The Mixamo addon needs a special version for Blender 4! ❖Mixamo Addon fix for Blender 4: gitlab.com/x190/mixamo_blender4 ❖Mixamo Addon for Blender 3.6 and earlier: substance3d.adobe.com/plugins/mixamo-in-blender/
Omg, that is just... so practicle, i used to use others methods, but this makes everything so much simple and fast, thank you for the amazing tutorials man, your chanel is hands down, the best rig chanel on youtube
If you still have problem in Apply Transform at 4:51: 1. Open Animation Tab [Top Menu] 2. Select All > Right Click > Apply Pose as Rest Pose 3. Now Go back to Default Tab > Ctrl + A > Apply All Transforms
You deserve so much, this was painfull for me to try to understand all this process without this addon all by myself. I have Expy Kit on my computer from 2 years but unfortunately I experimented so many other appoaches to reach these results obtained so easily with expy kit. I 'll join your Patreon today! Unfortunately I can only choose the cheapest term because at that time I don't win money you but deserve so so much more! Bless on you! Thank you🙏🙏🙏
hey thank you fo sharing that man, also a tip, you can also mention that you have to enable the rigify addon for this method work, and you can also prevent the apply position error by diselecting the animation import checkbox in the import tab, just saying that cuz i went trought both errors trying to figure out what was wrong
I'm using a character with an A-pose instead of a T-pose and I think it's messing up the arm positioning after I bind the Rigify armature to the Mixamo armature. My character's hands are positioned inside its body. Do you know how I can adjust this using the Expy addon?
I saw your other tutorial about retargeting using Rokoko and also the mixamo addon for blender, and now I see this method also looks very good. Can you outline the pros and cons between the workflows you have covered? That would make a great video!
Hi. Well... Rokoko: can target almost any rig to any other. But the setup can take a bit of time. Mixamo addon: can only work with Mixamo but it's very streamlined. Expikit: a lot of automations and workflow goodies. But there are limits to what it can do. Just choose the best one for what you need.
@@gamertech4589 Everything I have on retargeting is here. You can retarget anything to anything, basically :P ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html
Hi I am using blender 4.2 for everyone that is having problems with binding during binding pop up under conversion from the drop down menu chose "current pose to is target rest pose" then for fit height can try difference options for me head works great. - under constraint check "fix direction"
Great run down of the 2 workflows. I already have a number of Mixamo animations downloaded with a default character base and would like to import those to Blender and retarget to an existing basic human rigify. IE, I don't want to convert my rigify and then go to mixamo every single time. My reason for this is I already have the Mixamo downloads and want to work offline. Maybe expify can do it and this workflow is hidden in your tutorial somewhere;) I'll watch it a few more times and see, thanks friend.
Note to self: - keep METARIG! - "face" bone is to be deleted (not head bone) + all other face bones + breast + hips + heels . Neck bones to be merged. - pose mode + right click "convert bone names" select rigify rig to mixamo-> check names - automatic weight to tweaked metarig - check character has only one armature modifier to the correct metarig before exporting - check that all vertices have received weight (move hip bone in pose mode to see if all mesh moves with it) - if mixamo uploader still complains the metarig alone can be uploaded (without the mesh that is useless anyway) - pick animation, download (without skin) - import mixamo animation, select rigify rig THEN mixamo rig (NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND), switch to pose mode - do "bind to active armature" rigify controls to mixamo then select "match bone transform" then tick "chain look at" - select rigify rig THEN mixamo rig (IN THAT ORDER AGAIN) switch to pose mode (if not already) and right click animation->bake constrained actions->rigify controls
i already have character with rigify rig, when im trying to bind to active armature - im getting wrong bone orientation and random bone positions, how can i fix that?
Thank you. I did it sucsessfully, except eyes. They are not binded to head, in retargeted animation, for some reason. )) New metarig makes eye bones, and they are not binded to head bone. Apparently, it's a bug in the addon. ))
Im using blender 3.2 and when I try retargeting the miximo rig to the rigify rig using the bind to active armature feature nothing changes, if you have any ways on fixing this that would be greatly appreciated
Not sure and I didn't end up using ExpyKit much (it's awesome but you can't use all of the tools :) ). I recommend asking the addon creator on his YT or Discord.
Hi @@CGDive, first of all, thank you for all your precius tutorials, my comment regards orientation problem using A pose rig, the only workaround i found to solve this issue was to export the character to load on mixamo with the mixamo orientation, so when import the animation in blender it will not have strange coordinate traslation.
When I try to bind the Mixamo animation with the rigify rig it gives me an error and the character will not assume the position of the animation like yours. I followed all the steps like 8 times now and I'm losing my mind? any ideas would be appreciated please! or if you have an updated video? This is the error I keep getting: "Report: Error Python: Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:lUsers|CLF/AppDatalRoaming\Blender Foundation Blender|4.01scripts|addons|Expy-Kit-mainloperators.py", line 1466, in execute new_bone.layers[self.ret_bones_layer] = True AttributeError: 'EditBone' object has no attribute layers"
@@wardakka5039what I did is I exported my model to Mixamo, let mixamo rig it, got the animations I wanted from there too. I skipped the rigify out of frustration. I just imported my mixamo files into unreal engine and the animations with it and set them up in unreal. It was actually really easy. Sorry for the late reply.
