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By Eric C (RL) - 4 Years Ago
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Hand Gestures Puppeteering (Dec.30, 2020 optimized!)
The plugin had its 1.0 version in 2019 April, and it was builtfor animators with intuitive graphical user interface to drive the hand gestures of a character.
Now this plugin is updated with several enhancements. And we've made a tutorial to illustrate how you can animate with this tool.
https://marketplace.reallusion.com/hand-gestures-puppeteering
Once again, we teamed up with our power user Adolf Navarro to optimize this plugin. Adolf shares his thoughts and tips in this video:
We've added three main presets (default, male and female) to enhance usability, and enabled three modes of hand gestures puppeteering (left hand, right hand and both hands). Besides animating hand gestures, this plugin also acts as a great tool for editing mo-cap. Read the release note and Python API fundamentals below to know more about this handy plugin.
v2.0 Updates & Benefits Include:- Added 3 embedded presets: Default, Male, Female.
- Can choose to puppet individual left/right hand or both hands.
- Freely customize your own gestures to fulfill particular needs in any moment, or for flexible combination.
- Can reset gestures separately or all at once to the original Default preset.
- Gesture icons can now be replaced with a screenshot or an existing image.
- Blend out recording with original clips by definable frames.
- Added Preview and Record button and activation via the space bar, similar to the Motion Puppet and Direct Puppet tool.
Key Adjustable Parameters: ．Blend Mode: Enabling user to chose from 3 blend modes. ．Blend Out Recording frames: Enabling user to chose from 0-60 frames of blending motion clips. ．Preview/Recording: Enabling preview and record functions on panel. ．Hand Gestures Presets loading: Enabling user to load saved Hand Gestures Presets.
2021/Jan/4 update: 1. If you already had download the v1.0 plugin before, please log in to your RL account
2. Check out your Inventory List (Plug-in) and select the purchased date be setting by all.
3. Click "download" button and you will immediately start downloading your V2.0 zipped file.
4. Install the v2.0 plugin as usual
Version 2.0 Improvements:
Fixes:
*2-Point blend bug.
*Blending errors between the gesture points.
*Left hand capture bug.
*Crash from opening and closing the script dialog window.
*Recording no long deletes original clips within the timeline.
*Discrepancies between the blending parameter and the resulting effect.
Enhancements:
*Silent initialization: removed Console Log print when loaded.
*Changed recording hotkey to "R" instead of the space bar.
*Rearranged the user interface by grouping the relevant controls.
*Removed individual Preview and Record hotkeys.
*Removed influence on the movement of the wrists.
New Features:
*Add separate preview and recording for each hand; Now supports both hands, left, or right hand.
*Added Preview and Record button and activation via the space bar, similar to the Motion Puppet and Direct Puppet tool.
*Blend points are now replaceable with Right Hand, Left Hand, and revertible to Default Gestures.
*Blend point icons can now be replaced with a screenshot or an existing image file.
*Blend point data can now save and load via preset files.
*Blend point icons now scale as the blend weighting increases instead of highlighting in green.
*UI disabled state is now more obvious and consistent.
*Three completely new presets: "Standard", "Male", and "Female".
*The UI will now store the state of the prior session.
*The UI can now return the default factory state, with a press of a button.
*Now supports transitioning between the end of the recorded clip and any existing clip in the timeline.
*End transition period can be adjusted (number of transition frames).
=======================================================================================================================================
See the relevant resources below:
If you have any questions about the plug-in and the sample code, please feel free to post to this thread.
Relevant Fundamental Courses
Be sure to read this first to help you understand how this sample plug-in works.
You should familiarize yourself with the following fundamental lessons before you proceed:
- Using Temp Data - Learn to read/write temporary data.
- Embedding QML - A soft introduction to creating QML ui and embedding it into iClone.
- Merge All Clips - Take advantage of new and powerful merge clip capability in v7.83
For more courses and links to other Python of the Month activities, please visit here.
Enjoy!
Reallusion Python Team
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By toystorylab - 4 Years Ago
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Cool...
I must admit that I did not spent much efforts on the hands in my animations
except where it really was important for story telling,
Though with this I might start doing so, as it seems quite easy
and the customizing factor of 2.0 is great.
It surely would make my animations more valuable...
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By facr73 - 4 Years Ago
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Hi.
I tried to get the plugin but it says: "*This item is already in your Inventory List or Transaction History. No points will be deducted" but it doesn't show in my inventory (plugin) list. Anyone else has the same problem?
facr
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By Postfrosch - 4 Years Ago
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I tried to get the plugin but it says: "*This item is already in your Inventory List or Transaction History. No points will be deducted" but it doesn't show in my inventory (plugin) list. Anyone else has the same problem?
I have the same problem
Greets from Germany
Postfrosch
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By rosuckmedia - 4 Years Ago
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Hallo Werner,
you find this here change Date.
