UMotion - Animation Editor

I have a set of 8-way run and walk strafe animations that are great, but are tuned to a character having a sword and shield. I want to create an unarmed version of these animations. I've tried to edit the animations using umotion with an override layer, but I'm not a great animator and the result looks pretty bad. What's the best way to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish (besides just saying get better at animating)?

 

If your character is of type humanoid, you could import any regular (unarmed) run/walk animation. Then copy and paste the arm keys of the unarmed version into an override layer of the "armed" version. Make sure that the animations are in sync (i.e. there is no offset in time between the unarmed/armed version of your character). Use that as a base and then fine tune if required. You might also want to experiment with a layer blend weight smaller than 100% (the blue slider of the layer). If you have any further questions, please create a dedicated thread in the support forum to keep things organized (no account required).

 

I'm not getting any more crashes when exporting FBX! Yay. UMotion Pro is now very pleasant to work with.

 

I don't understand something. If I use UMotion Ik and then I change my pistol position animation clip can find out the new position of gun to grab it?

 

Is there a way to organize clips in to folders? My list of clips is getting very long and it would be nice to put them is different folders.

Do we need to create another project instead? How could I move clips from one project to another?

 

The UMotion IK is only available while authoring the animation (i.e. during edit time). You can use the UMotion IK to create a regular animation clip, the results of the IK are then baked into the exported animation (just as if the animation was created in Blender, Maya,...). If the target position for your IK changes during runtime, you can use any available runtime IK solution on top of the pre-made animation (created in UMotion). There are several runtime IK solutions available on the asset store (and by Unity themselves).

Yes I would recommend separating the clips into different projects (this is better for editing performance too). Just import the old project into the new project (using Edit --> Import Clips), then remove the check mark for clips you don't want to be imported. If you have further questions, please feel free to open a dedicated support thread on the official support forum (no account required).

 

I searched in the forum here but couldnt find the answer. I have an imported animation that turns 90 degrees Y on completing, but the first and last keyframe are the same local Y rotation, and so they match up, and those are all the keyframes.

There isnt another keyframe, so it should just loop. The Local Rotations are all the same, but when i set the Global Rotation it does show it changes 90 degrees, but since the 1st and last keyframe at the same local rotation Y, why is that? How do I make them the same if they are already the same.

Im sure there is a simple answer, but I dont understand what to change. I made a video to show this to enhance the clarity:

Thanks!

 

The conversation was moved to the official support forum: https://support.soxware.com/en/comm...re-how-to-change-as-1st-and-last-are-the-same

 

Hi, I'm trying UMotion on Mac, but every time I use Pose Editor to select Model gameobject, the editor keep reporting "Cancelling Display Dialog : This should not be called when a View's DrawRect Method is in progress" error message.

I have tried with 2020.2.0f1c1, 2020.1.2f1c1, 2019.4.18f1c1, 2018.4.31f1, and only 2018.4.31f1 version can work well.

Is there any chance use UMotion in more recent Mac Unity versions? Thanks.

 

I've moved your bug report into a similar report on the official support forum. I've found the cause of this issue and am working on a fix. There is an easy workaround you can use in the meantime. For more information, please check out the link to the support forum: https://support.soxware.com/en/comm...s-drawrect-method-is-in-progress#comment-1266

Please post in the support forum in case you have further information or any questions (no account required).

 

UMotion V1.24 was just released on the Asset Store

ATTENTION: It is highly recommended to remove the "UMotionEditor" folder of a previous UMotion installation before performing this update, otherwise you are going to end up with duplicated files.

Update now: UMotion Pro V1.24 | UMotion Community V1.24

This is a small quality of life update that fixes a few bugs and improves on the following feature:

Clip Editor: Frame View
The "Frame View" functionality of the clip editor got a complete rework. This functionality adjusts the view of the clip editor to fit the current selected keys (or to fit all keys when none are selected). This functionality is now also available in the dopesheet view (in previous versions it was only available in the curves view) and it now has a dedicated shortcut ([SHIFT + F] by default). I've chosen not to use the [F] shortcut for this, as [F] is already used by the "Focus Camera" functionality of the pose editor (which zooms the scene view to the selected bones).

You can adjust the shortcut via "Edit --> Preferences" (in the clip editor).



Complete Release Notes
This post highlights only a few of the new improvements. Please refer to the release notes for a complete list of changes.

