I’m just so curious as to how this will integrate with Blender, especially the muscle system. Could you explain what armature/script/plugin/? we could use?
This next-generation of MakeHuman is completely stand-alone – it is writen in C, not python. Once a character is made in MakeHuman, you will be able to save it in either the MakeHuman specific format or an .obj file (or both). The .obj can be imported into Blander and other “one-stop” modeling programs, to be added to a complex scene, for example, containing many other models. Additionally, you will be able to render an image of your (eventually) posable character. The image’s background is transparent. This .tif image can then be imported by many image manipulation programs and used in post production.
For example, you could model a sleigh in Blender, and render. You could then model a Claus in MH with hair and clothes (eventually) and render. You could then combine the two images in post production and end up with Santa in his sleigh. Or, you could make the sleigh in Blender, and import the MH Claus to your scene. You will be able to save your Claus made in MH with high-quality UVMaps (eventually). Eventually=sometime between now and late February 06.
Specifically regarding the Muscle Engine System, the morph targets used in your character are modified by the engine according to muscle group settings and according to the position of limbs in relation to the body. For example, if you pose your character with its elboe bent, the bicep will bulge and the tricep will relax. But, all these individual morph targets combine in the end to make the mesh of the model for renders and for saving in .obj.
Now, specifically regarding what or how much of the “posability” or “animability” (I think I just made those words up) I truly do not have a diffinitive answer for you at this time. I only know right now that posability is planned for the beta release. I know that as much of the mesh information that can be saved in .obj format, will be (eventually).
I, like you, hope that I will be able to import an MH character into Blender and not have to develop a skeleton for it, and have the muscles work right when I pose it in pose mode, as in the elboe example I described above. But, again, I just do not know at this point in time, but I will keep everyone informed as much as possible and as soon as possible.
I like the whole makehuman idea but I really think this new turn has removed a lot of options for where it can be used.
A decent muscle system that can be animated directly in Blender with good clean meshes would have been great. But now, you have to import an obj and have to rig the models manually as before.
I think if you were somehow able to add this code-base into bf-blender, not only would it give you the ability to use the standard rigging & animating tools, it might allow everyone to use a built-in aqsis/pixie exporter and also allow you to export to more formats than just .obj. Also, you wouldn’t have to program new UVmap functionality because it’s there already.
While the .obj exporter will be included in the beta release, posability probably will not be, because we must first build a database for the expert system that calculates the muscles’ movements, and this takes quite some time. The mesh will be presented in the classic Da Vinci pose, ready to be rigged.
Each software manufacturer has different rigging and animation systems. And, the professional studios often work with custom skeleton structures, configured case by case. So, it is very difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all fully integrated export program for each and every possible software. Difficult, but not impossible. The difficult just takes considerable time, but will be accomplished further down the road. In a future nearer than that, a script to export MH data to Blender, including a skeleton and vertex weight info., but excluding muscle engine info., will be included.
UV maps, as automated as possible, will be included at a later date, but no firm timelines have been established.
We anticipate the completion of an expanded project summary within two weeks, which will explain where the project intends to go with the software and how they think they’ll get there.
The final version will be free and open scource, correct?
Also, there isn’t a way to export muscle deformation data to blender right? So, after creating the model in makehuman, you’d still have to rig it in blender?(that still saves a lot of time modelling.)
p.s. There is no muscle system currently in blender right?
MH rocks… I fully agree and have been supportive of the project from the beginning. (Still p*ssed we let the Hydrogen drum machine beat MH…)
However, it now appears that the MH treads can be safely moved to ‘Other Software’ as the link to Blender is fading pretty quickly…
Thanks! everyone, on behalf of the team for the KUDOS.
All versions of MakeHuman will be free as in freedom, and free as in free beer! And, open source, as well! The downloadable source code file is posted right underneath the downloadable MH pre-alpha file on our summary page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/makehuman.
AFAIK, Blender doesn’t include a muscle engine per se, but don’t quote me on it. But, with Blender’s new and improved rigging and animation tools, rigging and animating a character from MH should pose no unsurmountable problems and should be quite fun! Unless you have a deadline, of course. That tends to take a lot of the fun out of it.
PolygoneUK wrote: “Holy crap, this is SO much fun even if it IS a pre-release demo. Woo-hoo :)”
I have always enjoyed learning from the examples of your good work!
First, let me clarify that MH is not an animation program, and there will be no exchange of information; i.e., for the Blender-specific export program, MH will only export (at first) skeleton and vertex weights for import into Blender – MH will probably never import anything from anywhere. Animation is completely up to the user. However, skeleton and vertex weights should give the user a good head start, and allow immediate posability of the character within Blender.
Even with being able to export the skeleton and weights, I, for one, cannot rule out the possibility that some deformations and intersections may occur in characters which utilize extreme amounts of morphing in certain targets; or in the base mesh or body settings, overall, when posed in a particular way. So, varying amounts of tweaking of the mesh, rigging, and vertex weight settings by the user will probably be required.
As I understand it, the biggest problem with exporting muscle engine data to Blender is the anticipated rather difficult problem of explaining to blender how to make the multitude of mesh corrections especially when it considers the muscle morphings, correctly and consistantly. It will be a good period of time before this problem is tackled, but will probably result in also eliminating or greatly reducing the problem mentioned in the previous paragraph. A better answer is posted at www.makehuman.org in the forums.
Poser? The only comparison I am willing to make at this point, is that our stand-alone program will never cost you a dime.
