delta keyframe.
* >|: Move to last delta keyframe.
* Confirm Edit: Modify the original F-curves and quit F-curve editing.
The delta keys are represented by markers in the timeline.
[[File:mwe-315-local-keys.png]]
A delta key can be added with the Loc, Rot and LocRot buttons, and removed with Delete. There is no way to view the delta keys directly. In the viewport and the curve editor, the final pose is shown, which is the sum of the original pose and the delta key.
A common use for delta keys is to correct for intersection with other objects or the character herself. The typical workflow is as follows:
* * Start Edit.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just before the intersection.
* Set a delta key at a good frame just after the intersection.
* Edit the pose a the frame(s) where intersection occurs.
* If the intersection has been removed, Confirm Edit. If not, set new delta keys until it has, or Undo Edit to remove the delta layer.
=== Feet ===
* Left: Affect the left foot.
* Right: Affect the right foot.
* Hips: Affect the characters hip (COM) bone.
* Offset Toes: Ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot at all keyframes. Primarily useful for rigs with a reverse foot setup as explained below.
* Keep Feet Above Floor: If a mesh object (typically a plane) is selected, shift the keyframes to keep the affected feet above the plane. The plane does not necessarily lie in the XY plane; if the plane is tilted, the feet are kept on the plane's upper side. If no plane is selected, the feet are kept above the XY plane (z = 0). The IK feet are affected if the rig has and uses IK legs, otherwise the FK feet are kept above the floor. If two markers are selected, only the keyframes inbetween are shifted.
In a rig with a reverse foot setup, such as the MHX rig, the foot can rotate around the toe, ball, and heel. The reverse foot and toe bones are completely fixed by the corresponding FK bones, but the IK effector can be placed arbitrarily, as long as it ends at the toe tip. The transfer tool uses this freedom to make the IK effector perfectly horizontal, provided that the toe is below the ball and heel.
[[File:refoot.png]]

To use this feature we must ensure that the toe is below the ball of the foot, which is done by the Offset Toes button.
=== Loop And Repeat ===
!LINK! -- Loop Animation!/LINK!
Create a loop of the action between two selected time markers, by blending the keyframes in the beginning and end of the loop. This is useful e.g. to create walk and run cycles for games. For good results, the poses at the beginning and end of the selected region should be similar.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending.
* Loop in place: Remove the X and Y components of the root bone's location.
* Loop F-curves: Loop the animation.
!LINK! -- Repeat Animation!/LINK!

Repeat the action between two selected time markers. The actions should preferably be looped before it is repeated, to make the beginning and end match seamlessly.
* Repeat Number: The number of repetitions.
* Repeat F-curves: Repeat the animation.
=== Stitching ===
Create a new action by stitching two actions together seamlessly.
* Update Action List: Update the first and second action drop-down lists.
* First Action: The name of the first action.
* First End Frame: Last frame of the first action
* Set Current Action: Set the first action as the current action.
* Second Action: The name of the second action.
* Second Start Frame: First frame of the second action.
* Set Current Action: Set the second action as the current action.
* Action Target: Choose between creating a new action and prepending the second action.
* Blend Range: The number of keyframes used for blending. Same parameter as in Loop Animations section.
* Output Action Name:
* Stitch Actions: Stitch the actions together.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk armatures ===

==== Source Armature panel ====

MakeWalk transfers an animation from a source armature, defined in a bvh file, to a given target armature. It uses an intermediate standard rig described in!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. The bone map from the source armature to the target armature hence consists of two parts:
* A map from the source rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the MakeWalk: Source Armature panel.
* A map from the target rig to the standard rig. It is defined in the!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makewalk_target_armature_panel.html -- MakeWalk: Target Armature panel!/LINK!.
[[File:mws-010-panel.png]]
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Source Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mws-020-auto.png]]
* Reinit Source Panel: Reinitialization.
* Auto Source Rig: If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the source rig automatically. It may happen that MakeWalk fails to identify the source rig automatically, but this is very unusual. If it should nevertheless happen, it is possible to define the bone map manually in analogy with !LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- how it is done for target rigs!/LINK!.
* Source rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected source rig (if Auto Source Rig is disabled) or to Automatic.
* Bones in the active source rig.