Spoiler: Release Notes V1.24

UMotion V1.24
New or Changed Features

• The "frame view" functionality of the clip editor was improved. Furthermore it can now also be used in the dopesheet.
• The "frame view" functionality now has a default shortcut assigned (SHIFT + F). For existing UMotion installations it is required to set the shortcut manually via the Edit --> Preferences window in the clip editor window.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed that browsing for a destination file in the settings window (i.e. clicking on "...") doesn't show the previous selected folder.
• Fixed that selecting a GameObject for the Pose Editor doesn't work on Mac OS when doen via the selection dialog (shown when the white circle is pressed).
• Fixed that UMotion isn't displaying the new rotation handle in Unity 2020.2 correctly (not all lines have the correct thickness).
• Fixed that root motion isn't previewed correctly when there is a rotated parent GameObject.

Manual Changes

• Fixed wrong information regarding generic bones in humanoid projects in chapter "Pose Editor/Config Mode/Configuration".
• Removed a dead link from the "UMotion In Practice - Our First Animation (FPS)" video description.
• Added a description of the "Frame View" context menu entry to the "Clip Editor --> Dopesheet / Curves View" chapter.

Let me know if you like the new update. If you discover any problems, please issue a bug report at the official Support Forum.

 

Thanks for the update!

I realised mine hadn't been updating since 1.22p03
The fix was to delete this file (win10):

%AppData%\Unity\Asset Store-5.x\Soxware Interactive\Editor ExtensionsAnimation\UMotion Pro - Animation Editor.unitypackage

Then delete UmotionEditor folder and redownload. Idk why it got stuck

 

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately this is a common issue with Unity's asset store and even with the new package manager... Hope Unity is going to fix this in the future (or maybe it already is in latest versions of Unity).

 

Hello I noticed That Your asset totally crash unity 2018.4.30 . The only way to turn on project again, was removing Umotion folder

 

Thanks for reaching out. I've created a support ticket for your issue (and answered it) so that we can further discuss this: https://support.soxware.com/en/communities/1/topics/856-crash-in-unity-20184#comment-1322

You can directly reply in the support thread linked above, no account required. Thanks.

 

I made an intro to uMotion Community tutorial for beginners--thought some folks would like checking it out

 

Hi,
thanks for your great video tutorial. I love it! I've shared it on my socials.

One quick tip: If you shift select the parent bone of the tail (this selects all children as you know) and then use the rotation tool, the rotation is smoothly applied to the whole tail. This makes it super easy and clean to pose the whole tail (without having to adjust each and every bone manually).

 

UMotion V1.25 was just released on the Asset Store

ATTENTION: It is highly recommended to remove the "UMotionEditor" folder of a previous UMotion installation before performing this update, otherwise you might end up with duplicated files.

Update now: UMotion Pro V1.25 | UMotion Community V1.25

Camera Follow
Similar to the [SHIFT + F] shortcut in default Unity, this feature automatically locks the camera to a selected bone/transform. This makes the camera move with said bone/transform, very useful when working with root motion animations.

Unlike Unity's default feature, the follow target is remembered even when selecting something different. It's also possible to move or orbit the camera while the camera is following the target.

(I'm using [ALT + Right Mouse Button] to orbit the camera.)

Important: To stay in line with Unity, I've also set the default shortcut for the camera follow feature to [SHIFT+F]. This shortcut was previously used by the "Frame View" functionality of the clip editor which now has [V] assigned as default shortcut. If you've already had UMotion installed previously, you are thus now getting a shortcut key conflict as UMotion does not update previously assigned shortcut keys (so both "Frame View" and the new "Camera Follow" end up using [SHIFT + F]). Go to "Edit --> Preferences" to solve the shortcut binding conflict (if you have no custom shortcuts, simply pressing the "Use Default" button also does the trick).

Pivot rotation is now synced between Unity and UMotion
Keeps the "Pivot" rotation mode (local/global) in sync. So you can use either Unity's UI or UMotion's UI to change it.



There is one minor visual issue: When changing the pivot mode by pressing the buttons in UMotion, the change isn't displayed by Unity's button immediately (though functionally it takes effect immediately). I found no way to force repaint the Unity toolbar buttons to show display the state change immediately. Please let me know if any of you knows how this can be done. Thx

Child-Of / IK Pinning - Optimized key framing behaviour
The additional keys (that are placed one frame before a parent or IK Pinning key) are now only created, if really needed (i.e. when the parent or the IK Pinning state changed).


Complete Release Notes
This post highlights only a few of the new improvements. Please refer to the release notes for a complete list of changes.