It seems to me that you cannot control IK when using expy kit. I tried Rokoko and Expy and it seems in Rokoko when retargeted, you can freely control your IK hands.
the retarget doesnt work if the rest positions dont match. the mixamo rig is in t-position , my rigify rig is in arrow position = arms are messed up. baking the animation doesnt work either , with the first method it will bake the keyframes but they are just flat , no animation is happenng , the second method only bakes the first keyframe and doesnt actually remove the constraints .. any specific blender version ? i tried in 3.6
Thanks for the video. I'm currently working out a pipeline for bringing daz3d characters to blender (via the diffeomorphic plugin). From blender I would like to be able to use a variety of animations from different sources (Daz3d, Mixamo, Blender, etc) and bring everything to Unreal. Daz3d characters are high quality with a ton of shapekeys. They aren't well designed for games though. The official Daz to Blender plugin for Unreal is too limited for my needs. Your videos are great and I'd love to get your advice on Daz3d characters if possible.
sure it is more simple, and beginner friendly, but most of the models (99%) are missing face, so no lip-sync, not face expressions for them. silent is mixamo's middle name. lol, have fun, aum
This does a pretty good job. However with version 0.5 .2 I find myself with strangely oriented or positioned bones here and there. For what I wanted I could fix it by hand. Tried with an empty Rigify rig too, just to be sure. I haven't tried other versions. Hopefully it gets better with time and we can finally do retargeting hassle-free.
Hi, great content from you! Thanks for that! I just discovered that Expy-Kit isn't working properly in Blender 4.1.1 right now (the "Extract Metarig" menu button is grayed out). Would you still recommend the plugin or do you know of any good alternatives?
hey, thanks! Alternatives to which feature exactly? I have a playlist on Retargeting. Rokoko and Auto-Rig Pro are both great. ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html
Im having an issue at 9:59- where you "bind to active armature" my entire mesh deforms and basically rotates onto its face and looks really wonky, can you tell me what Im doing wrong? any tips?
thanks! very good guide. I was wondering if theres a way to mass retarget mixamo packs or hundreds of locomotion animations to a custom armature in a few steps just like this addon
I am getting the following error: Python: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/Users/hepdesert/Library/Application Support/Blender/4.0/scripts/addons/Expy-Kit-main/operators.py", line 1607, in execute new_bone.layers[self.ret_bones_layer] = True AttributeError: 'EditBone' object has no attribute 'layers' any ideas? thanks!!
@@CGDive thanks - in thank I think your pinned comment had the answer. This stuff is pretty finicky. I finally updated to the 0.61 addon for Blender 4, and got an animation to work...but the arms were crossed! Which I couldn't quite figure out, other than to edit the rig, swap the arm position, and that was close. Fantastic tutorials though! Is there any documentation for some of the settings though? I've poked aroung git hub a little...
@@Hepworks I don't see it as pinned :) As for the crossed arms, that is a sign of difference in rest pose (sources is in T pose, target in A pose). I don't remember how you fix it with Expykit. Again, check with the dev. They have an active discord group.
Thank you for help! But i have a trouble ar 12:40 - When i press Animation - bake constrained Actions, system dosen't give a choice for a type to bake, and after this my rigify gets bigger and malfunctional, instead of original rig. PLease, give me advice
What version of blender are you using and what version of expy kit? My menus are a little different and I think that might contribute to me getting different results. Edit: I see you're using expykit v0.2 alpha. What about blender?
@@CGDive actually I think I figured it out- is that the blender version number on the bottom right of your computer screen (3.0.1)? Are you still using expy kit? Have you found anything that works better?
I wonder if the chain looked at option was check for each action when doing mass bake constrain actions. It works, but the elbow and knees looks a bit weird for my character
Thanks for the tutorial! I am trying to add a tale to my rig, and I have found that I am not able to add automatic weights to the newly created metarig without a "Bone Heating Error" message. I have experimented, and I get the same message if I try to add the face as provided by the app. Do you know of any solutions? Also, thanks again for your great tutorials!! I have been studying many of them for the past two weeks, and I understand rigging so much better now (but I still have a long way to go)!
awesome, but i had a problem at one point. when is binded the rigify controls with mixamo it broke my mesh. don't know if it has to do with the blender version i am using.
Good Evening Sir amazing tutorial, been working on this all day and i'm almost at the end of the tunnel. When I bind the rigify controls and the mixamo rig it stretches and deforms my character what gives?? hopefully its a quick fix! Pls Help.
as soon as i hit bind and set up rigify control and then mixamo, everything is messed up and stretched, followed every step but no luck, transforms all applied, it just wont work
how do you attach or join clothes perfectly 😭 I've been dying to figure it out how to upload the whole body with clothes on and it doesn't work at all.