==== Target Armature panel ====

The second part of the mapping from source to target armatures is defined by the panel labelled MH Mocap: Target armature. It is the top-most of the mocap tool panels, and is closed by default.
When a new scene is opened, the panel consists of the single button Initialize Target Panel. Once this button has been pressed, the following content is available:
[[File:mwt-011-panel.png]]
* Reinit Target Panel. Reinitialization.
* Target rig. A list of bvh rigs recognized by the mocap tool. This either defines the expected Target rig (if Auto Target rig guessing is disabled), or is set to a matching rig (if automatic target rig identificiation is enabled).
* Auto Target Rig. If this option is enabled, MakeWalk will try to identify the target rig automatically. However, automatic rig identification is not trivial for complex rigs, and it may fail. If so, the bone map may be specified manually, cf!LINK!http://makehuman.org/doc/node/defining_the_target_rig_manually.html -- Defining the Target Rig Manually!/LINK!. If the bone map is defined. The target rigs available by default correspond mostly to the rig presets that can be exported from MakeHuman
* MHX. An advanced rig from MakeHuman alpha 8.
* MH Alpha 7. The MHX rig from MakeHuman alpha 7.
* Rigify.

* Ignore Hidden Layers: Ignore bones on hidden layers during automatic rig identification.
* Reverse Hip. Select this option if the armature has an reverse hip. It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
* Identify Target Rig: Identify the target rig, i.e. find out how bone names in the active armature correspond to the internal names. This step is performed automatically during retargeting, but the identification can also be done separately for debugging purposes. The bone map appears in the area called FK bones below.
* Set T-pose. Pose the active armature in T-pose.
* Save T-pose. Option used by the next button.
* Save Target File. Save the current bone map as a .trg file. If the Save T-pose option is set, also save a json file defining the T-pose.
* FK bones. The bone map.
The picture below shows automatic rig identification of the Rigify meta-rig (Add > Armature > Advanced Human).
[[File:mwt-020-metarig.png]]

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk troubleshooting. ===

==== What if retargeting fails? ====

=== Errors and Corrective Actions ===
This document will describe common errors and corrective actions.
It may happen that MakeWalk fails to retarget an animation to a given armature. In that case an error message is displayed.
[[File:mwa-100-error.png]]
The error message consists of the following:
Mocap error

Category

Detailed error message

A link to this page
MakeWalk errors are grouped into the following categories:
* Load Bvh File
* Rename And Rescale
* Identify Target Rig
* Automatic Target Rig
* Manual Target Rig
* Identify Source Rig
* Retarget
* General Error
Load Bvh File