Spoiler: Release Notes V1.25

UMotion V1.25
New or Changed Features

• The pivot rotation (local/global) is now synchronized between Unity and UMotion.
• Keying the parent channel/IK pinning channel now only creates additional keys (at current frame - 1) if the parent/IK pinning state actually changed.
• The button "Camera Follow Selected" was added to the selection category of the pose editor. Pressing this button lets the scene view camera follow a bone/transform (very useful for previewing root motion animations).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed that the "edit key" window (in the curves view) automatically closes as soon as an input field is selected (regression introduced in V1.22p11).
• Fixed that when manually adjusting an euler rotation value in the channels view (e.g. adding +360°), the value modified as soon as it was keyed to be the shortest path rotation instead (discarding the extra 360° rotation). When typing a value manually, the expected behaviour would be to key exactly the value that was previously typed in.

Manual Changes

• Added a description of the "Camera Follow Selected" button to the "Pose Editor --> Pose Mode --> Selection" chapter.

Let me know if you like the new update. If you discover any problems, please issue a bug report at the official Support Forum.

 

Last update dont openning project pls fix

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately I can't reproduce that issue on a first try (all my projects open fine). Please provide some further information (Unity version, does re-starting the PC help, does re-installing UMotion help, can you open the provided example projects,...) by creating a dedicated support request on the support forum (no account required to post). That way I can take a closer look and provide further assistance: https://support.soxware.com

Thanks.

 

Some testing. If I now want to do some animation to the upper body by turning left or right, I got problems that the hands moving too so they do not tuch the right places on guitar. How can i solve this ?

 

The solution is called IK Pinning. Please check out the following two video tutorials (IK pinning is based on the child-of constraint):

 

I recently purchased UMotionPro.
Thank you for the great assets.

I added the animation events on UMotionPro and saved them as *.fbx.


However, I could not load that information into *.fbx.


How can I load the animation event?

 

I've moved your support request into the official support forum and answered there: https://support.soxware.com/en/communities/1/topics/906-missing-animation-event-in-fbx-export

Please comment directly in the support forum, no account required.

 

The first 13 secounds of a animation from a dance video making with Umotion:

 

I've created a thread in the support forum, check it out: https://support.soxware.com/en/communities/1/topics/913-problems-with-thumb-pose

 

Hey, do you have a discord channel?
Would be great!

 

Unfortunately I do not have a discord channel but I do have an official support forum where you can ask your questions, provide feedback or report issues (no account required). It works in a similar manner as unity answers or stackoverflow. I think this is the cleanest / most organized way to handle support requests as each request is inside it's own thread. This makes it easy to search for existing answers.

 

I've used Umotion to modify several animations. The problem is resulting animation file is like x5 the size...
files are here
https://disk.yandex.ru/d/ZDliqE_yzH2Asg?w=1
What's wrong ?

 

Animation events work the other way around, when the animation is played and it passes the time/frame where you've defined the animation event it is going to call a function in your code. For example if you want a foot step sound to be played every time the foot is planted on the ground, you would create an animation event on each frame of your animation where a foot get's planted. Then you add a function/method to your code that plays a footstep sound and let your animation events call said function.

More information on animation events can be found in this video tutorial:

If you want to create a simple movement script with WASD player input, please try searching via google there should be dozens of examples and tutorials

 

Please refer to this answer I gave to a similar question on the official support forum: https://support.soxware.com/en/comm...9-my-animation-size-what-can-i-do#comment-397

Please post in the support forum thread linked above (no account required) in case you have any follow-up questions related to this topic.

 

Guys,
check out this cute ~15min short film by @twyocum created entirely in Unity using Unity Timeline and UMotion:

@twyocum also created a behind the scene video that provides you a deeper insight into his production workflow:

Feel free to comment below in case you have any questions to @twyocum. Also make sure to checkout his vimeo account for more: Vimeo Account

 

I have a question. It is possible to export/bake a custom transform position in the animation file?

 

I guess you're using a humanoid UMotion project, right? Yes. Open config mode in UMotion, select the transform you want to include in your animation (from the hierarchy) and under "Properties" set it's "Visibility" to "Show". Then go back to pose mode and export your animation again.

