Study BVHs And Daz Studio 4

Objective

See the tricks required, if any, to get BVH import/export to work in Daz Studio 4.8+

Experiment 1

0 - Open DS 4.8.0.59 Pro Edition (64-bit)

1 - Load Genesis 1

2 - go to frame 0

3 - Apply the animation found in the attachments below MCJGENESIS1AIKO5PUMPKINDANCEC.duf

4 - do a BVH export, we dont specify SecondLife compatibility and we dont load a map

so this bvh will only work with figure that have exactly the same bone names and skeletal structure

the file: mcjGenesis1Aiko5PumpkinDanceC001.bvh

5 - I go at frame 0,

6 - I select Aiko5, i go in the parameters tab, i do a Clear Pose Animation, Zero Pose

note: some programs count on a figure's T-Pose when importing BVHs, so we placed Genesis 1 in her T-Pose

7 - Genesis is still selected, i do a File/Import/bvh, i use the default import settings

mcjGenesis1Aiko5PumpkinDanceC001.bvh

Results - Everything seems ok except the feet and the toes

8 - The Findings

Then i tried importing/exporting and had some weird results

Here's the interesting finding

if i select Genesis 1, and go in the parameters tab and do a Clear Animation Figure Pose then a Zero Figure Pose

( because it's possibly important to have Genesis in a T-Pose )

and import my BVH, there's serious problems, for example, non-animated legs

BUT, if i do

Clear Animation Figure Pose then a Zero Figure Pose

then Memorize Figure Pose, Restore Figure Pose ... i get way better results

The BVH for this test is found below as MCJGENESIS1AIKO5PUMPKINDANCEC002.BVH

SOLVING TOE ISSUES MORE FINDINGS

The BVH import now works very well but .... the toe animation didn't import

I dont know if there's other ways to solve this

But when exporting the BVH, i changed the "lBigToe" and "rBigToe" to "lBigToo" and "rBigToo"

Because ... the BVH Importer confuses the BigToes and the Toes

You will find this BVH below under the name MCJGENESIS1AIKO5PUMPKINDANCEC004.BVH

Untested Things ... when it still doesn't work and you don't know what to try next

Well actually i did test it but i forgot the details

If you create animations that don't have 1 keyframe per frame

example, you build a 30-frames animation by keyframing 4 poses at frames 0, 7, 15, 22, 30

then sometimes exporting this animation will produce unexpected results.

Using something like mcjDecimate you could make convert your 4-keyframes animation into a 30-keyframes animation