Greetings Robert
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By Terry Miller - 4 Years Ago
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I love the idea behind this plug-in, because, yes, too often hands look stiff and fake. However, as much as I like the idea, I hate the workflow.
While I will be the first to admit that it may be because I don't know what I am doing, my experience with the "recording" workflow as opposed to keyframing workflow is that it makes it next to impossible to achieve absolutely precise timing. I know, you can isolate exactly where you want it and record it there, but then it overwrites the timeline and splits it at both ends of the recording. So, it is a destructive workflow. And I know you can regroup the splits and then sample whatever you want to adjust, but in my experience, it adds a lot of extra and unnecessary keyframes; also (in my experience) it starts messing with the animation when you do that.
If we must have a recording workflow, then why not have it write to the gestures layer of the timeline, so that it doesn't overwrite and potentially foul up your other animation?
By the way, this is not a "bash iClone" or "bash the developers" post. I use iClone almost every day in my work, and I am thankful for it. But, as with everything, there is always room for improvement.
Have a happy New Year!
Terry
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By Postfrosch - 4 Years Ago
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Hallo Werner,
you find this here change Date.
Hello Robert,thanks for the (repeated) tip.We've had that before.I was on the bottle steamer again.I thought about the search periodis set from 2010-01-01 to 2020-30-12,the part should be displayed.I also have the period 2019-01-01 to 2020-30-12tried and didn't find it.With your attitude it workedthanks
Greetings Werner
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By Eric C (RL) - 3 Years Ago
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Hi everyone,
I've updated the thread with the instruction of how to download the v2.0 plugin.
Hope this information helps, and please do not hesitate to ask if you need extra help from our side. Thanks!
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By mtakerkart - 3 Years Ago
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Heu... How to install this plugin ? There's no installer ? 
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By linus10111 - 3 Years Ago
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mtakerkart (1/5/2021)
Heu... How to install this plugin ? There's no installer ?
Just copy and paste the folder "Hand_Gestures_Puppeteering_v2.0" to the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Reallusion\iClone 7\Bin64\OpenPlugin
Next, run iClone as Administrator. Thats it, installation done. Enjoy!
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By mtakerkart - 3 Years Ago
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Thank you very much Linus10111 !
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By Kelleytoons - 3 Years Ago
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Terry Miller (12/30/2020)
I love the idea behind this plug-in, because, yes, too often hands look stiff and fake. However, as much as I like the idea, I hate the workflow.
While I will be the first to admit that it may be because I don't know what I am doing, my experience with the "recording" workflow as opposed to keyframing workflow is that it makes it next to impossible to achieve absolutely precise timing. I know, you can isolate exactly where you want it and record it there, but then it overwrites the timeline and splits it at both ends of the recording. So, it is a destructive workflow. And I know you can regroup the splits and then sample whatever you want to adjust, but in my experience, it adds a lot of extra and unnecessary keyframes; also (in my experience) it starts messing with the animation when you do that.
If we must have a recording workflow, then why not have it write to the gestures layer of the timeline, so that it doesn't overwrite and potentially foul up your other animation?
By the way, this is not a "bash iClone" or "bash the developers" post. I use iClone almost every day in my work, and I am thankful for it. But, as with everything, there is always room for improvement.
Have a happy New Year!
Terry
I realize I'm WAY late to this party, but as I'm (finally) getting around to installing this and reading this thread I had to respond to Terry here (who might not even be around, or at least back here :> .
I understand what you are saying, Terry, and perhaps it would have been better to at least have a "set key" button here (although that would be pretty easy for someone to add). In the meantime, one thing you can do (and something I've found very useful in other similar situations in the past) is this: if you can't puppet in "real time" then change the time. You can stretch a clip as long as you'd like, so make it two or three (or more!) times longer first, and then play it back and do your puppeteering at your own pace. Almost anyone (even a klutz like me) can puppet properly if the timeframe is slowed down accordingly. So first sample your main clip (if you have other hand motions -- if not, don't worry about it) then stretch and record, and then squash it. When you have it back to the original time, flatten the clip (getting rid of excess keys and smoothing the motions out). If you follow this procedure this tool will work for you, I promise.
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By Terry Miller - 3 Years Ago
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for the tip; I am always thankful how the more experienced users are willing to help others out.
Terry
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By Kelleytoons - 3 Years Ago
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You're more than welcome. I've been playing with this for the last day or so and it's a very useful tool.
However, I do agree with you it would be nice to have the ability to key these, and I don't see why that's not possible. Assuming I have the time AND inclination (two very different things :> I may well go ahead and add this capability. We'll have to see (right at the moment I'm trying to get my Leap controller to work to control the hands, as I think that may be my own best solution. But RL isn't helpful about this -- yet. So if that continues to be impossible making this particular tool fully functional will be a much larger priority to me. But I would be remiss in pointing out the RL devs could easily to this, add a button to just key whatever the current hand is at the current frame. If I knew which dev in particular had written this I'd write to them specifically).