This is also covered in this video tutorial:

In case you have any follow-up questions, please do not post here but instead open a dedicated support thread on the official support forum (no account required): https://support.soxware.com

 

Yes is Humanoid, and it doesn't work as you have suggested but I will contact you on the website

 

UMotion V1.26 was just released on the Asset Store

Update now: UMotion Pro V1.26 | UMotion Community V1.26

This update is mainly a stability/maintenance update. Please note that due to new asset store guidelines, the minimum Unity version that UMotion supports had to be raised to Unity 2018.4 (and above).

Clip Import: Animator Hand/Foot IK
I often got support requests like "My animation's feet/hand look different when imported in UMotion compared to when played by the Unity Animator". This is happening when the Unity animator controller plays the animation with hand/foot IK off (which is the Unity Animator's default value) but in UMotion the animation was imported with hand/foot IK being on (which was UMotion's default value).

Side note: This "Animator IK" that I'm referring here is an additional IK Pass in Unity's humanoid animation re-targeting algorithm with the goal to correct foot sliding artifacts and hands not reaching original positions (both caused by different body proportions/bone lengths of the characters). This has nothing to do with UMotion's IK used for posing. More information: https://blog.unity.com/technology/mecanim-humanoids



Thus I decided to change the default value of the "Animator Hand/Foot IK" of the animation clip import dialog to off in order to be in line with Unity's default value in the animator.

Please note that in Unity Timeline, the default value of the "Foot IK" is "ON". Consider this when working with Unity Timeline.

Improved Export Settings
Also due to various support requests, I decided to change the default mode of the FBX exporter to "Update Existing File". In this mode, you select your character's FBX file as destination file and your animation get's written into this file.



This has several advantages compared to exporting as a separate file:

1. The mesh and the animation stay together in one file. This makes it easier when you want to import and continue working on this animation in an external modeling application. Exporting as a separate FBX file, only contains the skeletal and animation data.
2. When working with humanoid, this guarantees that the correct humanoid avatar settings are used when importing the animation clip.

Complete Release Notes
This post highlights only a few of the new improvements. Please refer to the release notes for a complete list of changes.

Spoiler: Release Notes V1.26

UMotion V1.26
New or Changed Features

• Changed the default value of the "Animator Foot/Hand IK" setting in the clip import settings to OFF. This change was introduced to be in-line with Unity's Animator default value for Foot IK (OFF). Please note that in Unity Timeline, Foot IK is ON by default! The new default value is automatically used by all new UMotion project files.
• Changed the default value of the FBX export write mode to "Update Existing File".
• Added info texts to the export settings dialog that are answering some of the most commonly asked support requests.
• It is now possible to add an empty GameObject to the hierarchy of your animated 3D model in Unity and name it the same as a custom transform in your UMotion Project (e.g. "IK_Hand_R"). When assigning the 3D model to the pose editor, UMotion is automatically going to ask if it should convert the custom transform defined in the UMotion project to the existing one. This is useful when the IK handle positions/rotations should also be included in the exported animation.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed that when assigning a character to the pose editor, in some special cases the error message "Editing the hierachy of a GameObject that is currently used as UMotion preview object is not allowed." is shown.
• Fixed that copy and pasting keys from one animated property to another only copied the X component.

Manual Changes
None

Let me know if you like the new update. If you discover any problems, please issue a bug report at the official Support Forum.

 

How can I quickly add keyframe to a clip? In Unity animation editor, I just need to double click, but in umotion, seems I need to right click and select

 

There are several methods to create keys in UMotion. The one that might fit to your situation are:

1. Auto key let's you automatically create keys as soon as you modify something (this is similar to Unity's record button).
2. Using the "Key Selected" button (or it's shortcut, see tooltip) you can create a key of only the currently selected bone/transfrom. This works even if you're in the curves view because the curves view automatically selects the corresponding bone/transform.

If this is not what you're looking for, please feel free to further elaborate your use-case scenario on the official support forum (no accout required). That way we can discuss this topic in more depth without spamming this general forum thread. Link: https://support.soxware.com

Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Peter

 

Hi there,
I want to use Final IK with UMotion.

I read the threads in this forum how to use it and it works absolutely fine, except I cannot export the clip into an existing FBX file.
An error message appears that the bone I'm using as the Final IK target does not exist in the FBX file (which is of course correct).

So is there a way that I can export clips created with Final IK into an existing FBX?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for reaching out. I've moved your support request into the UMotion support forum so that we can discuss this topic in full detail. You can find my answer there: https://support.soxware.com/en/comm...se-ik-target-doesnt-exist-in-fbx#comment-1691

Please reply to the new thread in the support forum if you have any questions (no account required).

