* MIDI conversion tool for piano/keyboard *
Hi everyone!
I was working on a cartoon project with a Boogie piano player in a music clip but I had to stop it because I wasn’t able to run the old plug-in Menuett (http://hirospot.web.fc2.com/AutoPiano/index.htm) on iClone 7. Animating the clip note by note is just too time consuming and tedious. Of course I could just hide the hands behind the piano or use the already existing python tool for piano but that’s not sufficient for me. An accurate and precise keyboard and finger animation makes the whole difference as you can see here: https://beforesandafters.com/2020/12/11/how-midi-files-houdini-and-the-art-of-animation-made-piano-play-possible-in-pixars-soul/

Therefore I’m craving for any script which would help me making this and other clips come true.

I did the hand movements for a guitar, and it was a real pain. I got lazy and collected the clip in this video, and you can tell where it messes up.



I didn't know Python at the time. As for a piano or keyboard, Just moving fingers and pressing some keys might be doable. Doing the timing to music would be difficult, and getting the keys right would take some AI wizardry.



Creator of the free website:
PixelDatabase.Net
A Free Online Text Based Image Editor

The timing is in the MIDI files, so if the API can read those that would give you the timing.

One problem is that in actual play the same note is not necessary always played by the same finger, it all depends on surrounding notes. So it is not just a straightforward mapping problem. 

I'm talking here as a piano player; a guitar may be different.

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I don’t really expect a script that does the finger animation for me although it would be really great. I‘d be already happy if the keys were animated correctly as a guide for the finger movements.

@Data Juggler: if you follow my links then you‘ll see that it is possible regarding a piano. I don’t think that it‘d work so easily with a guitar except for strumming.

From the top of my head.
Keyboard keys should be made physics enabled - with constraint and limited movements.
Then each finger should have a rigid dummy sphere inside fingertips attached to the distal.
This way you probably would not need a script. Just animate fingers and play.

You lost at the each finger part.




Creator of the free website:
PixelDatabase.Net
A Free Online Text Based Image Editor

Ten of those physics enabled spheres attached to each finger distal. That's easy.



Hardest part would be to make physics keyboard keys to go down and up as they collide with fingers (spring constraint?).

I guess this is probably more of a 2030 ideology but wouldn't it be cool to have different scripts that you could buy for every package that you bought that would auto generate different set ups and stages.
That way when some one created a package they could continue to market you new environments with their product. I'm sure you could sell a bunch with the Urban Construction Package. 
I've seen several of the owners set ups I'd like to auto generate. 
Please comment if you like that kind of plug in  idea or if you feel like I'm being too lazy ! lol ! 
I guess I could be overthinking it when people could just as easily create and sell different environments with out a plug in. 

This would maybe help if I were a great Boogie piano player but I’m not. I depend on MIDI. If someone helped me to run this old script here: http://hirospot.web.fc2.com/AutoPiano/index.htm then it would be fine for me too. But I know that there are always people who would be interested in a new script of this kind too and I don’t think that it would be too difficult for an experienced programmer to write it. Of course it hasn’t to be for free.