I have an FBX exported from a character object that I rigged (has a head, and body). It is jumping and moving it's arms. When it jumps, the head rises with the body. However, at the the step where you join the FBX into one object, your animation retains all of the various body parts animations, however mine will only retain the the animation of the first body part selected before joinig (if I join the body to the head, then the animation simply rises up and down as the head does. If I join the head to the body, only the body jumps while the head remains stationary. How did you retain the animation for each body part while merging them into one object for export to Alembic? Great video!
hmmm, with mixamo its easy because the vertex weight remains when you merge them. Are your joined objects still under/inside your rig? Alternatively, you can always export it out as an alembic with the multiple parts, then when you get to the geonodes step, join the geometry back together in geonodes. (Bring each piece in, and connect it to a join geometry node, and then use that node as your character input) Hope this helps!
@@levelupvfx Hey this idea worked great, I was able to join the individual head and body object info nodes together with the join geometry node, and the character successfully moves as a whole (but only after selecting "relative" on the object info nodes). If I don't have "relative" selected, then once again only the body moves. It seems when relative is not selected, I can move the group wherever the plane is. But when relative is selected, I have to move the character in order to move the group. This would be no problem, except for some reason my character's head is locked in place (I can move the body, but the head will not budge). Haha it's like a tradeoff. Any idea why my character's head would be stuck in place, unable to move, and yet the body would be freely movable? Thanks again! I am telling everyone about your videos.
hmmm, I couldnt tell you off the top of my head. If you want the easy solution, you could always just throw a transform geometry node on there and offset it to the location you want it purely through geonodes, but if you want to be able to physically move the plane simply and easily, sadly I dont really have a solution off the top of my head. Im glad you enjoyed and found the video useful though! hopefully I was at least of some help!
@@levelupvfx Hey I remade my character as one object, then rigged it and redid the animation, exported to fbx and then from fbx to alembic, figuring it would be easier to work with this way, and think I stumbled upon the real issue I was having before. Prior to unparenting the null object (after importing the alembic file), my character just a simple jump animation and his arms raise in the air, and then he lands. However, after unparenting the null object, the animation remains, but I seem to lose the elevation aspect (instead of rising up, he just raises his hands, without actually jumping). Is there a way to maintain the elevation portion of an animation with this method? Sorry for the questions haha, I am learning so much and watch this video a few times a day. It is very helpful. No worries if not though.
Yeah, I’m thinking of how to do this as well. I believe the best way is to somehow cache it out as a particle system and then bring it in with Niagra, but I’m not exactly sure about how to go about caching it out. Believe me though it’s on my list of things to do so stay tuned!
Great work :)
Thanks!
Great video! Having a few issues at the end with animations not playing all of the way through.. will continue troubleshooting
Just what I was looking for!
Awsome tutorial dude new subscriber gained ❤
I have an FBX exported from a character object that I rigged (has a head, and body). It is jumping and moving it's arms. When it jumps, the head rises with the body. However, at the the step where you join the FBX into one object, your animation retains all of the various body parts animations, however mine will only retain the the animation of the first body part selected before joinig (if I join the body to the head, then the animation simply rises up and down as the head does. If I join the head to the body, only the body jumps while the head remains stationary. How did you retain the animation for each body part while merging them into one object for export to Alembic? Great video!
hmmm, with mixamo its easy because the vertex weight remains when you merge them. Are your joined objects still under/inside your rig?
Alternatively, you can always export it out as an alembic with the multiple parts, then when you get to the geonodes step, join the geometry back together in geonodes. (Bring each piece in, and connect it to a join geometry node, and then use that node as your character input)
Hope this helps!
@@levelupvfx Thank you so much! will give this a shot.
@@levelupvfx Hey this idea worked great, I was able to join the individual head and body object info nodes together with the join geometry node, and the character successfully moves as a whole (but only after selecting "relative" on the object info nodes).
If I don't have "relative" selected, then once again only the body moves.
It seems when relative is not selected, I can move the group wherever the plane is. But when relative is selected, I have to move the character in order to move the group.
This would be no problem, except for some reason my character's head is locked in place (I can move the body, but the head will not budge). Haha it's like a tradeoff.
Any idea why my character's head would be stuck in place, unable to move, and yet the body would be freely movable?
Thanks again! I am telling everyone about your videos.
hmmm, I couldnt tell you off the top of my head. If you want the easy solution, you could always just throw a transform geometry node on there and offset it to the location you want it purely through geonodes, but if you want to be able to physically move the plane simply and easily, sadly I dont really have a solution off the top of my head. Im glad you enjoyed and found the video useful though! hopefully I was at least of some help!
@@levelupvfx Hey I remade my character as one object, then rigged it and redid the animation, exported to fbx and then from fbx to alembic, figuring it would be easier to work with this way, and think I stumbled upon the real issue I was having before.
Prior to unparenting the null object (after importing the alembic file), my character just a simple jump animation and his arms raise in the air, and then he lands. However, after unparenting the null object, the animation remains, but I seem to lose the elevation aspect (instead of rising up, he just raises his hands, without actually jumping). Is there a way to maintain the elevation portion of an animation with this method?
Sorry for the questions haha, I am learning so much and watch this video a few times a day. It is very helpful. No worries if not though.
my problem is how to get this into unreal engine
Yeah, I’m thinking of how to do this as well. I believe the best way is to somehow cache it out as a particle system and then bring it in with Niagra, but I’m not exactly sure about how to go about caching it out.
Believe me though it’s on my list of things to do so stay tuned!