 

In the Clip Editor, is it possible to hide some of the Animated Properties?
It would make my life a heck of a lot easier.

 

Yes you can either hide whole bones/transforms (with all their related position/rotation/... properties) by selecting them in config mode and setting visibility to "Lock". In config mode, you can also disable certain properties (e.g. only the scale properties). In case you have any follow-up questions, please create a thread on the official support forum (no account necessary to post there): https://support.soxware.com/

Best regards,
Peter

 

Thanks for the fast response!
Cheers.

 

Just wanted to stop by to prise ur work . Amazing asset, especially the PRO with inverse kinematics. Its so much easier to work on refining the animations inside Unity and NOT having to go in and out from other softwares .

A question because I didn't get to that part yet. Does Your system support somehow character to adjust its feet to the irregular ground? Basically foot IK

 

Thanks for your nice words. That means a lot to me I'm glad you enjoy working with UMotion Pro.

What you're looking for is runtime IK. UMotion Pro only has edit-time IK. That means that the results of the IK are written into the exported animation, but there is no IK executed during runtime anymore. There are several runtime IK solutions for Unity: the built-in IK for humanoid, animation rigging and third party assets on the store.

 

Hi, I just found your addon and it is really impressive from an animation standpoint. I will definitely be using it in my current project for clip editing.

However I had a question based on something you said above, namely runtime IK solutions. I actually found your addon searching for a way to repair some big errors that I am having trying to implement Unity's own animation rigging package onto a Blender Rigify rig which I imported (only deform, cleaned, etc). I am following the examples perfectly but I am still getting some crazy errors in which the mesh flies off very far from the object origin and moves erratically.

Your addon seems to solve the rig problems I am having, but as you keep saying it is only within clip edits and not runtime. I could really benefit from just taking the rig that is created within UMotion, obviously this is not a feature though (perhaps you should consider it as a future feature?). But you mentioned some other 3rd party addons that help with runtime IK -- do you know the name of one? I am not finding one.

Cheers and excellent work

 

Thanks for your interest in UMotion.

Yes you can use UMotion to clean/repair an animation clip. Here is a video tutorial where (in the second example) I'm repairing an existing mocap animation using UMotion:

There are several on the asset store. "Final IK" might be one of the most famous.

In case you have any more in-depth questions regarding UMotion, feel free to post a dedicated topic on the official UMotion support forum (no account required for posting): https://support.soxware.com

 

Hello I have a question, We upgraded to unity 2019.4 and finnaly want to try pro version of umotion. I have just a question. We have animations with only skeleton and animations in fbxes, (animations are quite long) we divided it into several small animations in unity. Now we would like to edit whole fbx file not only one animation on it., and then override it in simple way to keep all settings. (mocap clenup workflow) My question is is there way to do that in easy way. We have a lot of fbxs with a lot of animations on it. we dont want to edit every animation after animation, cause we think in the future we could change animation range etc so we prefer to edit whole fbxs. is there option for that? Or option to edit onl;y partial animation on fbx and save it overriding? Thanks

 

Hi Jakub,
thank you very much for your interest in UMotion Pro. The recommended max. duration of an animation edited in UMotion is 1-2 minutes. Longer animations are going to cause performance issues during editing. If your total/combined animation does not exceed this threshold, just duplicate the FBX and change the import settings in Unity to import the whole animation (without splitting it). Import and edit this total animation in UMotion and then export back into the FBX file. Then in windows explorer / mac finder replace your original FBX file with the one you just edited.

Theoretically it might also be possible to edit smaller portions of the animation, export them as separate animations and then use an external modeling application like Maya LT or Blender to combine the animations to one again. Yet I don't see the point in doing this, if they are then split again by the Unity importer (you could just keep them separated).

If you have any further questions regarding this, please create a dedicated thread on the support forum (no account necessary to post there): https://support.soxware.com

Best regards,
Peter

 

Ok Thanks for info, the reason is that we use some of animation already, we dont want to create duplicates, cause then we need to find places where we are using it and replace, we could overlook somethinh etc. so overriding is much better option for posprocessing mocap. Thanks for answer. It would be awesome to have option to open fbx, edit it and justo verride, like it could be done in motion builder. Without every time creating special full long anim, then ovveride fileson local disc, I mean of course it could be done, but with 100 or more animations its just increase a lot of time of work. I stil think we will be using u Motion but would be great to have such a feature for all who edit mocap data with UMotion. Thanks again for info.