I am looking for a tutorial to explain to me how to create a deformer by manually editing a BVH file. I use Poser 5 to create animations. My understanding is that I have to edit BVH files by a text editor, but I do not want to simply deform my avatar: I need to obtain a specific effect. It's not for fun, but a prerequisite to create a very customized avatar.
Thank you in advance.
27 NOV 2007 - POST SCRIPTUM: I found a way to create deformers. Now I need to find a way to animate them as I want.
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How to create a deformer |
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Eadoin Welles
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Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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11-21-2007 07:13
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Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
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11-24-2007 20:57
bump
because I'm the one that suggested she look into it for using deformed avs for the porpose of creating giant sized attachment avs _____________________
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Eadoin Welles
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Join date: 5 Jan 2007
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11-26-2007 15:54
bump because I'm the one that suggested she look into it for using deformed avs for the porpose of creating giant sized attachment avs I beg your pardon... English is not my first language and I am not sure to understand the meaning of your reply. By the way, I found a way to create deformers on my own, but now I have some problem to modify standard gesture to work with the deformed avatrs. Is there out a REAL expert? I am facing quite complicated and undocumented techniques, so any skilled help appreciated. |
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Bobbyb30 Zohari
SL Mentor Coach
Join date: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 466
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11-26-2007 16:30
I beg your pardon... English is not my first language and I am not sure to understand the meaning of your reply. By the way, I found a way to create deformers on my own, but now I have some problem to modify standard gesture to work with the deformed avatrs. Is there out a REAL expert? I am facing quite complicated and undocumented techniques, so any skilled help appreciated. Ye there are experts...what exactly you trying to deform. Deform is rather general. |
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Eadoin Welles
Registered User
Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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11-27-2007 06:04
Ye there are experts...what exactly you trying to deform. Deform is rather general. Well, I already deformed an avatar to create a giant avatar whose height is three times a normal avatar. Of course I just deformed the avatar height by streching body parts; there is no way to make avatar fatter too, as far as I know. I did that by manually editing a BVH file for each body part but Hip. It works as expected. Now I need to make the avatar stand, walk, sit, and so forth. Of course the standard SL animations do not work. I have to create specific animation for giant avatar. I am experimenting with stand and walk. Of course, whereas deforming animation are session-permanent (you need to logoff or start undeform animations to stop them), I am using an animation ovverride script to apply gestures. I created a stand animation where hip is higher than usual, but the avatar does not touch the ground as expected and even if animation is priority 0, the gesture is too rigid. I was not yet able to create a good walking animation. Any help appreciated. The ideal would be to convert standard SL animation to reduce effort to create new ones by scratch, but increasing the height of HIP in all frames but first of a standard animation does not work well. Any hints? PS Values in BVH files are in inches. All deformations seems to work as expected, but increasing the heigth of Hip does not. The right value seems to be too low.... Any idea why? Standard one is about 43", wherease mine si three times, about 130", but still too low: feet are below ground. |
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Mickey McLuhan
She of the SwissArmy Tail
Join date: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 1,032
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11-27-2007 06:13
Wait... that works?
Changing the x,y or z scales for body parts in the BVH actually changes them in SL? Does this actually work? (I'm at work right now and can't get on SL to test) If it does, I love you! _____________________
*0.0*  Where there's smoke, there isn't always fire. It might just be a particle display.  -Mari- |
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Anti Antonelli
Deranged Toymaker
Join date: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1,091
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11-27-2007 07:40
Mickey: it's done by offsetting body parts, not by scaling them. The standard BVH includes an offset for hip position but if you open the BVH file in a text editor and replace "hip" with "head" or some such thing in that particular line of the BVH file you can offset another body part by an arbitrary amount and you can in effect stretch the avatar like it was made of rubber, one part per animation. It's a bug in the BVH parsing code, but there's currently a JIRA in to not fix the bug but refine it so it works more easily and reliably and becomes a more useful tool.
edit: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2242 |
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Mickey McLuhan
She of the SwissArmy Tail
Join date: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 1,032
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11-27-2007 08:21
awww, durnit.