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By ak10120 - 3 Years Ago
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Need help. I cannot make any use on this tool. When I activate the plugin, all hand cycle appeared as A, B, C.., and remained the same though loading the preset hand gesture. I also config each figure by myself and tried to move the control dot among them but nothing happen, as the control dot remain at the center.
Please help advising me what I am doing wrong and how to solve the issue. Many thanks!
Note:
1. I open iclone in administration mode as suggested.
2. i heard somewhere that we might reset the cache of Phython sometimes. Is it the case? Can you advice how to do so?
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By Kelleytoons - 3 Years Ago
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Are you actually running the animation? Remember you must be either previewing or recording (you can't change the hands unless you start recording them).
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By Melvin (RL) - 3 Years Ago
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ak10120 (4/13/2021)
Need help. I cannot make any use on this tool. When I activate the plugin, all hand cycle appeared as A, B, C.., and remained the same though loading the preset hand gesture. I also config each figure by myself and tried to move the control dot among them but nothing happen, as the control dot remain at the center.
Please help advising me what I am doing wrong and how to solve the issue. Many thanks!
Note:
1. I open iclone in administration mode as suggested.
2. i heard somewhere that we might reset the cache of Phython sometimes. Is it the case? Can you advice how to do so?
Hi ak10120,
Did you apply and select the character before you open the HGP panel?
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By Melvin (RL) - 3 Years Ago
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And please check the console log panel when you using the HGP, It should show some information.Seem it doesn't load the default preset for you. If the console log shows some information, maybe you can paste it here |
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By ak10120 - 3 Years Ago
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Dear mkoo
Thanks for your help.
1. I had selected the avatar before applying HGP.
2. The script log is as below:
- return hand_rigger.calculate_weights(square_dist)
- AttributeError
- :
- 'HandRigger' object has no attribute 'calculate_weights'
- Traceback (most recent call last):
- File "C:/Program Files/Reallusion/iClone 7/Bin64/OpenPlugin/Hand_Gestures_Puppeteering_v2.0/main.py", line 732, in calculate_weights
Can you please advice what goes wrong? How to solve this.
Many thanks!
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By Melvin (RL) - 3 Years Ago
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Did you install the past version of HGP before? Where did you get the latest version? MKP or Github? If you installed the old version before, suggest you delete the whole folder of HGP. Then reinstall it.
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By ak10120 - 3 Years Ago
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Thanks for your help. Based on your suggestion, If works now.
Just want to share what I do exactly in case any one can apply.
1. Delete plugin from OpenPlugin.
2. Open Iclone as administrator and the quite. (this step might be not necessary, but I just do it to make sure)
3. Reinstall the Plugin.
4. Reopen Iclone as administrator.
Many thanks again.
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By depredor2018 - 2 Years Ago
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Do we need to hope for an update for this so that it's CC4 Compatible or is it already? I don't see many Plugins on the Marketplace anymore...either they removed them or I am overlooking them.
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By animagic - 2 Years Ago
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depredor2018 (5/15/2022)
Do we need to hope for an update for this so that it's CC4 Compatible or is it already? I don't see many Plugins on the Marketplace anymore...either they removed them or I am overlooking them.
My understanding is that the existing ones need to be updated for iClone 8.
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By depredor2018 - 2 Years Ago
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animagic (5/15/2022)
depredor2018 (5/15/2022)
Do we need to hope for an update for this so that it's CC4 Compatible or is it already? I don't see many Plugins on the Marketplace anymore...either they removed them or I am overlooking them.My understanding is that the existing ones need to be updated for iClone 8.
I see, well hopefully the developer is still around too update it then because it was a great one...Really wish they had copy and paste setups like this....wait...can you save custom hand gestures as a kind of pose in iClone 8? I haven't even thought to try that...It's just that some of the animations I bring in will have the hands messed up a bit and if I have say 5 different rifle animations I will want the fingers positioned the same across all of them so I really just wish there was a simple way to deal with that rather then manually doing the exact same adjustments for all of them.
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By Palmamultimedia - 2 Years Ago
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I just downloaded it from here:- https://marketplace.reallusion.com/inventory-list?plugin=1&productname=Hand%20Gestures%20Puppeteering%202.0 and it installed OK and works fine.
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By argus1000 - 2 Years Ago
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It doesn’t work for me and I downloaded it from your link. And I tried many times.
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By animagic - 2 Years Ago
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argus1000 (6/22/2022)
It doesn’t work for me and I downloaded it from your link. And I tried many times.
Try this link, it should list your plugin inventory: https://marketplace.reallusion.com/inventory-list?plugin=1.
There is a drop-down for the version, make sure to get the one for v8.00.
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By argus1000 - 2 Years Ago
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animagic (6/22/2022)
[quote][b]
Thanks much. It works now!
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