Hi, thank you for the great tutorial! super easy to follow but I ran into some problem where the face rig (the eyes to be exact) didn't work correctly... it's like the whole body moves but the eyes just stay still. I'm not very sure if it's rigify problem, the addon, the version of blender or even the mesh itself but the thing is, I tried it with multiple models and it all have the same issues (the eyes)
Hi. If you tried multiple models and they all have the same problem then there is something about the way you connect the eyes (or don't connect them lol) I am not sure because I haven't used this addon in a while. You are welcome to our discord. We could figure something out there discord.gg/j8SQCjFsXP
Doesn't work when I try to bake constraint actions. And doesn't convert bone names when I try to convert bone names rigify to mixamo. I have tried in blender 3.0, 3.1 even in 3.4
@@CGDive okay, but would you tell me how you upload a rigged character into mixamo? Mixamo allows only fbx mesh without bones. It says,'' sorry, unable to map existing skeleton.'' even if I upload a rigged mesh with the same bone names.
@@pronatabiswas8233 If it says "unable to map existing skeleton" it means that the skeleton is not compatible with Mixamo. Mixamo can work only with a specific hierarchy and possibly specific bone names,
5:00 i deleted the keyframes and then select all go to pose mode and then POSE then clear transform, and what happen is my model is not on T pose mode.. how?
I don't know the exact circumstances but the default pose can be any pose. T-pose or A-pose is just a convention. Sometime when you import/export between applications the Default pose can become something completely weird.
In the second work flow, in the course of Binding amatures, It works weirdly when 'Match Transform' option is 'match object transform' and 'match bone transform' , but when it is 'No matching', it works fine. Is there something that I missed and It's okay to keep going?
I found that Expy v0.2.0 and v0.2.2 gave errors when I tried to enable them. V0.5.0 does work but the dialogue box for the binding has changed a lot and so next I need to find another tutorial to cover that.
This is awesome, but I have question, when the I am doing the conversion, the head and all it parts gets separated from the body, I didn't see you cover any trouble spots in the tut. Any suggestions?
Awesome addon ! I have an issue when i try to rigify the bones: Bone 'upper_arm.L' : Input to rig type must be a chain of at least 3 bones. Incorrect armature for type 'limb_rigs'. No idea how to solve it, can you pls help ?
Thank you for this great tutorial! I have a question, I tried to build my Metarig using Building blocks (following previous videos), when I use Workflow 2 (Change bone names>export to Mixamo>import animation>Bind to rigify rig) the imported animation has its pivot moving which messes up the binding part(even when I apply rotation), I tried exporting a normal metarig and it works after I apply rotation. Do you know why this is happening?.
@CGDive thank you for your reply, if I may ask, what is your workflow regarding creating game ready rigs that you can retarget animations from mixamo or other places? Do you use rigify or other types of rig? And how do you retarget on them?
@@john.blender1654 Almost everything I know and use regarding retargeting is here ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html And about game ready rigs: ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJvCyqWeCBYVGKbQgrQngen3.html Seriously, I don't have any secrets. All the foundational stuff is in these playlist. :D
Running into an issue @25:35 where when I bake constrained actions my mesh get all twisted up and much larger. I looked at the Expy channel and saw that in the current version 0.5.1 its supposed to automatically detect rigify so there's no selection menu.
Good point, I should have covered this. With Mixamo characters check these settings in the FBX import: Ignore Leaf Bones Forece Connect Children Automatic bone orientation.
@@ilovefishing2232 Where does this happen? In Blende or Mixamo? I am not familiar with the error so please add some context and just as much info as possible :]
Hey, can u help me? I've been facing some troubles with mixamo. When I try to upload my character in OBJ file, it keeps sending me an error message: "sorry unable to map your existing skeleton mixamo". Then when I try to upload as a FBX file, it keep loading, then when is 30%, turn back to 0% and then just apper an error message, not the same one, but just an error.... I really dont know what to do, I've already try basic everything....
I generated the rig with the face bones included. The resulting control rig can manipulate the mesh except for the facial mesh and teeth/eyes. Is there something I might have forgotten to do? Help would be appreciated :)
@@CGDive Thanks for the reply. YEs I found that video and got it working. Thank you. Unfortunately I wasn't able to upload to Mixamo using the second workflow and the first workflow lead to some undesirable deformations, however, I will give it another go today.
unfortunatly the second workflow which was usefull for me does not work. I download the mixamo animation,but somehow I get the Default|Take 001|BaseLayer|metarig from mixamo and not the actual; animation. Any hints ?
@@CGDive So here's what I did : I did not convert anything with expy kit ( But i do have it installed ) . I have a existing rigify rig>downloaded a mixamo animation>Selected the rigify rig ( controls ) and shift selected the mixamo bones ( animation ) > right click select constrained controls > Baked the animation > This Works ! However I can not use the rigify controls to do animations on top of the mixamo animations.They are all locked with the constrains.If I remove tyhe constarins obviously it does not work anymore.So my question is how can I use this and add my own animations on top of the mixamo animation ?
@@CGDive When removing the constrains after the baking the controls jump to it origin position.I had to manualy keyframe ( eg the hand so it can move with the root in a run animation ).That is not ideal because you want all the controlls to move with the root ( it is parented to the root because of the child paretnt rel ) .Any clue ?
when I transfer the Mixamo animation to my rigify, the rigify rig and the mesh both get heavily deformed but the animation works. how can I fix the deformation issue? ( I use a rigify rig created directly in blender, so didn't need to do the conversion step). thank!
Hey bro hope you having a good day btw i got some trouble here when i bind the active armature it does not show the "To bind" option in bottom left window it only shows bind target. Can you please help me with this. Thank you.
