[RELEASED] Puppet3D - a professional rigging toolset for Unity.

Hey - Just discovered Puppet3D.

Got a few questions -
1. Are fingers going to be an option for auto rigging? I saw this on the Puppet 3D roadmap. Just asking for clarification.
2. Will there be optional support for facial rigging?
3. Is there any plans for supporting Quadrupeds?

 

Is there a way to mirror keyframes, it is tedious to copy/paste and change values.

Puppet3D is still awesome though. It is the best tool, minimal interface, intuitive workflow congrats

 

Your post and the silent video were very helpful... thank you! The process didn't work completely as it does in the video for me, though. It never adjusted the shader to the Puppet3D shader to display the weighting, and then at the end I had to switch the shader back manually as well. Still, I was able to get through the steps and manually paint some weights for the first time, woohoo!

 

Yes. My plan is first to implement driven keys (these will be custom animation sliders you can set up). Then using this feature I'll hopefully make automated version for the humanoid fingers.

The driven key feature will hopefully be great for this.

(At the moment you can make bones for the fingers and face and create "Parent/Orient" Controls to make animating them cleaner.)

You can manually rig quadrapeds now.

Hopefully i'll add multi-bone IK in the future which would work great for animal legs.

I have no plans for any autorig quadrapeds yet.

 

Animation mirroring. Yes, ill add that to my future feature list.

 

Was your character a previously skinned FBX? If it is you'll need to detach it from its previous bones and reskin it. This is so that it creates a new mesh with all the new skin weights. (The skin weights are stored in the mesh file which should get saved in the same folder as your source character model). If its still using a mesh which had weights on it before, that may be whats causing it to update and lose your skin weights.

Do you think that could be whats causing your issue?

 

Unfortunately, this asset does not appear to work for me.

What I need it to be able to do is to rig clothing to an existing avatar skeleton. With your help, I was able to get the mod rig setup to work and was able to paint weights, but the way that process appears to work is to change that existing avatar skeleton by adding its own skeleton structure (I'm guessing that's what the JNTP structure is). That's no good for me, since what I need is to be able to do is to rig the clothing to the existing skeleton.

I am making clothing for a Unity-based virtual world (called SineSpace). The way that works is I set up the rigging for one of the avatar skeleton models, and then I upload the clothing item to the virtual world's servers for processing. Since Puppet3D doesn't actually weight it to the existing model (instead it appears to create a modified version), the uploaded content does not rig to the in-world avatar.

Is there a way to get Puppet3D to rig to the existing avatar and its existing bone structure? If not, I can't use this tool.

 

You only need to use the Mod-rig feature if you're planning on changing or making new animations.

Otherwise instead what you want to do is take you're characters bone gameObjects and add the Bone component to them (its a Puppet3D component). Then you can select all the bones and you clothing mesh and skin them.
You'll need to make a prefab of this new clothing mesh with the bones, so that the new clothing model will know its linked to those bones.

 

Just to let everyone know I've released an update (v1.1)
Here's whats changed:

- Now Supports Submeshes
- Fixed - Global control moves ModRig
- Fixed, hold Ctrl to remove weights

 

Like I said, I need to be able to have it work with the existing avatar/character models... as is. Adding a bone component or any other changes doesn't work.

I am making clothing content for a Unity-based virtual world. I then upload that clothing (and just the clothing) to their servers, where it is applied and worn on the avatar models by players/users.

I've got local copies of the male and female avatar models for the purpose of design reference and for rigging, but my uploads are my own content only, I am not able to upload changes or additions to the system avatar itself.

 

ooh I see. I was going to say you can actually remove the bone components after you skin it - but you'll still need it to be a prefab and shared as a unity pakage if you want to give it to someone else.

Sounds to me you'll be needing an export skinned model feature. Its actually high up on my to-do list. When I do its likely to be a collada file (works like an FBX).

 

Nope, i've got a skinned body on it's own fbx and the unskinned helmet on a separate fbx. I'm skinning the tail on the helmet and then i'm attaching the helmet on the body hierarchy in the scene.

 

I can probably work with a collada file (though ideally I'd prefer to keep with fbx format).

 

Can I export the final result out as a normal FBX file?

