Glad most find this Collect Clip to Motion Plus workaround useful enough.
Rampa thanks for adding the video tut.
I got a few more face animation related discoveries (since CC launch)
but am trying not to overwhelm people with TMI...
..or clutter up OP (VM is just seeking Face Puppet to Pose Preset tip)
Will add thes face tips to the Technical tips forum once it's proven legit/ useful to most
Meanwhile to clear up some myths:
Version relevancy - I discovered this around 6.1 when I started testing iClone6 CC actors workflow.
I've been away from iClone, just updated from 6.3 to the latest 6.4 yesterday
iAvatar generation: this works on CC, iClone6 Standard Avatar format.
But this works on G6 too.
Is it a workaround or intended?
Motion Plus saving Face Expression is an intended behavior.
Saving Face Anim to local library or to 3DX for export = expected behavior.
Work in progress, temporal solution yes, but not a hack.
Do read up on Motion Plus, it is one of the best features of iClone.
Face animation IS complicated, more so than body motions
Lots more convoluted than what meets the eye
For now let's keep it simple...
Elaborating on my initial tip...
First let's label the things being discussed for distinction and future references
Commonly these are called Face Pose Presets
regardless of bone or morph or mix based
For now...
Face Key save as Facekey Preset
Face Puppet clip save as Faceclip Preset
FACE KEY = FACEKEY PRESETSWorks on CC, G6.
Simple straight forward.
Collect Clip to highlight one frame and save as Motion Plus.
Popup: uncheck all others except Face Animation.
Save to custom Motion Plus>custom face expression library.
Capture thumbnail as you design it.
Will even load with a little clip with custom animation name you understand.
Delete the clip if you wish, won't affect the key.
Blend multiple keys as you please.
Works on all same-gen characters sharing the same face profile.
FACE PUPPET CLIP = FACECLIP PRESETSFace puppet clip saving is slightly trickier than saving Face Keys.
(won't deal with the technical whys here, too long)
Works on CC, G6.
First, generate an expression using Face Puppet.
I prefer to pick a few frames from Start frame.
Then simply click drag highlight a section of Collect Clip
Important: which segment of the clip you choose to collect, matters
In most cases, the beginning segment will load fine but produce weak strength
So highlight select the most "energetic" segment of the face expression
Anywhere between 5 to 10 frames will do
(because clip will load the entire original capture length anyway so pointless breaking clip or manage clip blending range at this step)
Motion Plus, unselect the unneeded bits, save, thumbnail capture
After loading the FaceClip Preset, you can shrink it (basically speeding it up)
Or even
treat it like a "Gradient Face Pose Slider", with a transition range
Say, from slightly amused to giddy
You will find a key or two load with the clip sometimes, but they're redundant, delete for tidiness of ignore them
This is not exactly saving Face Puppet as "keys"...
But when in iRome...make do
Until a CC morph direct to iClone Expression Poses mechansim is revealed
Methinks that one is likely to mean jumping through the hoops of CC>3DXpipeline>iClone
Another video from Rampa perhaps, on Face Puppet derived Face clip Preset?
:)
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