I tried to follow this but for an unknown reason the binding just totaly explodes my rigify control rig and thus the mesh... Has anyone a solution to this?
The Mixamo addon needs a special version for Blender 4!
❖Mixamo Addon fix for Blender 4:
gitlab.com/x190/mixamo_blender4
❖Mixamo Addon for Blender 3.6 and earlier:
substance3d.adobe.com/plugins/mixamo-in-blender/
can i use for Blender 3?
Omg, that is just... so practicle, i used to use others methods, but this makes everything so much simple and fast, thank you for the amazing tutorials man, your chanel is hands down, the best rig chanel on youtube
I've been trying to figure all this out for 2 weeks and in 26 minutes you've solved all my issues. THANK YOU
Ah nice! The video is a bit old and the addon was updated in the meantime. Glad to hear it is still useful.
If someone had issue with hands- Apply rotation to mixamo rig first. Also, select "match bone transform" in tranform matching settings.
This helped but now my feet twisted lol
Where can I find the transform matching settings?
If you still have problem in Apply Transform at 4:51:
1. Open Animation Tab [Top Menu]
2. Select All > Right Click > Apply Pose as Rest Pose
3. Now Go back to Default Tab > Ctrl + A > Apply All Transforms
You deserve so much, this was painfull for me to try to understand all this process without this addon all by myself. I have Expy Kit on my computer from 2 years but unfortunately I experimented so many other appoaches to reach these results obtained so easily with expy kit. I 'll join your Patreon today! Unfortunately I can only choose the cheapest term because at that time I don't win money you but deserve so so much more! Bless on you! Thank you🙏🙏🙏
thanks man. don't worry and don't feel like you need to spend your cash :) It's all good!
My savior. FYI for anyone, if something isn't working, try regenerating you ik rig, mine would do that and it helped.
Great to hear the video is still relevant. I think the addon has been updated so I thought it might be harder to follow now.
@@CGDive it actually isn’t. But I am still facing a problem with importing my rigify rig to Unity
Method #2 worked flawlessly for me! after trying all day with other videos! thank you!
I'm glad I found this. The Rokoko method messed up my character's face. Thank you!
not to mention the priority is selling you rokoko nonsense, way to bloat a plugin right?
hey thank you fo sharing that man, also a tip, you can also mention that you have to enable the rigify addon for this method work, and you can also prevent the apply position error by diselecting the animation import checkbox in the import tab, just saying that cuz i went trought both errors trying to figure out what was wrong
Thank you so much, I have been struggling with this for days.
this was the BEST rig video I've ever seen!!! THANK U SO SO SO SO FCKNG MUCH!
This is amazing, thank you so much for sharing, 🙏🏼
Juat BRILLIANT! A great tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. THANK YOU! Dg
18:50 - Indeed, mind blown!
I'm using a character with an A-pose instead of a T-pose and I think it's messing up the arm positioning after I bind the Rigify armature to the Mixamo armature. My character's hands are positioned inside its body. Do you know how I can adjust this using the Expy addon?
Sorry, I can't think of a solution right now. Please try asking the addon dev!
Hi, did you find a solution to this problem?
You need to change your character's resting pose to the same mixamo resting pose.
if you have problems baking with the automatic way, try baking this way --> 11:56
Right Click -> Binding -> Select constrained controls -> and do what's shown in the timestamp
Thank you so much, this was very useful!
I saw your other tutorial about retargeting using Rokoko and also the mixamo addon for blender, and now I see this method also looks very good. Can you outline the pros and cons between the workflows you have covered? That would make a great video!
Hi.
Well...
Rokoko: can target almost any rig to any other. But the setup can take a bit of time.
Mixamo addon: can only work with Mixamo but it's very streamlined.
Expikit: a lot of automations and workflow goodies. But there are limits to what it can do.
Just choose the best one for what you need.
@@CGDive When will be next video expykit on Game Engine and Rigify ?
@@gamertech4589 Not sure, I don't use the addon that much even tho it's pretty cool!
@@CGDive Cool, Do you have any other workflow which you retarget animation mixamo to GameReadyRig ?
@@gamertech4589
Everything I have on retargeting is here. You can retarget anything to anything, basically :P
ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html
Love the Godot shoutout!
you da'man ! dive for president ! lol, thx for sharing, have fun, aum, s love nia
thanks a lot, i tried a lot but always missed the offset during the extract part let me, my mesh after the process was always sticking to other places
Best as always
This is really really really helpful!!!
Hi I am using blender 4.2 for everyone that is having problems with binding during binding pop up under conversion from the drop down menu chose "current pose to is target rest pose" then for fit height can try difference options for me head works great.
- under constraint check "fix direction"
Great run down of the 2 workflows. I already have a number of Mixamo animations downloaded with a default character base and would like to import those to Blender and retarget to an existing basic human rigify. IE, I don't want to convert my rigify and then go to mixamo every single time. My reason for this is I already have the Mixamo downloads and want to work offline. Maybe expify can do it and this workflow is hidden in your tutorial somewhere;) I'll watch it a few more times and see, thanks friend.
The process works, but my character´s arms get crossed in opposite directions. how can I fix this issue ?