 

Not yet, ill be hopefully doing a collada file export which can be converted to an fbx using the autodesk tools. Though coĺlada files work in unity in the same way as fbxs

 

Are you able to email me a pic of what youre doing? Puppet3dunity@gmail.com

 

Sometimes the rig breaks when you break out of play mode, you have to rig animations again. Or when you select object other than rig when animation recording is on I think. Thankfully the animations are not lost.

I will let you know how to reproduce this bug, as this is happening frequently

 

Let me update everything and retry, i'll make you a video right after if still happens.

Edit: Done and sent.

 

Is your model an FBX? I just discovered a bug with non-fbx meshes that I think I've got a quick fix for:

open the skinning.cs and change line 1064 to this:

Code (CSharp):

1. if (extension == ".asset")
2.  

(if you're model is an FBX please let me know, as this would mean its a bug I'm unaware of)

 

The model is FBX:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Puppet3D.IKFKBlend.RunConstrianedControls () (at Assets/Puppet3D/Scripts/Controls/IKFKBlend.cs:88)
Puppet3D.GlobalControl.Run () (at Assets/Puppet3D/Scripts/Controls/GlobalControl.cs:246)
Puppet3D.GlobalControl.LateUpdate () (at Assets/Puppet3D/Scripts/Controls/GlobalControl.cs:230)

This repeats like more than 80+ times.

 

This looks amazing, especially for someone like me who isn't a 3D artist but hardcore coder. So two questions, and please use only small words when responding

How does P3D interact with other IK solutions? I'm using FinalIK for some of my animations - will they work together seamlessly or will I need to manage precedence of scripts?

Can I use this to add bones to an existing 3rd party skeleton and then use it with other extensions? I'm also using DynamicBone - will that asset be able to transparently use any bones I've added to an existing model with P3D?

Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic: your asset store entry for P3D links to the P2D ("*two* dee") website that has no link to your 3D site.

Thanks,
-ch

 

This project looks rather interesting. One of my biggest curiosities is if this can rig ProBuilder models. Given how ProBuilder is a Unity package now (as of 2018.1, I believe), it seems like it would be rather useful to be able to model and rig right within Unity.

I suppose a follow up question would be if there are plans to make this Mecanim compatible in the future?

Edit: Given you use your own bone setup (from what I understand), does this also mean existing humanoid animations are not supported?

 

Hmmm, this could be because of the latest update, the modrig needs to reference the globalControl, and this only gets assigned when you first make the modrig. You might want to remake the modrig (all animations should all work all the same)

 

Not sure really, I don't have FinalIK.

I've already seen someone use DynamicBone with Puppet3D - so you can do that.

If you have some external bones - you just need to add the Puppet3D bone component to them and then you can bind other meshes to them or create controls on them as normal.

Oh - yeah thats the linke to my publisher site. Will need to add a link to Puppet3D when I get a chance. Thanks for the heads up

 

I'll be releasing a fix very soon to allow the use of non-fbx models. Then you'll be able to export your probuilder model as an obj and rig it using Puppet3D.

The next stage will be the collada exporter. This will essentially make any animations made go back into the Mecanim system.

You can make use of all Humanoid animations with ModRig - its just that subsequent animations will not have the humanoid features you see on the import settings.

 

Sounds great. Do you have any idea of a rough ETA on the collada stuff? Sounds like this would be perfect for me once those are available.

 

Wow just being able to skin a mesh in Unity is cool, but then you can animate with IK...!

Can you also update IK in code for walking on terrain, grabbing items etc?
If you animate with IK like that on the arms, you might then want to bake the animation later to reduce runtime overhead

 

Holy Guacamole! After reading all this and taking a look at the tutorial videos, this seems to be one of those products in Unity that Unity will eventually buy like ProBuilder, Text Mesh Pro and many hundreds more that I have supported over the years are now free.

I have just purchased this Asset and will have time over the weekend to look at it. It imported fine and looks good.
If you get fingers working you’re on your way to great success. Put fingers on your number 1 top list of things to get done ASAP.

Also, think about animation problems that many have like getting in cars, maybe opening the door, driving a car, bike, and so on and on. Make llife easier for the animation process too and you’re a winner.
Well done and keep up your good work

 

working on both collada and finger rigging at the moment - they're quite hefty features so may take a month or so. I'll try to keep everyone informed on how its going

 

IK can all be controlled at runtime.