Rename And Rescale

Identify Target Rig
=== Automatic Target Rig ===
The most common problem is probably that MakeWalk fails to identify the target rig automatically. There are several possible reasons for this:
* The character is not oriented correctly. In the rest pose, the character should be standing with up being the positive Z axis and facing -Y.
* The armature is complex with extra bones not corresponding to a standard biped rig.
* The armature only has IK arms or legs. MakeWalk retargets animations to the FK limbs, so if no such bones exist, the program will not work.
[[File:mwa-110-reverse-hip.png]]
It is rather common that an armature has a reverse hip. In a normal hip setup, the armature root is the hip or pelvis bone, and the thighs and the rest of the spine are children of this bone. In a reverse hip setup, the first bone in the spine has been reversed. There is a separate root bone, and the two lowest bones in the spine are both children of thise root, whereas the thighs are children of the reversed hip.
[[File:mwa-120-reversehip.png]]
The advantage of such a setup is that the upper and lower body can be posed independently. However, MakeWalk failes to identify the bones, unless the Reverse Hip option has been enabled.
If automatic bone identification still fails, bone mapping has to be made manually. How this is done is described in the next section.
=== Defining the Target Rig Manually ===
Internally, MakeWalk retargets animations to an armature with the following bone hierarchy.
Here is a visual illustration of the bone hierarchy:
[[File:mwa-010-armature.png]]
In order to retarget to an armature with different bone names, we must define a map between the given bones and the internal names. By default, MakeWalk attempts to do this automatically. However, automatic bone mapping may easily be confused for non-trivial rigs. If this happens, one can define the bone map manually.
A bone map for a target armature is defined by a .trg file located in the target_rigs folder under the makewalk directory. The folder already contains three files, for retargeting the MHX advanced rig, the MakeHuman, and Rigify. These rigs are too complicated to identify the bone map automatically, so MakeWalk recognizes these rigs and use the predefined bone map.
Create a .trg file using an existing file as a template. E.g., a .trg file could look like this:
Note that it is not necessary to define maps to all bones. Bone names must not contain spaces, since whitespace is used as a delimiter in the .trg file. If the bones in your armature do contain spaces, replace them by underscore ( _ ). MakeWalk treats space and underscore as equivalent, so this is not a problem, except for very strange naming convention.
[[File:mwa-020-myrig.png]]
Save the .trg file with the name my_rig.trg in the target_rigs folder and press the Reinit Target Panel button. My_Rig should now appear in the Target rig list. Select it. In the FK bones sections, the My_Rig bone names are now listed. Make sure that the Auto Target Rig option is deselected, to override automatic bone mapping. Finally go to the main panel and press Load And Retarget. The animation should now be loaded.

=== MHBlenderTools: MakeWalk utilities ===

==== Utilities panel ====

This panel contains material that does not naturally fit into the other panels.
[[File:mwu-010-panel.png]]
=== Default Settings ===
* Save Defaults: Save current settings as the default settings.
* Load Defaults: Load the default settings from file.
=== Manage Actions ===
* Actions: A list of all actions in the scene, at the time when the Update Action List button was last pressed.
* Filter: If selected, only actions belonging to the active character are included in the action list. When the mocap tool creates an action, the first four letters in the action name are taken from the rig name.
* Update Action List:
* Set Current Action: Set the action selected in the Actions list as the active action.
* Delete Action: Permanently delete the action selected in the Actions list. The action must have zero users. It is quite cumbersome to permanently delete actions in Blender. The reason is that creating an action with hand animation takes much work, which should not be lost accidentally. The situation is different with mocap, where it is easy to fill up a blend file with many irrelevant actions. This button makes it easier to clean out such junk motions.
* Delete Temporary Actions: Some tools create temporary actions, whose names start with a hash sign (#). Deletes all such actions.
=== Temporary properties ===
* Delete Temporary Properties. MakeWalk creates some properties for relevant posebones during retargeting. Pressing this button removes these properties. However, be aware that some of the tools in the Edit panel may fail if the temporrary properties are deleted.
The temporary properties for the active posebone can be inspected in the N-panel.
[[File:mwu-030-temp-props.png]]
* McpBone: The name of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpParent: The parent of this bone in the internal hierarchy.
* McpQuatW, McpQuatX, McpQuatY, McpQuatZ: The rotation of this bone in T-pose, represented as a quaternion.
=== T-pose ===
* Set T-pose: Set the current pose to T-pose.
* Clear T-pose: Set the current pose to the default pose.
* Load T-pose: Load a T-pose from a .json file to the active armature.
* Save T-pose: Save the current pose as a .json file.
=== Rest Pose ===
* Current Pose => Rest Pose: Set the current pose to rest pose.