Sounds like a difference in the rest pose. Can't remember how expykit deals with that. I think it has some sort of setting for it.
this is what I need thanks you bro
Note to self:
- keep METARIG!
- "face" bone is to be deleted (not head bone) + all other face bones + breast + hips + heels . Neck bones to be merged.
- pose mode + right click "convert bone names" select rigify rig to mixamo-> check names
- automatic weight to tweaked metarig
- check character has only one armature modifier to the correct metarig before exporting
- check that all vertices have received weight (move hip bone in pose mode to see if all mesh moves with it)
- if mixamo uploader still complains the metarig alone can be uploaded (without the mesh that is useless anyway)
- pick animation, download (without skin)
- import mixamo animation, select rigify rig THEN mixamo rig (NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND), switch to pose mode
- do "bind to active armature" rigify controls to mixamo then select "match bone transform" then tick "chain look at"
- select rigify rig THEN mixamo rig (IN THAT ORDER AGAIN) switch to pose mode (if not already) and right click animation->bake constrained actions->rigify controls
good notes!
i already have character with rigify rig, when im trying to bind to active armature - im getting wrong bone orientation and random bone positions, how can i fix that?
Please ask the addon developer about :)
This add-on is cool.❤
Thank you. I did it sucsessfully, except eyes. They are not binded to head, in retargeted animation, for some reason. ))
New metarig makes eye bones, and they are not binded to head bone. Apparently, it's a bug in the addon. ))
Im using blender 3.2 and when I try retargeting the miximo rig to the rigify rig using the bind to active armature feature nothing changes, if you have any ways on fixing this that would be greatly appreciated
Not sure and I didn't end up using ExpyKit much (it's awesome but you can't use all of the tools :) ). I recommend asking the addon creator on his YT or Discord.
When I'm binding the animation the hands are inversed, meaning left is right and right is left. Help please. Thanks a lot for the tutorial.
What do you mean by "bind the animation". Also, honestly, I don't get how the hands are inverted. :)
for the rigth orientation export with y up and -z forward before uploading on mixamo
Do you mean the unapplied rotation at 4:45?
Hi @@CGDive, first of all, thank you for all your precius tutorials, my comment regards orientation problem using A pose rig, the only workaround i found to solve this issue was to export the character to load on mixamo with the mixamo orientation, so when import the animation in blender it will not have strange coordinate traslation.
thank you for this tutorial!
When I try to bind the Mixamo animation with the rigify rig it gives me an error and the character will not assume the position of the animation like yours. I followed all the steps like 8 times now and I'm losing my mind? any ideas would be appreciated please! or if you have an updated video? This is the error I keep getting:
"Report: Error
Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:lUsers|CLF/AppDatalRoaming\Blender Foundation Blender|4.01scripts|addons|Expy-Kit-mainloperators.py", line 1466, in execute
new_bone.layers[self.ret_bones_layer] = True
AttributeError: 'EditBone' object has no attribute layers"
report errors to the addon developer!
I have the same problem. Did you figure it out?
@@wardakka5039what I did is I exported my model to Mixamo, let mixamo rig it, got the animations I wanted from there too. I skipped the rigify out of frustration. I just imported my mixamo files into unreal engine and the animations with it and set them up in unreal. It was actually really easy. Sorry for the late reply.
It seems to me that you cannot control IK when using expy kit. I tried Rokoko and Expy and it seems in Rokoko when retargeted, you can freely control your IK hands.
thanks man appreciate it
Thanks!!! It saved me a lot of time
Glad it helped!
this is awesome
lol, i checked the web; batch rename operation (cca 19:30), the action was actually au, ginga seem to be basic movement. have fun, aum (lol)
the retarget doesnt work if the rest positions dont match. the mixamo rig is in t-position , my rigify rig is in arrow position = arms are messed up.
baking the animation doesnt work either , with the first method it will bake the keyframes but they are just flat , no animation is happenng , the second method only bakes the first keyframe and doesnt actually remove the constraints .. any specific blender version ? i tried in 3.6
Thanks, very useful! 👍
I’m having trouble finding/adding the bake animation to the nle strips.
thank you!
Thanks for the video. I'm currently working out a pipeline for bringing daz3d characters to blender (via the diffeomorphic plugin). From blender I would like to be able to use a variety of animations from different sources (Daz3d, Mixamo, Blender, etc) and bring everything to Unreal. Daz3d characters are high quality with a ton of shapekeys. They aren't well designed for games though. The official Daz to Blender plugin for Unreal is too limited for my needs. Your videos are great and I'd love to get your advice on Daz3d characters if possible.
Sorry, I am not using daz at all, currently. Try speaking to the dev of Expykit. He seems to be using it.
I use mixamo rig for most of my work, I find it a lot more simple and beginner friendly
sure it is more simple, and beginner friendly, but most of the models (99%) are missing face, so no lip-sync, not face expressions for them. silent is mixamo's middle name. lol, have fun, aum
@@aumhren3480thats why you combine mixamo animation with blenders rigify, Mixamo does all the body and limbs and you do the face
This does a pretty good job. However with version 0.5 .2 I find myself with strangely oriented or positioned bones here and there. For what I wanted I could fix it by hand. Tried with an empty Rigify rig too, just to be sure. I haven't tried other versions. Hopefully it gets better with time and we can finally do retargeting hassle-free.
