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Moves by Maxon range mapping?
Posted: 16 September 2021 07:14 PM   [ Ignore ]  
Total Posts:  3
Joined  2021-01-03

Hi, I’m trying to take a Moves by Maxon face capture and exaggerate some of the motion on the face mesh. (e.g., make the mouth open wider, eyes open wider.) Is there a way to access this face capture data? I thought I might be able to scale it somehow, like you can scale the generated pose morphs with the xpresso range mapper. I also thought there might be a way to use the “create pose morph” and “range calibration capture” functions to make this work, but it doesn’t seem to be what it’s designed for.

Any ideas welcome! Thank you—

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Posted: 16 September 2021 08:22 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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Hi kapsidelis,

Please have a look here: (Manual)

(If the link above is not working, please copy the whole link, someone left a space in the link, so it might not work.)
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/r25/en-us/Default.htm#html/TFACEPOSE.html?TocPath=Moves by MAXON|The Cinema 4D Page|Face Captures|Moves Pose Morph Helper|_____0

You need to set up the Xpresso Tag, the Pose Morph Tag and go from there. This means to look closely into the options of the “Moves Pose Morph Helper Tag”. In this Tag, you will find the needed fields to drag these three objects into it. 

Pose Morphs are set up there, but check, if switching the XPresso of has any influence.

All the best

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Posted: 16 September 2021 08:50 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
Total Posts:  3
Joined  2021-01-03

Hello, thank you for the quick reply! I have referred to the help pages, but I think I might be trying to do something slightly more unusual.

I am able to set up pose morphs and link them correctly (see first screenshot), and I can sculpt the resulting face mesh using the edit/animate modes in the pose morph tag to get the poses to work. However, I just want to scale the original motion on the original face mesh… I’m not trying to map the motion onto a different character or anything like that.

In the second screenshot, there are two faces — one is the original capture/mesh, and the second results from clicking “create pose morph.” What I want is to exaggerate the captured motion slightly, so that the open mouth just opens a bit wider. With the second mesh, I can only get it to animate if I enter “edit” mode in the pose morph, move points around for each pose, and then go into animate mode… this obviously doesn’t look anything like the original capture though.

The range mappers seem perfect, as I can scale the original data, converting (for example) a jaw open value of .5 to .6. However, I can’t seem to find a way to apply this to the mesh without sculpting new poses.

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Posted: 17 September 2021 01:55 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]  
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Hi kapsidelis,

To my understanding, there are two options. Using the capture data as is (with or without calibration), or to get all the data into a baked PoseMorph for a new Mesh. Here the new mesh needs all poses set up newly, but the sliders will give them their motion.
The idea to use the Range-Mapper would need some rewiring work.

The only way I can think of is to get the difference between the neutral state and the animated state. This value can then be added after being multiplied by a new mesh.

All the best

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
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Posted: 17 September 2021 02:45 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]  
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P.S.: Here is an example

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/kGczdryCdjQkBugjWJylgmr9VzWkQWnh8qBhwg2kCVg

The Float Math node contains the Factor for the scale.

Please note that the settings of the Point Nodes are crucial (matrix mode: local)

Cheers

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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Posted: 17 September 2021 03:52 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]  
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One more, with a slider for the “More_Cowbells” effect. wink

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/wInUKi8wnCu95GxcByWFY1neuqSuJmb3P4eQUyG1MFt

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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Posted: 18 September 2021 12:14 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]  
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Joined  2021-01-03

Amazing! At “more cowbell” levels of about 1.5x I think the capture data looks much more expressive, but more importantly, at extreme levels it does lots of fun stuff, as in the screenshot.

I was getting some weird results at first, until I realized the “iteration” node needed the number of points in the mesh, and it was too low… bumping that up did the trick.

Thanks for your help! This was a great lesson in some simple xpresso as well.

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Posted: 18 September 2021 12:32 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]  
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You’re very welcome, kapsidelis.

Yes, the iteration should match. From the old days, where bits and bytes were expensive wink things started at zero, to take all re-sources one could get his/her fingers on. A should look into the Structure Manager, while the selected object gives you the zero to max points number.

I would always set it precisely, even if some people are sloppy with it. For example, the Link List will start over if the number of objects is lower than the iteration. Count(all points of objects)-1 based on the zero to the max.

Yes, kind of simple, but yet, powerful.

Have a great weekend

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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