Answered

Simple Modification of an existing animation

skjbukowski 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 3

Hi sorry I have Umotion pro but I'm getting pretty frustrated with the getting started tutorials. I feel like my requirement is extremely basic - I have an existing animation sitting in my project folder on a bird and for certain keyframes I just want to stop the bird's feet from moving away from where they are on frame 4-5 for example. Also the getting started tutorial is like - "I recommend setting up IK". Well why? What's the consequence of doing it versus not? What do we do when mapping in IK isnt correctly assigned? Also I dont want to modify my existing characters in scene. For an animation beginner there's a lot of prior knowledge assumed. 

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request.

I just want to stop the bird's feet from moving away from where they are on frame 4-5 for example.

You mean you want that the feet stay exactly at place? You need to pin the to the ground using IK.

Also the getting started tutorial is like - "I recommend setting up IK". Well why?

IK makes it easier for you to animate, as you can just drag the "end effector" (e.g. for the arms, you can just drag the hand to the spot you want them to be and the IK is calculating the required angles for the upper/lower arms automatically for you). When using FK instead, you would have to manually rotate the upper/lower arms until the hand is at the spot you want it to be.

Same goes for your bird's feet. If you want them to stay at the exact same spot, with FK you would have to manually adjust the rotation of the upper/lower leg bones for each frame so that the feet stay on spot. IK plus IK pinning would do that automatically for you.

What do we do when mapping in IK isnt correctly assigned?

Since your model is a generic model (and not a humanoid one), UMotion has no way to know that e.g. a leg bone is a leg as in a generic model it really could be anything. So you have to manually setup your IK chain. I recommend checking out the detailed IK video tutorial: https://www.soxware.com/umotion-manual/ProLesson2.html


Here is a video tutorial that explains what IK Pinning does and why you would use it for your feet: https://www.soxware.com/umotion-manual/ProLesson5.html

Basically IK Pinning locks the (in your case) feet at a certain world space position.

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Two Clips Editor & Pose Editor at the same time

Calvin,Wai Tsang 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 1

Hi there, If it is possible to open Two Clips Editor & Pose Editor or more at the same time, It will be really awesome to make multiple character/object animation, that will be way much simple than sync will timeline/animation window, since for many time I have to close the project and re-open other character Umotion project to sync and adjust one simple animtion.

Answer

Hi Calvin,
thank you very much for sharing your idea.

I'm adding this idea to my collection of ideas that I'm looking through each time I'm starting with a new UMotion update in order to decide which features to ship next.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Grouping properties & Select keys on current frame with scene selection

Calvin,Wai Tsang 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 1

Hi there, I have been using Umotion for two character animation for a while,
I want to know if it is any possible to grouping the animation properties and quick selection in Umotion?
for example, coding the custom menu?

also I found that I can't only make the scene selection to the current frame key,
only a button that can select all key with whole timeline.
did I missing something?

It this two problem can be solve, It will speed up the multiple character animation workflow very much,Thanks

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request.

Grouping animation properties in the clip editor is not possible. Instead I would recommend selecting the bone in the scene view which also automatically selects the animated property in the clip editor. This is the fastest way to select things.

To code a custom button for selecting something, please check out this: https://www.soxware.com/umotion-manual/UMotionAPI.html

The following methods might be especially useful for you:

static void PoseEditor.GetAllTransforms(List<Transform> transformsList)
static void PoseEditor.GetSelectedTransforms(List<Transform> transformsList)
static void PoseEditor.SetTransformIsSelected(Transform transform, bool selected)

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Should I create IK/FK in Blender for my rig, or should I set it up inside UMotion? (Noob here)

bartolomey_wong 1 year ago updated 1 year ago 4

Hello,

So I've just bought your package, and I have been learning rigging in Blender. I want to save time, so asking if I should look into setting up FK/IK in Blender for my rig and then import it into your package, or should I create just a general rig and then I will be able to add IK/FK in UMotion?

Thank you!

Answer

Hi,

thank you very much for your support request and for purchasing Umotion.

I would recommend generating a general rig in Blender and then animating it in UMotion. The FK/IK setup is created automatically by UMotion. The FK/IK functionality of Blender does not export to Unity so if you do not plan to animate in Blender, you can save yourself that work.

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Not a bug

Precompiled Assemblies error

Anonymous 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 1

I'm having this message when I try to import UMotion Pro



These precompiled assemblies:

Assets/UMotionEditor/Plugins/Application/UMotionApplication.dll

Assets/UMotionEditor/Plugins/Editor/UMotionEditor.dll

use Unity API's that have changed since these assemblies were built.

Unity's API updater can modify these precompiled assemblies to adjust them to the changed Unity API so they can function correctly again.

Not letting them be updated will cause them to likely fail at run or load time.

Do you want them to be updated?

Do I update them ? Is it possible that this may trigger bugs ?

Thanks in advance ! 