Replying to my own comment: start with rigify's rig in T pose and it aligns perfectly.
Make sure to speak to the addon developer when you experience problems with the addon!
@@CGDive I did. But I figured the more I ask questions, the better chances I have of a reply :)
Hi, great content from you! Thanks for that!
I just discovered that Expy-Kit isn't working properly in Blender 4.1.1 right now (the "Extract Metarig" menu button is grayed out). Would you still recommend the plugin or do you know of any good alternatives?
hey, thanks!
Alternatives to which feature exactly? I have a playlist on Retargeting. Rokoko and Auto-Rig Pro are both great.
ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html
Awesome addon!) Can i use it on latest blender 3.1?!)
I think so but you should download the development build. Get in touch with the addon developer to get the most reliable info :)
@@CGDive Ty for an answer!
Hi! I have released tag 0.2.2 with compatibility fix for b3.1. Seems to work :)
Mine doesn't works...the limbs didn't moves, but the spine moves correctly
Im having an issue at 9:59- where you "bind to active armature" my entire mesh deforms and basically rotates onto its face and looks really wonky, can you tell me what Im doing wrong? any tips?
WOW Powerful
how can i put MULTIPLE mixamo animations in a single Rigify Control Rig? when i try it, the 2nd animation is the only one that is baked.
hi todor, this video is great . Btw 22:06 if I dont have the metarig and whats is the right procedure ?
thanks
Here is my Rigify playlist :)
ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJv68SSdwxip33M7snakl6Dx.html
I would be interested in Daz to Blender tutorials.
thanks! very good guide. I was wondering if theres a way to mass retarget mixamo packs or hundreds of locomotion animations to a custom armature in a few steps just like this addon
Not sure about a custom armature. I'll make a note about that.
@@CGDive thanks, so far the only way i know of is exporting them to UE4 but it just adds more complications im afraid
Please, what happens whe throws "Generation has thrown an exception: Could not generate: Cannot select target rig " ???
IT could be this problem
ua-cam.com/video/QJf2RFLgikQ/v-deo.html
But if it's a bug in ExpiKit, you should ask the developer.
Right click doesn't work - im using latest official blender version 3.4 - is that a problem?
I'm not sure. I haven't used the addon in a while, and if may have changed. Please ask the add-on developer.
i follow your workflow #2 but when i play the result animation, the eyes is not moving with the animation, it just stuck on air. How can i fix that?
oh i already fixed it, i include the left and right eye bones in my exported fbx.
Cool!
I am getting the following error: Python: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/hepdesert/Library/Application Support/Blender/4.0/scripts/addons/Expy-Kit-main/operators.py", line 1607, in execute
new_bone.layers[self.ret_bones_layer] = True
AttributeError: 'EditBone' object has no attribute 'layers'
any ideas?
thanks!!
Please get in touch with the addon developer!
@@CGDive thanks - in thank I think your pinned comment had the answer. This stuff is pretty finicky. I finally updated to the 0.61 addon for Blender 4, and got an animation to work...but the arms were crossed! Which I couldn't quite figure out, other than to edit the rig, swap the arm position, and that was close. Fantastic tutorials though! Is there any documentation for some of the settings though? I've poked aroung git hub a little...
@@Hepworks I don't see it as pinned :) As for the crossed arms, that is a sign of difference in rest pose (sources is in T pose, target in A pose). I don't remember how you fix it with Expykit. Again, check with the dev. They have an active discord group.
@@CGDive ok I will check out the rest pose! thanks again for your work - you’ve taken me 99% of the way.
@@Hepworks Nice!
Baking the animation wthin the addon doesnt work for me, It just sends my model to another location. Any help?
Get help from the addon dev. They have Discord!
Thank you for help! But i have a trouble ar 12:40 - When i press Animation - bake constrained Actions, system dosen't give a choice for a type to bake, and after this my rigify gets bigger and malfunctional, instead of original rig. PLease, give me advice
Noy sure since I haven't used Expykit in a while. Try asking at theor Discord.
My metarig comes in too big - is that some kind of rookie overlooked applying transforms at some stage issue?
I haven't used Expy Kit recently so I am not sure. It's best to ask the addon dev.
What version of blender are you using and what version of expy kit? My menus are a little different and I think that might contribute to me getting different results. Edit: I see you're using expykit v0.2 alpha. What about blender?
This video is pretty old so I am not sure. Blender must be around 2.9 .
@@CGDive actually I think I figured it out- is that the blender version number on the bottom right of your computer screen (3.0.1)?
Are you still using expy kit? Have you found anything that works better?
@@THEVOL tbh, no I haven't used ExpyKit in a while. It is a great addon from a great dev but it just hasn't fit into my workflow so far.
I wonder if the chain looked at option was check for each action when doing mass bake constrain actions. It works, but the elbow and knees looks a bit weird for my character
I think it is but you should ask the dev if you want to know for sure.
Thanks for the tutorial! I am trying to add a tale to my rig, and I have found that I am not able to add automatic weights to the newly created metarig without a "Bone Heating Error" message. I have experimented, and I get the same message if I try to add the face as provided by the app. Do you know of any solutions? Also, thanks again for your great tutorials!! I have been studying many of them for the past two weeks, and I understand rigging so much better now (but I still have a long way to go)!