Here I was, hoping. That would have been amazingly cool, though, wouldn't it? Might have to put that in the Features Request thingie... if I can figger out how to do that.. .*lol* _____________________
*0.0* Where there's smoke, there isn't always fire. It might just be a particle display. -Mari- |
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Eadoin Welles
Registered User
Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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11-27-2007 13:02
Wait... that works? Changing the x,y or z scales for body parts in the BVH actually changes them in SL? Does this actually work? (I'm at work right now and can't get on SL to test) If it does, I love you! Not so simple: you have to manually edit the BVH file creating a NON VALID file which takes advantage of a BUG in SL. You have to create a BVH file for EACH body part. An to careful calculate the values... Not easy, but once you know how to do it, not so hard. The problem is that if Linden will fix the bug that deformer technique will not work anymore. |
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Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
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11-27-2007 19:23
the reason the offset amount seems too high for SL is because SL reads height data from av's WRONG.... details on how wrong it reads them I don't have, but AgentSize is consistently smaller than the actual size as compared by moving a created prim over the person.... for instance, my av is reported as 5'6" but measured with a prim is actually 6'2" (this is all w/o hair or shoes)...
never never never trust avatar measurements as reported by SL.... sadly this means you'll need to eyball it... and in the case of your deformed av, you may want to include a standard shape so you don't have to mess with any other offsets... also include a RE-former (I'm guessing you add those offset sections to the other body parts as before, but make sure they are 0? ) so people don't have to log out to go back to normal... _____________________
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Eadoin Welles
Registered User
Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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11-28-2007 03:26
the reason the offset amount seems too high for SL is because SL reads height data from av's WRONG.... details on how wrong it reads them I don't have, but AgentSize is consistently smaller than the actual size as compared by moving a created prim over the person.... for instance, my av is reported as 5'6" but measured with a prim is actually 6'2" (this is all w/o hair or shoes)... Gosh... this is a problem. It is absolutely important that hip height matches deformed parts. I cannot work by tentatives... It looks like SL reads differently the deforming values anf the hip height! also include a RE-former (I'm guessing you add those offset sections to the other body parts as before, but make sure they are 0? ) so people don't have to log out to go back to normal... I do not need a reformer. This work is for a specific avatar and it si intended to be permanent. Avatar has an attachment that automatically applies deforming animations as I login. By the way, reforming is simple. I have only to apply a set of Unform animations, one for each piece of body. |
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Darien Caldwell
Registered User
Join date: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 3,127
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11-28-2007 12:22
I would like more information on how this deforming is done. Can anyone point to a tutorial or provide more information? Thanks.
 _____________________
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Bobbyb30 Zohari
SL Mentor Coach
Join date: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 466
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11-28-2007 18:07
Well, I already deformed an avatar to create a giant avatar whose height is three times a normal avatar. Of course I just deformed the avatar height by streching body parts; there is no way to make avatar fatter too, as far as I know. I did that by manually editing a BVH file for each body part but Hip. It works as expected. Now I need to make the avatar stand, walk, sit, and so forth. Of course the standard SL animations do not work. I have to create specific animation for giant avatar. I am experimenting with stand and walk. Of course, whereas deforming animation are session-permanent (you need to logoff or start undeform animations to stop them), I am using an animation ovverride script to apply gestures. I created a stand animation where hip is higher than usual, but the avatar does not touch the ground as expected and even if animation is priority 0, the gesture is too rigid. I was not yet able to create a good walking animation. Any help appreciated. The ideal would be to convert standard SL animation to reduce effort to create new ones by scratch, but increasing the height of HIP in all frames but first of a standard animation does not work well. Any hints? PS Values in BVH files are in inches. All deformations seems to work as expected, but increasing the heigth of Hip does not. The right value seems to be too low.... Any idea why? Standard one is about 43", wherease mine si three times, about 130", but still too low: feet are below ground. While I have heard of people enlarging avatars(3x is rather extreme) You'll find that such an avatar will have a hard time in SL. Everything will be to small. As for a good walking anim, you'll need to make your own AO. _____________________
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Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
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11-28-2007 20:39
I would like more information on how this deforming is done. Can anyone point to a tutorial or provide more information? Thanks. as noted above, manually edit the bvh file before uploading into sl, to include an offset section (that is normally found only in the hipsection) into each body part section.... finis. _____________________
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Destiny Niles
Registered User
Join date: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 949
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11-28-2007 20:52
Can someone please post a sample BVH file?