Documentation:Index

2017-03-14T23:53:44Z

Robbaer: /* Other / unsorted */

== Introduction ==

* [[Documentation:What is MakeHuman?|What is MakeHuman?]]: A quick introduction to MakeHuman.
* [[Documentation:Short and Long Pipeline|Short and Long Pipeline ]]: The goal of Makehuman is to see it used in 2 different professional pipelines.
* [[Documentation:Professional mesh topology|Professional mesh topology ]]: An overview of the professional topology provided by MakeHuman
* [[Documentation:Legal|Legal ]]: The various licenses that apply to MakeHuman and External tools

== General overview ==

* [[Documentation:Installing MakeHuman|Installing MakeHuman]]
* [[Documentation:Running MakeHuman from source|Running MakeHuman from source]]
* [[Documentation:Configuration and settings|Configuration and settings]]
* [[Documentation:The interface and its basic functions|The interface and its basic functions]]
* [[Documentation:The toolbar|The toolbar]]
* [[Documentation:The tabs|The tabs]]
* [[Documentation:The sliders|The sliders]]
* [[Documentation:Loading and saving|Loading and saving]]
* [[Documentation:Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera|Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera]]

== Working with the human ==

* [[Documentation:Gender, Random, Measure and Custom|Gender, Random, Measure and Custom]]
* [[Documentation:Hairstyles and Clothes|Hairstyles and Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling the body|Modeling the body]]
* [[Documentation:Alternative topologies|Alternative topologies]]
* [[Documentation:Skin and other materials|Skin and other materials]]
* [[Documentation:Rendering your work|Rendering your work]]

== Exporting your work to another application ==

* [[Documentation:Exports and file formats|Exports and file formats]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Blender and how to import them there|Saving models for Blender and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Maya and how to import them there|Saving models for Maya and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there|Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there|Saving models for Unity and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there|Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there]]

== Downloading or creating new assets ==

* [[Documentation:What is an asset?|What is an asset?]]
* [[Documentation:Finding and downloading more assets|Finding and downloading more assets]]
* [[Documentation:Getting and installing BlenderTools|Getting and installing BlenderTools]]
* [[Documentation:Targets|Targets]]
* [[Documentation:Clothes|Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Texture painting a skin in blender|Texture painting a skin in blender]]

==MakeClothes: In-depth tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Making a simple dress|Making a simple dress]]
* [[Documentation:Making diapers for a baby|Making diapers for a baby]]
* [[Documentation:Controlling the result with vertex groups|Controlling the result with vertex groups]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling a sword|Modeling a sword]]

== MakeWalk: General Background ==

* [[Documentation:MakeWalk|MakeWalk]]

== MakeWalk: In Depth Tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Running feet|Running feet]]
* [[Documentation:Automatic animation|Automatic animation]]

== Interacting with the community ==

* [[Documentation:Asking for help|Asking for help]]
* [[Documentation:Reporting a bug|Reporting a bug]]

== MakeHuman for developers ==

* [[Documentation:Plugin System|Plugin System]]
* [[Documentation:OpenGL Notes|OpenGL Notes]]
* [[Documentation:Directory structure and core modules|Directory structure and core modules]]
* [[Documentation:File formats and extensions|File formats and extensions]]
* [[Documentation:Libraries and build procedures|Libraries and build procedures]]
* [[Documentation:Development infrastructure|Development infrastructure]]
* [[Documentation:Application design and Code overview|Application design and Code overview]]
* [[Documentation:Getting started with MakeHuman code|Getting started with MakeHuman code]]
* [[Technical notes on MakeHuman]]

== Other / unsorted ==

* [[Documentation:Translation|Translation]]
* [[Documentation:Installing MHX2|Installing MHX2]]

== Meta ==

* [[Documentation:Planning on how to restructure the documentation]]

== Old documentation ==

The old documentation is available, but in a largely unformatted state:

[[Documentation:Big dump from drupal]]

(most of this should now have been ported to separate pages as per above)

The following have been merged in other pages, but they are left here if something got lost in the translation:

* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: Download and installation|MHBlenderTools: Download and installation ]]: How to download and install the addons for Blender
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget|MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget ]]: Description of the MakeTarget™ tool, to create custom morphings for MakeHuman.
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools:MakeClothes|MHBlenderTools: MakeClothes ]]: Description of the MakeClothes™ tool, to create custom clothes for MakeHuman.

