Importing 3D Motions for CrazyTalk Animator

If you are a CrazyTalk Animator Pipeline user, you are allowed to import 3D motions (*.iMotion) from iClone as raw 3D motions to create re-usable and re-editable motion template, in order to expand the motion library for your characters.

These raw motions, after being imported to a CrazyTalk Animator G2 character, automatically generate the bone movements, layer orders of the body parts, and sprite-replacement animations.

The Theory

After the raw 3D motions are imported, the auto-mechanism performs the following procedures:

• Generating the character's motions by the rotations and offset of the bones.
  
• Setting behind the scene the sprite replacements to ensure the angles are correctly displayed (as in the illustration, the right hand image is changed from angle 0 to 135).
  
• The layer order of the sprites on each body parts is arranged to imply the front-back relations.
  
• The perspectives of the sprites will be changed to indicate the spatial sensations.
  

Potential Issues May Encountered

Because of the automatic technique, there may be some artifacts in need of further adjustments for displaying correctly afterward. The possible issues are:

• The body part intersections: This is caused by the bone that penetrates through the sprite that has almost the identical z value.
  
• Inadequate direction of the body parts: This is caused by the differences for calculating the bone directions from the iMotion.
  
• Rapidly component-changing of the sprites: This is caused by the sensitivity of the sprite replacement technique.
  
• Layer flaws: This is caused by the identical z values of two connected body parts.
  

You may follow the steps below to fine-tune these imported iMotions; afterward, you can store and re-use them as refined 3D motions.

Step 1: Loading an iMotion

1. Apply a G2 character to ensure the iMotions can be performed correctly.
   
2. Drag and drop an iMotion onto the character from your system explorer.
   
3. Alternatively, pick the character and execute the File >> Import Animation (Ctrl + I) command.
   
4. The character will start to perform the applied 3D motion.

Because the iMotions from iClone are not completely suitable for the CrazyTalk Animator characters, you may need to set about fixing the imperfections as described above after the iMotions are applied to a G2 character.

Step 2: Fixing Intersection Issues

1. Make sure the character is selected.
2. Click the 3D Motion Key Editor button to open the panel.
   
3. Optionally turn the direction of the character to define the angle of the iMotion.
4. Scrub to the time frame when there are visual flaws of the character.
   
5. Use the dummies in the panel to select the intersected body parts.

   Double click on the body part in the 3D view.	Click on the body part of the dummy.

6. Switch to the Move tool and drag the green axis of the gizmo to eliminate the intersection issues.

   Note:

   The arrow colors of the gizmo represents the three axes: R = X; G = Y; B = Z.

Step 3: Rectifying Directions of Body Parts

1. For the inappropriate directions of the body part, select it with the dummy.
2. Switch to the Rotate tool and rotate the body part by using the rotating gizmo.

   Note:

   Please refer to the sections below for more information: Using 3D Motion Key Editor Fine Tuning the Actor with IK, FK

Step 4: Fixing Layer Flaws and Rapid Changing of Sprites

The layer order and the pose-changing of the sprites are automatically generated from the iMotion. However, you may sometimes encounter the layer flaws and over-rapid changing issues. Unless you can not fix the layer issues by adjusting the bones as described in the previous section, modify the issues by the steps below:

1. Open the Timeline (F3) and the Motion Track of the character.
   
2. Right click on the motion clip to pop up the right-click menu.
   
3. Choose the 3D Motion Settings to open the panel.
   
4. To alleviate the rapid changes, decrease the Sensitivity.

   The constantly changes of the poses of the sprite

   Decrease the sensitivity to ease the changing frequency

5. Deactivate the Layer Order so that the layer order auto-calculated from the iMotion is removed; then the flaws of the layer order (z-fighting) can be fixed.

   Remove the layer order flaws by deactivating the Layer Order feature.

   Note:

   This box can be deactivated when the motions applied are mild such as idle motions. For the motions with intensive and strong movements, you need to keep this feature activated because it saves a lot of time for manually setting layer order keys.

6. Using the 3D Motion Key Editor for layering motion keys to the motion.

Repeat the same steps until the character's motion appears correct.

Post Processing

After the iMotion is modified and layered with motion keys, you can confirm the adjustments or do the further 2D modifications.

• If you are satisfied with the modification and you do not want to accidentally change the settings, then you may flatten the motion clip to merge all the keys into the motion clip.
  1. Open Timeline (F3) and the Motion tracks of the character.
     
  2. Right click on the motion modified and select Flatten Motion Clip from the pop-up menu.
     
  3. The modification keys will be included into the motion clip (the angle keys are excepted). You may then save it into the library for further use because it is a manually refined 3D motion clip.

     The modification keys in the timeline before flattened	The keys are merged into the motion clip after being flattened (except the angle keys)

• If you ever deactivate the Layer Order as described in the previous section, the auto-layer feature is turned off, you may need to manually set layer order keys for some specific gestures of the character.

  The layer of the entire left hand is move down behind the body.	Set key to move the for arm back up the body.

You may then start 2D adjustments such as Sprite Animation, Transformation or Deformation. Please refer to the Using 2D Motions section for more information.