Answered I move an animated person, but position snaps back. What could be the cause?

[kemenate]

https://hub.virtamate.com/threads/dringende-hilfe.316/
This user has a scene with a dance animation and want's to move the person to a different location, but when they unfreeze the animation it will snap back to the original position.
What could be the cause of that behavior and how to fix it?
I found a few similar questions on discord, but no answer.

 

[meshedvr]

If it is motion capture animation (scene animation), unfortunately there is no way to move the Person and have the animation move with it. This is because the motion capture data is stored in global coordinates and not relative to Person. This was on purpose so scene animation could work with all atoms at once. In fact you could motion capture person movement + prop at same time. I plan to completely redo how animation works in 2.X to allow making motion capture patterns that could be relative to a specific atom or control. Editing will also be introduced. Edit: I was completely wrong! Motion capture data is stored in local relative coordinates. So you could motion record a joint, and then later move the root Person control node and the animation will move with it correctly.

If the animation is done with Animation Pattern/Steps, the pattern and step atoms could be parented to the Person atom, and then Person could be moved and animation will move with it.

 

[kemenate]

If it is motion capture animation (scene animation), unfortunately there is no way to move the Person and have the animation move with it. This is because the motion capture data is stored in global coordinates and not relative to Person.

I'm wondering... The Scene Animation Data is raw in the scene json and in a quick test it was totally possible to move a person+MoCap just by search-and-replacing a bunch of values in that file (the root was not animated, thank god)... It should be pretty easy to add/subtract from the values to edit them.

Does somebody know if there is a plugin that can do it?

 

[Tiseb]

Try to click on the control of the person and to suppress the animation of the controller.

 

[kemenate]

Try to click on the control of the person and to suppress the animation of the controller.

This did the trick. I tested it on a merge-loaded person with Scene Animation and it worked perfectly. Thanks.

 

[meshedvr]

This did the trick. I tested it on a merge-loaded person with Scene Animation and it worked perfectly. Thanks.

Well color me surprised! This must have been an imported animation, because that trick wouldn't work on animation captured using motion capture inside VaM. Edit: As per my followup post, I don't know how my own software works. All motion-capture animation is stored using positions/rotations relative to the parent node. For Person joint nodes, the parent is the Person control node.

 

[Tiseb]

If the person's controller takes this place when he is moved it means that he has an animation recorded on it.
If it's an atom of the person, the animation follows the controller.
It happened to me to create a person controller animation without moving it just to block it in its place and to avoid making mistakes during the construction of the scene.

 

[meshedvr]

Well, apparently I don't know my own software very well. I actually fixed this a long while back to make the animation of nodes relative to the parent node. All Person joint nodes are parented to the Person main control node, and @Tiseb is correct that if you move the root and it snaps back it just means that there is motion recorded on the root node. My guess is this mostly only happens on import of motion from external sources, because normally in VaM you would not arm the root control node for record.

 

[Spacedog]

I remember the days when animation data used global coordinates, it was quite frustrating. Then one day suddenly they were local and I could move people around and it was amazing. Thanks Meshed for fixing this even if you don't remember doing it

 

[TitGod28]

Hello, I am having the same problem as the original poster. Perhaps I am too dumb but I read the thread and still don't know how to solve the issue. I am not too knowledgeable in the software. I mainly just use other people's animations and switch in my custom characters. I tried doing the thing of clearing the animation for the root controller but it does not do anything and the person will still snap back to its original position whenever I try moving them. I would really appreciate any visual help especially since the atoms and parent stuff confuses me when just reading it. Thank you to anyone who can help!

 

[atani]

Hello, I am having the same problem as the original poster. Perhaps I am too dumb but I read the thread and still don't know how to solve the issue. I am not too knowledgeable in the software. I mainly just use other people's animations and switch in my custom characters. I tried doing the thing of clearing the animation for the root controller but it does not do anything and the person will still snap back to its original position whenever I try moving them. I would really appreciate any visual help especially since the atoms and parent stuff confuses me when just reading it. Thank you to anyone who can help!

It depends on how the animation is made. Essentially you need to learn a bit about animation and scene making to investigate what is the cause for each scene. What you learn is well worth the time invested I think.

 

[TitGod28]

It depends on how the animation is made. Essentially you need to learn a bit about animation and scene making to investigate what is the cause for each scene. What you learn is well worth the time invested I think.

The animation giving me the trouble is this one: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/westo-1-simply-sex.39795/

 

[Deleted member 73286]

Having the same issue with RizkyBizz's scenes. They're awesome and some of my favorites but I just don't know how to free move the model in his scenes. Tried the same thing by hit clear animation button controller but it didn't work.

 

[atani]

Gents, the "Clear animation" button is useless for 99.99999% of the animations you'll see in VaM, so forget about that. Nowadays most animations are made with Timeline, usually it's on the person atom plugins.

When I said earlier about being able to change the position of persons that it depends on how the animation is made, it truly depends on how it's made. If you're lucky, a quick change can allow you to reposition the persons and the animation still works, but chances are it won't or bring other issues:

1. Open Timeline and see if there's a "Control" target in the Targets tab
2. Remove the Control taget and see if you can move people and the animation still works
3. Save the scene for reusing later

If that worked then you're in luck, if it didn't then it could be many other reasons, it depends on how it's made. Your best bet is to learn how to use Timeline or whatever other animation method used, knowledge is power, in this case power to move people about. Or like with many things, you can pay someone to do it...