Documentation:Index

2017-03-14T23:52:56Z

Robbaer:

== Introduction ==

* [[Documentation:What is MakeHuman?|What is MakeHuman?]]: A quick introduction to MakeHuman.
* [[Documentation:Short and Long Pipeline|Short and Long Pipeline ]]: The goal of Makehuman is to see it used in 2 different professional pipelines.
* [[Documentation:Professional mesh topology|Professional mesh topology ]]: An overview of the professional topology provided by MakeHuman
* [[Documentation:Legal|Legal ]]: The various licenses that apply to MakeHuman and External tools

== General overview ==

* [[Documentation:Installing MakeHuman|Installing MakeHuman]]
* [[Documentation:Running MakeHuman from source|Running MakeHuman from source]]
* [[Documentation:Configuration and settings|Configuration and settings]]
* [[Documentation:The interface and its basic functions|The interface and its basic functions]]
* [[Documentation:The toolbar|The toolbar]]
* [[Documentation:The tabs|The tabs]]
* [[Documentation:The sliders|The sliders]]
* [[Documentation:Loading and saving|Loading and saving]]
* [[Documentation:Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera|Zoom, pan and rotate using the orbital camera]]

== Working with the human ==

* [[Documentation:Gender, Random, Measure and Custom|Gender, Random, Measure and Custom]]
* [[Documentation:Hairstyles and Clothes|Hairstyles and Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling the body|Modeling the body]]
* [[Documentation:Alternative topologies|Alternative topologies]]
* [[Documentation:Skin and other materials|Skin and other materials]]
* [[Documentation:Rendering your work|Rendering your work]]

== Exporting your work to another application ==

* [[Documentation:Exports and file formats|Exports and file formats]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Blender and how to import them there|Saving models for Blender and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Maya and how to import them there|Saving models for Maya and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there|Saving models for 3ds MAX and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there|Saving models for Unreal Engine and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for Unity and how to import them there|Saving models for Unity and how to import them there]]
* [[Documentation:Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there|Saving models for OpenSim / Second Life and how to import them there]]

== Downloading or creating new assets ==

* [[Documentation:What is an asset?|What is an asset?]]
* [[Documentation:Finding and downloading more assets|Finding and downloading more assets]]
* [[Documentation:Getting and installing BlenderTools|Getting and installing BlenderTools]]
* [[Documentation:Targets|Targets]]
* [[Documentation:Clothes|Clothes]]
* [[Documentation:Texture painting a skin in blender|Texture painting a skin in blender]]

==MakeClothes: In-depth tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Making a simple dress|Making a simple dress]]
* [[Documentation:Making diapers for a baby|Making diapers for a baby]]
* [[Documentation:Controlling the result with vertex groups|Controlling the result with vertex groups]]
* [[Documentation:Modeling a sword|Modeling a sword]]

== MakeWalk: General Background ==

* [[Documentation:MakeWalk|MakeWalk]]

== MakeWalk: In Depth Tutorials ==

* [[Documentation:Running feet|Running feet]]
* [[Documentation:Automatic animation|Automatic animation]]

== Interacting with the community ==

* [[Documentation:Asking for help|Asking for help]]
* [[Documentation:Reporting a bug|Reporting a bug]]

== MakeHuman for developers ==

* [[Documentation:Plugin System|Plugin System]]
* [[Documentation:OpenGL Notes|OpenGL Notes]]
* [[Documentation:Directory structure and core modules|Directory structure and core modules]]
* [[Documentation:File formats and extensions|File formats and extensions]]
* [[Documentation:Libraries and build procedures|Libraries and build procedures]]
* [[Documentation:Development infrastructure|Development infrastructure]]
* [[Documentation:Application design and Code overview|Application design and Code overview]]
* [[Documentation:Getting started with MakeHuman code|Getting started with MakeHuman code]]
* [[Technical notes on MakeHuman]]

== Other / unsorted ==

* [[Documentation:MakeWalk|MakeWalk]]
* [[Documentation:Translation|Translation]]
* [[Documentation:Installing MHX2|Installing MHX2]]

== Meta ==

* [[Documentation:Planning on how to restructure the documentation]]

== Old documentation ==

The old documentation is available, but in a largely unformatted state:

[[Documentation:Big dump from drupal]]

(most of this should now have been ported to separate pages as per above)

The following have been merged in other pages, but they are left here if something got lost in the translation:

* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: Download and installation|MHBlenderTools: Download and installation ]]: How to download and install the addons for Blender
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget|MHBlenderTools: MakeTarget ]]: Description of the MakeTarget™ tool, to create custom morphings for MakeHuman.
* [[ Documentation:MHBlenderTools:MakeClothes|MHBlenderTools: MakeClothes ]]: Description of the MakeClothes™ tool, to create custom clothes for MakeHuman.