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request. This is not a bug. Please confirm the dialog.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Wanna be able to completely 'mirror-flip' an existing humanoid pose's transforms

BenieTheDragon 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 3

First off, I have to say uMotion has been an absolute godsend for me, as it makes doing basic static humanoid poses so much easier than doing it manually.
Now that I have uMotion Pro, I've been wanting to edit some old existing poses (which are 'lay down ground on its side' poses). I want to be able to rotate it 180* on its Z-axis and then mirror-flip all the transforms to fit. Essentially, say for the arms/legs, it would take the Left bone transforms and then flip them with the Right bone transforms.
Better example:
Left leg: 324.3412
Right leg: 64.414
-After flipping-
Left leg: 64.414
Right leg: 324.3412

Is this possible? It would save me so much effort, especially when it comes to the Hips/Spine/Chest/Head which would not be easy to 'manually' flip the transforms over by writing them down.

Answer

Hi BenieTheDragon,
thank you very much for your support request and thanks for the kind words.

You can flip the animation directly in Unity (if the animation is of type humanoid). Simply select the *.anim file and then in the inspector make a tick mark at the "Mirror" checkbox. You can then import the mirrored animation into UMotion for further editing if you want/need.


Inside UMotion, you can only mirror bones that have a bone on the other side (e.g. left/right arm) but you can't mirror single bones like spine etc. Here is a video tutorial about how this works: https://www.soxware.com/umotion-manual/Lesson9.html

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Bone performs 360 rotation when transitioning back to idle

Anonymous 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 3

I tried everything I can think of. Copying the keyframes from the idle animation to the attack recovery animation. Or just outright removing all rotation keyframes from that bone in the attack animations. It'll always do the 360.

Youtube video

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request. Instead of having two key frames that are far apart (rotation wise), add an additional key frame in the middle (with the correct rotation it should have at that point). The animation always takes the shorts rotation path between two key frames.

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

PS: In case you are using Euler rotation interpolation mode, also make sure to check out the curves view. It clearly illustrates how and why it performs which rotation.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

humanoid characters can throw weapons?

Anonymous 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 2

안녕하세요.

인간형 캐릭터가 무기를 던질 수 있는지 궁금해서 질문드립니다.

휴머노이드의 일반 개체를 활성화하기 위해 무기 개체를 엉덩이 뼈 아래에 배치했습니다. 이 경우 문제는 캐릭터의 엉덩이 뼈가 움직일 때마다 무기도 함께 움직인다는 것입니다.

또한 손 뼈 아래에 무기를 배치하더라도 무기가 손, 팔, 어깨 뼈를 따라 움직이기 때문에 독립형 애니메이션을 만드는 것이 불가능합니다.

캐릭터가 무기를 던지고 다시 잡는 애니메이션이 유모션에서만 가능한지, 휴머노이드가 아닌 제네릭에서만 가능한지 자세한 내용이 궁금합니다.

도와주세요

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request.

An animation file can only animate objects that are children of the animation/animator component. In other words, it's like you said. An animation alone can't get this job done, you need to use a combination of an animation and scripting. Make an animation that performs the throwing animation. Then at the right frame, trigger an animation event (so that your script knows that it needs to throw the weapon). Then in the script, spawn a new weapon GameObject at the position of the weapon of the animation. Hide the weapon of the animation (by setting MeshRenderer.enable = false;) and apply a force to the newly created weapon.

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Editing the hierachy of a GameObject that is currently used as UMotion preview object is not allowed.

Anonymous 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 1

Hi dev, im having a problem with umotion with Unity 2022.3 LTS, ive updated to the latest version and the warning as stated above shown.

Thanks

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request.

You're not allowed to edit something on the hierarchy of a GameObject that is currently assigned to the UMotion Pose editor. Simply click on "Clear" in the pose editor to release the GameObject. 

Also make sure that your UMotion version is the latest version you can get from the asset store. Older UMotion versions might not be compatible with newer Unity versions.

Please let me know in case you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,
Peter

Answered

Animator Mask doesn't animate prefab weapons

Mark 1 year ago updated by Peter - Soxware Developer 1 year ago 1

Hi!

I have a Player prefab, I animate it using Umotion, and in this prefab there is a weapon that is not in the bones, it is attached to the bones separately in the prefab.

When I want to separate the hands in Animator using Avatar Mask, where this weapon is attached, the animation works, but the separate weapon which is also animated, the animation doesn't work.

On a normal layer everything works fine, but when I want to do it on another layer the animation of the particular weapon doesn't work.

Most likely the problem is that Mask is limited on the bones, but I don't know how to solve this problem.

Answer

Hi,
thank you very much for your support request.

You might need to add the weapons transforms to the avatar mask. Sound's like it's more a problem you are having with Unity's Animator system than with UMotion. You might get better results asking this on Unity's official animation forum: https://forum.unity.com/forums/animation.52/

Best regards,
Peter