I have run into a few issues that I need assistance with while working with blend shapes and the 3dsmax facefx exporter.
Working with Multiple Objects
I am evaluating the new software you have to offer, while currently using the version that comes with the unreal engine. In unreal, I use actorX to export PSK files that ultimately become blend shapes in engine. I am able to have a skeletal mesh that consists of multiple objects (head, left eye, right eye and teeth) all of which have morpher modifiers on them as well as skin modifiers. ActorX recognizes what meshes have skin and exports all of them as one skeletal mesh PSK file.
How can I use facefx exporter to batch export morph targets from this head. Right now, I end up with morph targets that do not affect all the meshes. For instance, when I use the morph target that opens the mouth, the teeth might open, but the jaw doesnt follow. Or when I use morph targets to look up or down, the lids dont follow. I have made sure that the morph targets are named the same across all objects. but that does not fix the problem. Any advice?
More than 100 Morph Targets
My head consists of more morph targets than 3dsmax allows inside a morpher modifier. Because of this, we have moved to a different version of a morph modifier for our game that does not limit us. FaceFX relies on the morpher modifier to export targets. How can I acheive a facefx file that will contain all my targets? If this is not possible, is there a way to add targets to a facefx actor once it has been opened in facefx studio?
Hi Bryan,
The Max Ogre exporter that ships with FaceFX will not put morph targets from various submeshes together into one morph target if they are named the same. If they are named differently, you could export the morph targets separately (i.e. jaw_open_teeth, jaw_open_face), then create a combiner node that drives both morph targets together (i.e. jaw_open drives jaw_open_teeth and jaw_open_face)
That might work, except that you have over 100 morph targets and are using an external morpher modifier that the exporter doesn't support. There isn't much that can be done there.
Is going through Maya an option? If you can get the content into Maya, then you should be able to export all of the morph targets into Ogre format for view in FaceFX Studio.
Thank you for the suggestions. I am making progress with using maya rather than max, but have run into something that I need further assistance with. When I batch export blend shapes using the maya facefx plugin, I am getting the namespace of what the blend shape node is called added as a prefix before all my blend shape names. For example, my shapes are coming up as "blendShape2.myShapeName" Is there a way to have it so that the "blendShape." is not a part of my FxMorphTargetNode names?
The reason this is so important, is because Im syncing to a template that is expecting the names to not have those prefixes, and it will take me a significant time to manually rename them all.
Line 325 of facefx.mel has this:
string $fullTargetName = $blendshape + "." + $blendshape_target;
change that to:
string $fullTargetName = $blendshape_target;
But if you do that, the FxMorphTargetNodes created won't drive the Ogre content in FaceFX Studio. But there is an option in the Ogre Exporter's MEL GUI not to export with the blendshape deformer name. The only problem then will be that if you have targets with the same name in different blendShape deformers, there is no way for FaceFX to know which one you are talking about.
Thank you for the help with the .facefx files. I am now getting my morphs without the namespace. I am failing however to be able to edit the option in the Ogre Exporter's MEL GUI not to export with the blendshape deformer name. All those attributes are just grayed out no matter if I have default file extensions checked or not. Any idea how to make those options active?
You have to select "Export Mesh" before you can select "Export blend shapes (to mesh file)". Then you have to select "Export blend shapes" before you can choose to include the blend shape deformer name in the blendshape names.