Another Animation Problem

[mofselvi]

I exported a human model with Makehuman, imported the mhx file into Blender, loaded BVH animation to the model, activated Leadwerks mdl export plugin for Blender and exported it as mdl file. After I imported my animated model to my Leadwerks project, the animation looks like;

 

 

This animation looks good in Blender and Unity. But in Leadwerks it looks weird.

 

What is the problem? Is it about shaders? I really want to use this engine so I need some help.

[Thirsty Panther]

Check out Aggrors tutorials on importing models and animation

 

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/tutorials/_/artwork/

 

Also search the forums I'm sure someone posted something similar but I can't find it Atm.

[mofselvi]

Check out Aggrors tutorials on importing models and animation

 

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/tutorials/_/artwork/

 

Also search the forums I'm sure someone posted something similar but I can't find it Atm.

 

I've watched them and I already know the difference between default shaders and animation shaders. My model's materials have animation shaders. Now I don't think anymore it's about shaders. Perhaps, Leadwerks cannot play animations of splitted meshes?.. (Note that shirt model and jeans model have been merged with the body mesh in Blender (Ctrl+J). I removed faces that are under clothes from body mesh. Clothes play successfully but the body doesn't.)

[mofselvi]

I just tried to load model without removing faces under clothes.

 

In Blender:

 

 

In Leadwerks Model Editor:

 

This is making me crazy. Did I waste my money buying this engine or am I missing something?

[Josh]

Please provide your FBX file.

[mofselvi]

Please provide your FBX file.

 

When I try importing FBX file that I exported from Blender, Leadwerks cannot convert the model. It looks it creates a .mdl file in Leadwerks project but it actually doesn't exist in the project folder. (maybe it happens because materials cannot be detected. just an idea)

[Josh]

Without the FBX file I cannot investigate this.

[mofselvi]

Did you mean upload the file? Sorry I misunderstood.

 

This is the zip file that includes both blend file and fbx file exported from Blender.

animatedmakehumanmodel.zip

[YouGroove]

This is making me crazy. Did I waste my money buying this engine or am I missing something?

No the engine, supports FBX, but many things in animation are specific and not all are "standard" FBX , as LE3 supports standard FBX, and not addons such Regiffy plugin or Blendshapes.

It's also up to you to dig Blender a bit more to avoid to be stuck

 

I think you just didn't applied the good shader to some parts of the model.

Just choose a material using animated shader and drop it on the hands of the character and that should fix it, because your character is composed of multiple sub objects.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Here is how i done to have it working fine.

 

The controls are just visual shapes on top of skeletal mesh

 

If you want you can delete the visual controls and you'll have standard bones displyaing instead, this don't change

anything on animation

 

I exported from Blender to FBX 6.3 and imported in LE3 and put animated shader material on all sub objects and it just works.

 

You model is composed of several objects :

-Check your materials usea shader from "model/animated" folder

-Drop animated materials on each object composing your character in the model editor

 

To export :

Select all character parts and join them , this can help

 

Select both character and green skeleton controls object , then choose Export -> FBX 6.3 ASCII

 

Use same settings as below

 

The thread should be move to "Game Art" because there is no bug.

[mofselvi]

It's great to know that is not a bug. (I think there must be a forum named technical problems in werkspace)

 

However, I have another problem with model files. As I said before, I can't load any fbx model file to my project. When I try it, this happens:

 

Leadwerks seems it imports the fbx file but it actually doesn't. This is why I'm using that mdl export plugin.

I also used export settings as you specified. I can't import even simple cube model that has no armatures.

[YouGroove]

Leadwerks seems it imports the fbx file but it actually doesn't. This is why I'm using that mdl export plugin.

I also used export settings as you specified. I can't import even simple cube model that has no armatures.

No LE3 imports FBX without problem, this is something standard on other 3D engines today.

I import models and animated ones from Blender and i never use the plugin just Blender FBX export.

You have some problem like Blender version, LE3 installation or another one.

 

BTW, do you know a good site for BHV files ?

(i animate myself, but using BHV i can surely work lot more faster and tweak animations to suit my needs)

You used Blender Tools to retarget animations right ?

[mofselvi]

No LE3 imports FBX without problem, this is something standard on other 3D engines today.

I import models and animated ones from Blender and i never use the plugin just Blender FBX export.

You have some problem like Blender version, LE3 installation or another one.

 

BTW, do you know a good site for BHV files ?

(i animate myself, but using BHV i can surely work lot more faster and tweak animations to suit my needs)

You used Blender Tools to retarget animations right ?

 

I can import the same fbx file to Unity (free) and UE4. It's working fine in these two engines. (But I don't want to pay $1500 for only shadows and pp-effects. also UE has no good documentation for indie-developers, I think they support only big companies in detailed way. This is why I'd like to go with LW anyway)

 

I don't know any bvh archive site. I make my animations with Kinect. When I just want to test something fastly, I use Qavimator. to retarget bvh animations fastly I use MakeWalk plugin. It works fine with non-Makehuman models also.

 

Anyway, I will try it again after removing and re-installing both Blender and Leadwerks. Thank you so much!