I'll cover Bone heat error eventually. There are many ways to fix it depending on the underlying problem.
often you get that error if your bones poke out of the mesh somewhere
very useful video mate. arms getting all fucked up any idea on how to fix that?
I’m not sure. Please ask the expykit developer.
@@CGDive thanks anyways friend.
great tutorial as always, but I'm confused here why not just use mixamo addon and use its control rig to animate??
You can. Some people just prefer Rigify :)
awesome, but i had a problem at one point. when is binded the rigify controls with mixamo it broke my mesh. don't know if it has to do with the blender version i am using.
Not sure either. You should ask the Expikit dev! :)
Good Evening Sir amazing tutorial, been working on this all day and i'm almost at the end of the tunnel. When I bind the rigify controls and the mixamo rig it stretches and deforms my character what gives?? hopefully its a quick fix! Pls Help.
Please ask the expykit developer about that!
as soon as i hit bind and set up rigify control and then mixamo, everything is messed up and stretched, followed every step but no luck, transforms all applied, it just wont work
I haven't used the addon in a while and it was updated. Please ask the addon developer.
this addon is not working anymore in the newest versions of blender (3.2)
It's possible. Did you try the latest version of the addon? If so, report to the developer.
how do you attach or join clothes perfectly 😭 I've been dying to figure it out how to upload the whole body with clothes on and it doesn't work at all.
I am not sure what you mean, sorry :)
Hi, thank you for the great tutorial! super easy to follow but I ran into some problem where the face rig (the eyes to be exact) didn't work correctly... it's like the whole body moves but the eyes just stay still. I'm not very sure if it's rigify problem, the addon, the version of blender or even the mesh itself but the thing is, I tried it with multiple models and it all have the same issues (the eyes)
Hi. If you tried multiple models and they all have the same problem then there is something about the way you connect the eyes (or don't connect them lol)
I am not sure because I haven't used this addon in a while. You are welcome to our discord. We could figure something out there
discord.gg/j8SQCjFsXP
THANK YOU!!!!!
Doesn't work when I try to bake constraint actions. And doesn't convert bone names when I try to convert bone names rigify to mixamo. I have tried in blender 3.0, 3.1 even in 3.4
Please ask the addon developer!
@@CGDive okay, but would you tell me how you upload a rigged character into mixamo? Mixamo allows only fbx mesh without bones. It says,'' sorry, unable to map existing skeleton.'' even if I upload a rigged mesh with the same bone names.
@@pronatabiswas8233 If it says "unable to map existing skeleton" it means that the skeleton is not compatible with Mixamo. Mixamo can work only with a specific hierarchy and possibly specific bone names,
5:00 i deleted the keyframes and then select all go to pose mode and then POSE then clear transform, and what happen is my model is not on T pose mode.. how?
I don't know the exact circumstances but the default pose can be any pose. T-pose or A-pose is just a convention.
Sometime when you import/export between applications the Default pose can become something completely weird.
There is no binding tab when in pose mode. Did i do something wrong?
Not sure, I haven't used this addon in a while. Please ask the addon developer.
In the second work flow, in the course of Binding amatures, It works weirdly when 'Match Transform' option is 'match object transform' and 'match bone transform' , but when it is 'No matching', it works fine. Is there something that I missed and It's okay to keep going?
Not sure. It's best to ask the addon developer.
I found that Expy v0.2.0 and v0.2.2 gave errors when I tried to enable them. V0.5.0 does work but the dialogue box for the binding has changed a lot and so next I need to find another tutorial to cover that.
It's best to ask the dev. I haven't be keeping up with the development TBH. Will update myself when I have some time :)
This is awesome, but I have question, when the I am doing the conversion, the head and all it parts gets separated from the body, I didn't see you cover any trouble spots in the tut. Any suggestions?
I haven't encountered this problem. If you share more info I'd think about it but YT comments are not ideal for discussing such issues.
@@CGDive, I got it figured out, thanks for the wonderful tool.
@@t-raystudios What was it?
@@sutixela, it was my model wasn't compatible with rigify. I was a using ready player me avatar.
can't find rigify controls in bind to active armature. What to do?
I have zero idea what that means.
this does not work all i get is explosions every time if its not an explosion its nothing
Please ask the addon developer about it. He's active on his discord.
ok its still explodes hands every time but turns out the scale of my models were ginormous it was most of my problems
'Bake constrained actions' not working for me....
Please ask the addon dev :)
Awesome addon !
I have an issue when i try to rigify the bones: Bone 'upper_arm.L' : Input to rig type must be a chain of at least 3 bones. Incorrect armature for type 'limb_rigs'.
No idea how to solve it, can you pls help ?
It sounds like you've deleted a bone from the arm or attached an additional one. The arm had to be a chain of 3 bones.
Thank you for this great tutorial! I have a question, I tried to build my Metarig using Building blocks (following previous videos), when I use Workflow 2 (Change bone names>export to Mixamo>import animation>Bind to rigify rig) the imported animation has its pivot moving which messes up the binding part(even when I apply rotation), I tried exporting a normal metarig and it works after I apply rotation. Do you know why this is happening?.
Sorry, I am not sure. I did not end up using Expy Kit much even tho it's awesome. You can try asking the original developer. They have discord.
