Keyframe & Mesh Editing on STEROIDS... Maybe?

[life_matrix]

As the KEYFRAME Editing! =D thread discusses, the usual advice for how to borrow animations from one mesh and add them to another is to use m25's Keyframe editor. The other, more complicated method, being to do that through NifSkope.

While I was thinking about how I might be able to force keyframes to work with a mesh that it normally wouldn't be compatible with, an idea hit me. I realized that I may already own half the software I would need to do this. And my idea - if it works - would allow virtually unlimited mesh editing and animation editing in a very intuitive and user-friendly environment.

Specifically, I was thinking of using the iClone 5 3D animation (machinima) package, combined with the 3DXchange 5 Pipeline Edition tool.

iClone 5 is orders of magnitude easier to use than Blender, allowing even those who don't know how to model to do some very amazing animation stuff. A lot of animation can be done with simple stuff like mouse gestures and clicks from menus and buttons. (You can search YouTube for iClone videos on animation, to get an impression.) Further, with the optional Mocap Device Plug-in, one could use a Microsoft Kinect device to literally act out the motions you want and import them directly onto a character. (No green screen or silly-looking skin-tight suit required.) How cool would that be?

What really inspired me was the ability of 3DXchange 5 Pro and Pipeline to import just about any 3D model and apply just about any animation sequence to the model, easily. You can import .FBX, .3DS, or .OBJ and apply on a model the animations from .FBX or .BVH files. It can make the necessary adjustments. And it is amazing the volumes .BVH animations one can download for free these days, if one looks for them. The 2500 BVH motions in the freely available Carnegie Mellon motion library alone is huge and that's just one well-known example.

Granted, this is expensive, EXPENSIVE software! The retail price of the Pipeline Edition of 3DXchange 5 alone is almost $500. On top of that, iClone 5 Pro is usually about $200 and the Mocap Plug-in is another $200, plus the cost of the Kinect device (which isn't cheap, either). Even so, this stuff is about the most bang for your buck you're going to find anywhere in terms of ease-of-use and features.

However, there are some ways to really cut down on costs. Reallusion Premium Membership gives customers access to substantial discounts, often about half or more of the usual price. And all it takes to become Premium is to buy something from them. And, really, all that's essential in this pipeline to convert animations is the 3DXchange Pipeline Edition. The rest is icing on the cake. Also, if you hunt around you can find deals on the Kinect.

Myself, I already own iClone 5 and the Pro version of 3DXchange 5. And, when I can afford it, I'll get myself the Pipeline edition and maybe even the Mocap Plug-in (some day). I had planned on making this investment anyway because machinima is something I really want to get into.

More than that, iClone 5 and 3DXchange 5 allows some user-friendly mesh-building. You can click'n drag some simple shapes or custom objects into position over bones and assemble a character in mere minutes. And you can texture these objects by clicking on them and choosing a texture. Here are two video examples:

3DXchange5 Tutorial - Converting an iClone Prop into a Character
iClone Tutorial: "Building a Robot from Found Parts" - YouTube

On top of that, it should be possible to use iClone to streamline the creation of Opening Video and Secret Origins. iClone is designed primarily to make animated movies, so it would be useful in putting together the custom animations for the .NIF in the opening videos. And by rendering out still frames, one could easily put together the images needed for Secret Origins and Comic Covers. iClone even has built-in lip-sync for voices (for head .nif shots, perhaps?) and a toon or cel-shading feature (as seen in this video) which could give Origins and Comic pages a simulation of comic or manga art. And the "Graphic Novel" style shading might work well for some dark, horror or distopian-type mods.

Admittedly, this is theory on my part. I haven't imported such a mesh into or yet. I'm not to a point yet where I can make a mod and I do not yet own the Pipeline edition. (Otherwise, I would have tried some of this already.) So, for all I know such converted meshes and animations might need to be "cleaned up" to get them to work right.

However, I have played around a bit with iClone and 3DXchange and I am a bit familiar with the capabilities. So I thought I'd post my thoughts on this before I forget and go back to lurker mode...

[life_matrix]

There is a catch to what I suggested: Since FF and FFvTTR models are in .NIF format, a method is needed to convert these to .FBX and back.

If one is lucky enough to already own 3DS Max or Maya, one could use the appropriate NIF file format plugin. That would solve the problem right there.

For those of us who do not and can't really afford it, there's Blender. (The latest version of the Blender NIF Scripts is v2.5.9.) While Blender does export to .FBX rather nicely, .FBX import is not officially supported. That said, there was a FBX2012 Blender FBX Importer project that developed a partial implementation of FBX Import. (At the moment, it looks like one has to add the scripts to Blender.)

Since the Blender .FBX import is incomplete and rather buggy, an alternative might be to use Blender to export the .NIF to .FBX and then, after using 3DXchange, use some other software to convert from .FBX into .DAE (Collada), which Blender does support.

If one is on a tight budget, Bryce 7 Pro might do the trick. That can import and export to and from .FBX and Collada. It can still be obtained for free from Daz3D just by registering with the site. I'm not sure if it's still true, but you might have to subscribe to their newsletter. (While you're at it, you might want to grab DAZ Studio 4.5 and other stuff in their Free Content section.)