[YouGroove]

I can import the same fbx file to Unity (free) and UE4. It's working fine in these two engines. (But I don't want to pay $1500 for only shadows and pp-effects. also UE has no good documentation for indie-developers, I think they support only big companies in detailed way. This is why I'd like to go with LW anyway)

 

You didn't tried Crysis engine ? i'm just kidding

I don't ask you what engines you want to use or not, you could use Esenthel, Shiva , Irrlicht any other else, i don't care.

Each people can use what he wants, there is no problem, but we are in LE3 forums and you stated FBX don't import well in LE3 , what is totally false (Blender exported your model to fbx just and LE3 successfully imported it with no problem).

 

I don't know any bvh archive site. I make my animations with Kinect. When I just want to test something fastly, I use Qavimator. to retarget bvh animations fastly I use MakeWalk plugin. It works fine with non-Makehuman models also.

Ok, because BHV files are not animation with character staying at center position, so i was curious seeing your animation

 

Anyway, I will try it again after removing and re-installing both Blender and Leadwerks. Thank you so much!

Let me know if something is not working, i'll find time to test and explain you if needed.

[mofselvi]

I don't ask you what engines you want to use or not, you could use Esenthel, Shiva , Irrlicht any other else, i don't care.

Each people can use what he wants, there is no problem, but we are in LE3 forums and you stated FBX don't import well in LE3 ,

Yeah I know I'm talkative a little bit

 

you stated FBX don't import well in LE3 , what is totally false

perhaps I couldn't express myself well.. I meant that I'm not able to import fbx in leadwerks because of some problems I do have, not Leadwerks Engine has. This feature just doesn't work for me..

 

 

Ok, because BHV files are not animation with character staying at center position, so i was curious seeing your animation

as you can see my animation doesn't look realistic, however it is possibe to make the model stay at center in Blender as you already most probably know.

 

 

Let me know if something is not working, i'll find time to test and explain you if needed.

I will. I am gonna try to figure out the problem after my final exams. Thanks again.

 

Regards

[Josh]

Glad you got that working.

[mofselvi]

I think this topic is getting a garbage but I needed to post these:

 

this is a part of Leadwerks.log file.

Converting "moftest/model/new folder/animatedmodel2.fbx"...
Input: C:/Users/Möf Selvi/Documents/Leadwerks/Projects/MyGame/MofTest/Model/New folder/animatedmodel2.fbx
Output: C:/Users/Möf Selvi/Documents/Leadwerks/Projects/MyGame/MofTest/Model/New folder/animatedmodel2.mdl
FBX: Initializing scene...
FBX: File version: 0.0.0
Failed to load thumbnail 6 for C:/Users/Möf Selvi/Documents/Leadwerks/Projects/MyGame/MofTest/Model/New folder/animatedmodel2.mdl
Loading model "C:/Users/Möf Selvi/Documents/Leadwerks/Projects/MyGame/MofTest/Model/New folder/animatedmodel2.mdl"
Failed to read file C:/Users/Möf Selvi/Documents/Leadwerks/Projects/MyGame/MofTest/Model/New folder/animatedmodel2.mdl

 

I thought it might be helpful.

 

I reinstalled blender (2.68, 2.69, 2.71, 2.72 versions) and Leadwerks, and also tried converting fbx file to old fbx versions (in both ASCII and binary type) with Autodesk FBX Converter x64 2013. I also downloaded a few models from tf3dm.com. Leadwerks still doesn't convert fbx files to mdl.

( I just found a topic posted by someone who had the same issue: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/8474-fbx-not-converting/ )

I'm about to give up..

[YouGroove]

I reinstalled blender (2.68, 2.69, 2.71, 2.72 versions) and Leadwerks

 

You just need Blender 2.72 and export to FBX directly. If you have some Blender model i can test if you upload :

- Blender file

- Exported Fbx from Blender (to see if you exported it well or not)

[mofselvi]

I exported a simple cube in fbx and mdl formats:

cube.zip

 

The result:

 

(There is no mdl file in testFBX folder, there is only cube.fbx)

[YouGroove]

I just tested your files :

Blender cube file :

-open in BLender 2.72 ok

-export to FBX : ok

- import in LE and drop on level : ok

 

Fbx cube file :

- import in LE and drop on level : ok

 

I don't know what is going on with your computer ?

[mofselvi]

Me too.. Thank you very much for your effort! I'll try to handle this issue later. By the way, I will take a test with LE Demo on my friend's computer. If I get same problem I'll let you know about it.

 

Regards

 

Edit: LE Demo loaded and converted fbx model to mdl successfully. (we'd better know that demo version is 3.2 and I'm working on LE v3.3. it didn't become a valuable test.)

[mofselvi]

Got it!

 

I really feel stupid now. I tried almost everything... Except creating a new project in another folder. My Windows user name includes Turkish characters. I just decided to create a new project in C:\LEProjects instead of "My Documents" directory that includes my user name. I loaded my fbx file with textures to new project, generated materials from textures and changed shaders to animated shaders. Finally! I can use my animated model without any problem. An application in LE that converts files from fbx to mdl doesn't work for directories that have special characters.

 

I'm really happy to be able to keep going with LE.