FAQ:What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?

2017-03-14T23:17:24Z

Robbaer:

'''Short version:'''

MHX2 is now a plugin you download from https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

If you use Blender you will most likely want to install this. If you don't use Blender, there is not yet an importer available for your application.

For installation of the MakeHuman exporter component, you should save the ''9_export_mhx2'' folder into you MakeHuman plugins folder.

The location of this plugins folder will vary with operating system.
* '''MacIntosh OSX''': Macintosh HD/Applications/MakeHuman.app/Contents/Resources/plugins
* '''Windows 7/8/10''': C:\MakeHuman\plugins (Assuming you installed as C:\MakeHuman)
* '''Debian/Ubuntu Linux''': ~/bin/makehuman/plugins (double check accuracy of this)

'''Long version:'''

The old MHX format has been deprecated (both by MakeHuman and by its author, Thomas Larsson).

Thomas Larsson has replaced MHX with MHX2 which is available as an external, separately maintained plugin. The major change from mhx to mhx2 is that it is now divided into separate exporter and importer components. This means it is theoretically possible to use .mhx2 with any application for which there is a suitable importer. Currently, the only importer available is for Blender.

For details on this MHX2 plugin (as well as download the MakeHuman Exporter and Blender Importer) see https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

MHX2 is not integrated into the core distribution because of separate maintenance and release cycles. However, it remains one of the most high fidelity ways to move assets from MakeHuman to Blender (and other applications when suitable importers become available). The alternative is to use the generic transfer formats: DAE and FBX. Because of their generic nature their generic nature, however, these will not give you the full convenience of using .mhx2.

If you need the specific features of MHX2, visit the link above and follow the instructions.

There is also a tutorial video on how to install MHX2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CCHGX-6Mtk

FAQ:What happened to the MHX export in MH 1.1.x and later?

2017-03-14T23:16:11Z

Robbaer:

'''Short version:'''

MHX2 is now a plugin you download from https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

If you use Blender you will most likely want to install this. If you don't use Blender, there is not yet an importer available for your application.

For installation of the MakeHuman exporter component, you should save the ''9_export_mhx2'' folder into you MakeHuman plugins folder.

The location of this plugins folder will vary with operating system.
* MacIntosh OSX: Macintosh HD/Applications/MakeHuman.app/Contents/Resources/plugins
* Windows 7/8/10: C:\MakeHuman\plugins (Assuming you installed as C:\MakeHuman)
* Debian/Ubuntu Linux: ~/bin/makehuman/plugins (double check accuracy of this)

'''Long version:'''

The old MHX format has been deprecated (both by MakeHuman and by its author, Thomas Larsson).

Thomas Larsson has replaced MHX with MHX2 which is available as an external, separately maintained plugin. The major change from mhx to mhx2 is that it is now divided into separate exporter and importer components. This means it is theoretically possible to use .mhx2 with any application for which there is a suitable importer. Currently, the only importer available is for Blender.

For details on this MHX2 plugin (as well as download the MakeHuman Exporter and Blender Importer) see https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange

MHX2 is not integrated into the core distribution because of separate maintenance and release cycles. However, it remains one of the most high fidelity ways to move assets from MakeHuman to Blender (and other applications when suitable importers become available). The alternative is to use the generic transfer formats: DAE and FBX. Because of their generic nature their generic nature, however, these will not give you the full convenience of using .mhx2.

If you need the specific features of MHX2, visit the link above and follow the instructions.

There is also a tutorial video on how to install MHX2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CCHGX-6Mtk