In Blender i can create a model, give it an armature and create some poses, then save poses inside the blend file. But how would one save several animations inside a blend file (synonimous to BHV files).
And then use those animation blocks, as if one placed BHV blocks ea drag them over a timeline.
So for example you take a walking animation, and a turn left/right animation, and head turns, but then have the ability to walk a complex pattern (some path of cominations walk straight/turn)
Well thats how my imagination thinks about it, is such a workflow possible in blender ?.
No, not really possible. There is the NLA editor that can sort of do what you want. In the NLA editor, actions created in the action editor can be mixed together. For example, I used it once to combine a walkcycle with a hand waving action, so the character walked and waved its hand at the same time. But that was a simple example and the character walked in place, no forward movement. Which maybe will work for you, as BVH files I’ve looked at before had no movement, there were of a skeleton walking in place.
But for some reason, I get the feeling this isn’t what you are looking for. You’re looking for the character to actually move forward and walk around, right?
Then there are also a few other problems. Mocap files are usually dirty, and require a bit of animation clean up. Then there is also the issue of how the actions get mixed in the NLA editor. For example, lets say the character walks straight, turns left, walks straight, then turns right and walks straight. Say the walk cycle ends with the right foot forward, and the left turn starts with the left foot forward. Or the other way around. You’ll have foot sliding issues.
So even if you devise a way to make the character move around, despite the fact that the BVH mocap files have no location movement, like say the character on a path, you’ll still have foot sliding issues. The only real way to overcome foot slide is animating in IK… IMO…
Then again, what are you really looking to accomplish? If you are looking to quickly build an army to storm a castle in a fast paced scene, the foot sliding might not be an issue. Mocap animated characters moving along paths might work for that case, cause you wouldn’t notice the details…
Randy