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Void Singer
Int vSelf = Sing(void);
Join date: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 6,973
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11-29-2007 00:10
Can someone please post a sample BVH file? they're in plain text, just open one and read it... _____________________
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Pritti Rau
Registered User
Join date: 13 Jul 2007
Posts: 13
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11-29-2007 23:40
so is is possible to change your avatar the way you can in the avatar_skeleton file but have it so that everyone can see it andit only affects your av
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Destiny Niles
Registered User
Join date: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 949
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11-30-2007 12:57
they're in plain text, just open one and read it... I know. I want to see a sample with the changes to it. |
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Bobbyb30 Zohari
SL Mentor Coach
Join date: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 466
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11-30-2007 15:57
so is is possible to change your avatar the way you can in the avatar_skeleton file but have it so that everyone can see it andit only affects your av Yes. _____________________
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Bobbyb30 Zohari
SL Mentor Coach
Join date: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 466
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11-30-2007 15:59
Not so simple: you have to manually edit the BVH file creating a NON VALID file which takes advantage of a BUG in SL. You have to create a BVH file for EACH body part. An to careful calculate the values... Not easy, but once you know how to do it, not so hard. The problem is that if Linden will fix the bug that deformer technique will not work anymore. Lindens are slow at fixing bugs  , but you never know...(think big prims)_____________________
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Bobbyb30 Zohari
SL Mentor Coach
Join date: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 466
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11-30-2007 16:00
Can someone please post a sample BVH file? Do a google search. Or get avnimator. _____________________
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Pritti Rau
Registered User
Join date: 13 Jul 2007
Posts: 13
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12-01-2007 13:00
I worked out how to change the joint positions in a bvh but can you also change the scale. If so how?
And to destiny, you can find examples here Pritti |
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SustainableLove Westland
Registered User
Join date: 22 Dec 2007
Posts: 4
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12-23-2007 00:01
Mickey: it's done by offsetting body parts, not by scaling them. The standard BVH includes an offset for hip position but if you open the BVH file in a text editor and replace "hip" with "head" or some such thing in that particular line of the BVH file you can offset another body part by an arbitrary amount and you can in effect stretch the avatar like it was made of rubber, one part per animation. It's a bug in the BVH parsing code, but there's currently a JIRA in to not fix the bug but refine it so it works more easily and reliably and becomes a more useful tool. edit: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2242 Am wondering if you could use this to stretch one part...such as a hunchback-like lump on the back??? Thanks, Sustainable Love |
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Eadoin Welles
Registered User
Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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12-23-2007 15:24
While I have heard of people enlarging avatars(3x is rather extreme) You'll find that such an avatar will have a hard time in SL. Everything will be to small. As for a good walking anim, you'll need to make your own AO. Are you aware about the possibility to enlarge an avatar three times? I never heard of that. I would be interested in that technique... I am not worried about "hard time". It is not a permanent avatar, but an avatar used in a show. |
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Eadoin Welles
Registered User
Join date: 5 Jan 2007
Posts: 149
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12-23-2007 15:30
I know. I want to see a sample with the changes to it. Just make a copy of the standard stand position, open the BVH file in a text editor, and change the header to HIERARCHY ROOT head { OFFSET 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 then go to the bottom and change the second value below Frame Time line to an high value, for example 43, 60 or even 100. MOTION Frames: 2 Frame Time: 0.033333 0.000000 43.528519 0.000000 You'll get a loooooong neck |