I have spent a good deal of time this week trying to get some of my purchased motions into motion puppet so I may use this powerful tool for quick and realistic animation and I ran into my share of problems and crashes during the process.

For those of you who don't already know how to do this, I decided to streamline the info found in multiple places on the forum into one process to assist in achieving both a robust and an organized Puppet Tool.

Special thanks to Sen for his past tut's and to Rampa for taking a moment to tinker with his to provide this info.

The path where the puppet motions are located is:

C:\Documents\Reallusion\Template\iClone 5 Template\iClone Template\Preset\

Depending on your OS, it may be "My Documents" or "Public Documents"

The Base Motion folder is the only one you will have in this Location by default along with a file named "OrderList.ini" -- Ignore this file, you do not have to edit, copy, paste, or evemn look at it.

Inside the Base Motion folder, you will find 4 folders; Idle, Mood, Move, and Talk,

Inside each of these you will find the pupper motions and 3 BMP files. These BMP's are the icons located above the motions in the puppet panel inside iClone.

To Add a custom motion folder or "category", Create a new folder in the preset folder named anything you like. Inside this NEW folder, create Folders for your desired motions.

*IMPORTANT* You must have the BMP files located in each folder you add to your new motion category and they must be named as follows:

Folder_Click.bmp

Folder_def.bmp

Folder_over.bmp

If these are not present or are not named with the same as the folder they are in, the puppet will CRASH iClone.

Its a good idea at this point to Launch Iclone, add an actor, and bring up the puppet to make sure your new category is there. It should be located in the drop down menu along with the default "Base motion" category.

If all is well, move on, if not, review and retry.

***iClone loads information for the puppet at program launch so it is important that iClone is closed while you are editing the folder(s) and that you launch the program for each test, if your iClone is idle and you make changes, you will not see these changes until you close and relaunch iClone***

To get your motions into your new category, navigate to their location using your explorer

C:\\Documents\Reallusion\Template\iClone 5 Template\iClone Template\Motion\

OR

C:\\Documents\Reallusion\Custom\iClone 5 Custom\Motion

Copy your desired motion(s) and paste them into your new folder(s)

*IMPORTANT* For the puppet to interperet the motion, it must have a configuration (.INI) file.

Simply open the "Base Motion" folder and select any of the existing INI files in this directory and copy, then paste it inside the folder with your new motion, then name the file the same as the motion file.

These INI files are identical to one another so it does not matter which one you pick.

At this point, you if you have followed these steps, you will have a new category and new motion(s) to use in your puppet.

If the puppet crashes iClone, review the folder(s) and names to make sure the names, capitalizations are correct and the BMP's are present and the BMP's are there.

You may add as many category folders as you like and add motions to any of them including the base motion folder.

Keep in mind that the more motions included in a single category effects the time it takes for the puppet to load that category so keep each new folder as small as you can. Once you get over 50 in one category, you start to notice (depending on your system this number may be higher or lower).

Hopefully this will help you save time and a lot of keyframing to get that perfect motion in your next animation.

Vet's, if there is anything I left out or need to add, chime in and I'll edit my post. 

 

I created and keep a template folder in the base motion folder to quickly add new motions

"Folder Template" including Idle, Mood, Move, Talk and each of those containing only the 3 required bumps and this folder just sits, If/When I need a new category, I simply copy and paste this folder in the same directory (creating "Folder Template - Copy", then edit this copy to create my new motion category)

RC, great minds think alike....and so do ours.
It seems I did a similar clarification just a moment ago. We MUST've been working on this at the same time. Mua ha ha ha!

I would add that as you do these additions and modifications, make sure you do so with iClone 5 off. If you work on them with iClone 5 on, the modifications will not appear in the Motion Puppet. Do not fret. Simply exit and reactivate iClone 5. The new mods, if done as prescribed, will appear in their proper place.

Also, when renaming your .INI files/Configuration Settings files, make sure that they match how the iMotion file appears. Capitalization may not be important, but spacing and spelling is. If a word is off by one space, or misspelled, the function will not work.



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

Capitalization crashed mine.

Walk Backward loop.iMotion

Walk BAckward loop.ini

= CRASH!!

Took me FOREVER to find it.

Ok....so capitalization IS indeed important. Alright, we've now proven that.

So, kiddies, make sure that when you rename your Configuration Settings file/INI file for whatever animation file you are setting it for, MATCH Capitalization, Spacing, and Spelling.

My result was different though, RC. Although mine dealt with spacing, the only thing that happened was that the "Preview" and "Record" buttons remained greyed out. It was only after discovering the spacing error that I was able to get them to function.

So, folks, just to be safe, so that you do not run into the probs that RC and I have had, make sure everything matches.



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

Mine actually crashed.

I added just a few motions in several categories and tested it and it worked well.

Then I started adding lots of motions into each category and testing each one. All went well and suddenly, the puppet started crashing iclone. It wasn't until the next day (yesterday) that I finally found that one letter, changed it and then it started working again.

Sample

\

I tried this out and it seems to work. But:



the INI files are not identical at all. The datas in it varys, beginning at line [Setting_Left_1]. Maybe they are adjusted for each movements, when you change the presets sliders. Keep this in mind, if any motion is not like what you expected... ut I have no idea, how to change the datas to make them fit


6Core AMD Phenom 2 X6, 8 GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD7870, Win8 64 Bit, iClone 6 + Indigo, iClone5.5, CrazyTalk Animator 2, Crazy Talk 7

Great summary.
Now we just need some tool that creates a checked list of available motions, moves the selected ones automatically into the puppet directory, creating the needed .ini.

Yes, I know (...Swoooop), I am lazy and I do like the push buttons...

Years ago I could have spend a couple of hours to create this tool in any of the programming languages I knew... but now I am too old and time-lacking for this... ;-)

Any volunteer ? :-)

My PC:
OS: Windows 10 Pro English 64-bit / CPU: Intel i7-9700 3.6GHz / MB: ASUS ROG Strix Z390  RAM: 32GB DDR4 2.6GHz / HD: 2TB+3TB  /  SSD: 2x512GB Samsung 860 EVO + 1x2TB Samsung
VB: Palit GTX2080 TI GamingPro 11GB / AB: embedded in the MB and VB (audio from the MOTU M4 I/F) / DirectX: 12

Hi Swoooop

It's inexact to say :" turn on macro recorder and ok ".
You need real script code for access sytem level , good syntax and many thing I can' t explain here , because it's not the purpose .
Macro recorder only record action by user and not all . For access system , folder , file ... copy/paste file , create ini , create .bmp .... you need code and some knowlegde .

If you can do this with only macro recorder , can you show and demonstrate ?

CGTRADER

thank

a "pun" , ah ! yes I find a good translation . I understand now

members wish always one push button .

Me , I need to learn English with a one push button

CGTRADER