@CGDive thank you for your reply, if I may ask, what is your workflow regarding creating game ready rigs that you can retarget animations from mixamo or other places?
Do you use rigify or other types of rig? And how do you retarget on them?
@@john.blender1654 Almost everything I know and use regarding retargeting is here
ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJux9f5Bvb1QlByiHWTK3ICP.html
And about game ready rigs:
ua-cam.com/play/PLdcL5aF8ZcJvCyqWeCBYVGKbQgrQngen3.html
Seriously, I don't have any secrets. All the foundational stuff is in these playlist. :D
Running into an issue @25:35 where when I bake constrained actions my mesh get all twisted up and much larger. I looked at the Expy channel and saw that in the current version 0.5.1 its supposed to automatically detect rigify so there's no selection menu.
Just tried it with the V0.2a you had in the video and selected the Rigify Controls and it still had the same weird mesh issue.
I am not sure, I haven't checked out the latest updates yet. You could try asking the addon dev!
Thank you. Any update for face rigify use this add on ? that we are waiting the video
Sorry, I didn't understand the question. You can use the face rig if you want.
Thank you for your reply. I mean in this add on did not update for face rig. any update for this add on. sorry to make you confuse
@@shivangipriya4153 ah, I see. I'm not sure, sure. Test it or ask the developer.
OK, thank you
Its not working for me on Blender 4 working on a mac. Not sure what it could be.
ask the addon dev!
Can you try with mixamo characters, it never works with mixamo characters the bones are never inside the body
Good point, I should have covered this. With Mixamo characters check these settings in the FBX import:
Ignore Leaf Bones
Forece Connect Children
Automatic bone orientation.
My character only has 3 fingers per hand and when I try to bind to active armature it gives me and error and doesn't work, can you help?
What kind of error?
@@CGDive missing bone error, tells me that the missing fingers couldn’t be found. Would there be any way to fix it?
@@ilovefishing2232 Where does this happen? In Blende or Mixamo?
I am not familiar with the error so please add some context and just as much info as possible :]
@@CGDive I fixed it, I just used the 3 chain finger preset on miaxmo for riggify
@@ilovefishing2232 awesome! :)
Hey, can u help me? I've been facing some troubles with mixamo. When I try to upload my character in OBJ file, it keeps sending me an error message: "sorry unable to map your existing skeleton mixamo". Then when I try to upload as a FBX file, it keep loading, then when is 30%, turn back to 0% and then just apper an error message, not the same one, but just an error.... I really dont know what to do, I've already try basic everything....
Hey, sorry I am not a Mixamo developer. These results are not normal so my guess is that there is an underlying problem with your mesh.
I generated the rig with the face bones included. The resulting control rig can manipulate the mesh except for the facial mesh and teeth/eyes. Is there something I might have forgotten to do? Help would be appreciated :)
The face mesh is not weighted to the bones, most likely. I covered how to do that here
ua-cam.com/video/7WDBqXTAKDg/v-deo.html
@@CGDive Thanks for the reply. YEs I found that video and got it working. Thank you. Unfortunately I wasn't able to upload to Mixamo using the second workflow and the first workflow lead to some undesirable deformations, however, I will give it another go today.
👍
unfortunatly the second workflow which was usefull for me does not work. I download the mixamo animation,but somehow I get the Default|Take 001|BaseLayer|metarig from mixamo and not the actual; animation. Any hints ?
Nothing comes to mind, sorry. Can you try it one more time?
@@CGDive So here's what I did : I did not convert anything with expy kit ( But i do have it installed ) . I have a existing rigify rig>downloaded a mixamo animation>Selected the rigify rig ( controls ) and shift selected the mixamo bones ( animation ) > right click select constrained controls > Baked the animation > This Works ! However I can not use the rigify controls to do animations on top of the mixamo animations.They are all locked with the constrains.If I remove tyhe constarins obviously it does not work anymore.So my question is how can I use this and add my own animations on top of the mixamo animation ?
@@Mbg-tech You have to bake the animation to the controls then remove the constraints :)
@@CGDive When removing the constrains after the baking the controls jump to it origin position.I had to manualy keyframe ( eg the hand so it can move with the root in a run animation ).That is not ideal because you want all the controlls to move with the root ( it is parented to the root because of the child paretnt rel ) .Any clue ?
@@Mbg-tech Did you bake with Visual Keying?
when I transfer the Mixamo animation to my rigify, the rigify rig and the mesh both get heavily deformed but the animation works. how can I fix the deformation issue? ( I use a rigify rig created directly in blender, so didn't need to do the conversion step). thank!
not sure, please ask the addon dev.
Apply rotation to mixamo rig first. Also, select "match bone transform" in tranform mathing settings.
@@FIAman1 Thanks bro you saved tons of my time!
Hey bro hope you having a good day btw i got some trouble here when i bind the active armature it does not show the "To bind" option in bottom left window it only shows bind target. Can you please help me with this. Thank you.
Not sure, sorry! Please ask the addon dev.
I tried to follow this but for an unknown reason the binding just totaly explodes my rigify control rig and thus the mesh...
Has anyone a solution to this?
No idea what "explode" means but your objects may have prior parenting. First unparent them and remove any armature modifiers, then bind again.