facial animation

Hi all,

i have created my model in 3ds max and i'm using ofusion to export it and its animation to ogre. but i'm facing problem exporting talk animation to ogre.

I have created my talk animation by simply animating the mesh of the lips. So its a simple max file which when played lips mesh of the model moves up and down as if the model is talking.

But it couldnot find a way to export it using OFusion. as it only exports skeletal animation and i have not animated any bone so there is no point selecting it.

Sindbad refered me Demo_FacialAnimation.

I saw the Demo_FacialAnimation and found it very interesting and tried using it for my model. but the sample code wants a mesh file for the talk animation.

but i only have mesh files for my model and the bones in the model.

Am i doing anything wrong....i'm new to 3ds max and animation world...Hope i'm not using so wrong way to animate my model...


Thanks in Advance
-Simgra

How are the lips mesh animated? is it a different separated object?

If it is a separated object(s) and you animate by changing its position, then you need to select the "Export Animations" option, and load the scene using the OSM Scene Loader library (if you load this animation in the OSM Scene Loader demo, the animations will be automatically played)

If you are animating using morph targets, then this is supported only in Pro version, and will be included in CE version soon

Or you can animate using bones, this will give you good control over your animation

Hey Lioric,

I converted my mesh into editable mesh and then changed the mesh file for manually selecting the mesh part of the lip and moving it up and down for different key frames.....(which now i think is a wrong way). and later on when i played the animation it worked fine.

i even viewed it in Ofusion viewport and it appeared perfect.... problem arises when i want to export it... i cannot select the export amination for skeleton animation... coz i have not animated any bone.


My model has no bone for mouth.... i has one bone for neck... so i tried adding a bone but i didnot join it to the other anyother bone in the model... attached tle lips part of the mesh to teh bone and animated it... i looked perfect in 3ds max but the model got distorted in both oFusion viewport and oger... all i could see was a thin line...

Thanks
-simgra

Could you provide some screenshots

Im not sure what you mean

If it is correctly displayed in the preview viewport, then what is the issue? all you need is to enable "Export Animation" and define the animation range(s) you want to export

When you enable "Export Animation", you enable all kinds of animation, not only skeletal, where the animation will be stored will depend on the type of animation

http://www.simvbse.com/Talk.rar

This is the link to the animation I have made.
I used morph targets to animate the lips. while exporting the max file (using Ofusion- CE version) I checked the export animation option and entered the range of the key frames. but both the OSM file and the mesh file(I viewed it by converting it into a XML file using OgreXmlConverter.exe) created had no information about any animation added to it. I also converted the facial.mesh file given for facialanimation.cpp in the sample->src folder of ogre sdk. this mesh file has information about animations added to the face and pose targets. how can i get this information added to my mesh file too....

-simgra

I reviwed your scene today, to create morph animation you need to use the "Morpher" modifier, add morph targets to it and animate each channel value

I tested adding the Morpher mod and created a few morph targets with different positions for the lips and it worked and exported correctly

Export of morph animations currently is supported in Pro version only, the CE version will support them in the next updates

That is why i suggested to use bones to create the animation you need

I will make a few tests in your scene, adding bones for the lips

Export of morph animations currently is supported in Pro version only, the CE version will support them in the next updates Looking forward to it! When do you roughly play on releasing it? Is it more a matter of few weeks, few months or more?

Cause I'm pondering about to wait for it or trying to somehow use Maya as an Ogre morph target mesh exporter. Though I have never worked with it and the corresponding machine is always occupied.

When do you roughly play on releasing it? Is it more a matter of few weeks, few months or more?

it's already been released- supports 100 morph targets per mesh, which is more than enough for speech & facial expressions, more info here:
http://ofusiontechnologies.com/news.html

I thought it's only available in the PRO version?