Theres also a bake to bones feature as you said - if you really need to free up some CPU

 

You can actually already use Puppet3D to manually rig fingers at the moment. But of course I'm working on making that much better.

 

Sounds good. I'll keep an eye on the thread, definitely looks like something that could be right up my alley.

 

Hi
This is very interesting, does it work with UMotion?
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/animation/umotion-pro-animation-editor-95991

 

Cool, I didn't realize that. I will give it a go but I also look forward to more automatic finger rigging. Your product is great.
please add a hotkey to turn off all controls except the selected one you are working with. Then pressing the hotkey again would show all controls so that you could select another one and then pressing the hotkey again would hide all other controls. This will save clutter on screen. Also a global handle size option, so I can set the size of all handels at once.

Great product, keep up the very good work you are doing here.

 

I just found this and I'm interested in it. Will I be able to use it to alter animations in scene. For example, I have a scene where I need a characters hand to be on an object but it was animated in a way that the hand isn't fully on the object.

Can i use this software to update it?

 

A bone mirroring function will help a lot in the mean time

 

Yes, you can use the modrig feature to do that

 

I would like to ask this very important thing as it can cause slight delays. I already have animations say idle, attack, etc Noe when I bake them - they become idle_Baked.

Assume I change the original idle animation ("idle") and click Bake, will it create new animation file idle_Baked2. Not a big deal, but I really wish it replaces. If it does not replace, will you please write some code and make an option?

I might need to send you an email.

 

Also another question, there is an animation that toggles an object on/off but also uses hands. When I bake this animation, the object does not appear. I will try again and let you know.

Is this a glitch?

 

Currently only the bone animation bakes. You'll need to copy the other animations over manually. You can do this using CTRL-C and and CTRL-V between the animation clips.

 

Hi,

Thx for this new tool !
I didn't try it yet (and will there be a trial version ?) but i'm asking myself if there is a morph feature ?
I am making clothes for characters, and while rigging is not too hard, morph application to cloths is.
Do you plan to add any solution to this ?
(i'm trying to make clothers for MCS Morph3d characters and the tool they provide is not working well)
Sorry if i'm off topic !

 

Hi I just found out about this asset.

I few questions before buying.

Do rigs made with this, become a .fbx that can be used elsewhere?
Do Rigs made with this have to be animated using it's own animation tools?

Some practical cases of my questions:
Can I rig here, and use an humanoid animation downloaded from mixamo?
Can I rig here, and use uMotion to animate?

 

You can skin clothes to bones, and paint/adjust the skin weights as necessary.
There isn't a blend shape feature yet though.

 

I'm working on an exporter as the moment. It will be in collada format - (collada files easilly be converted to fbx using autodesks fbx converter tools, collada files also work the same as fbxs in Unity).

Puppet3D rigs can be animated in anything that can animate a gameobjects transforms. That could be any of Unitys inbuilt animation eiditors, or any other Unity assets that have their own animation editors will work.

In theory if you managed to mimic the exact skeletal hierarchy it would work. Ideally, this would be better when the export feature is made, as then you'll be able to make it into a mod-rig and import and retarget the animations via the mechanim system.

Haven't tried, but in principle I would certainly imagine so. Puppet3D is a rigging tool. Once you've made a rig you can animate it in anyway you like. In the end the controls are gameObjects that can be manipulated however you want. For example adding rigid bodies to the hand and leg controls can be fun

 

Looks like submeshes with different materials does not work.

 

Could you check what version of Puppet3D you're using. That should have been fixed since v1.1 (its on v1.2 now)

 

Yes, it is 1.1 but on 1.2 it does not work also(dont rig all)

 

Thats really odd. Could you perhaps email the offending character so i can see what the issue is. Puppet3dunity@gmail.com

 

Just seen what the issue is. The skinning has trouble when the root model name is the same as the mesh model name. If you rename the root model that should fix it - I'll fix it for next release.

 

Just found a bug with the latest release with voxel skinning. I've submitted an update - but in the meantime if you search for the following line in the skinning.cs script and comment it out it should be fixed.

Code (CSharp):

1.                 Undo.RegisterCreatedObjectUndo(VoxelsGOParent, "voxel");
2.