UMA - Unity Multipurpose Avatar on the Asset Store!

Try calling expressionPlayer.Initialize() after that code. It should all probably be after you've called UpdateNewRace() since it wants the skeleton to be there.

 

Superb stuff ecurtz, all working now, and above all, nice and easy to follow.

I did have one problem which was caused by me trying to find the skeleton before the UMA had finished generating. However, as soon as I calmed down and stopped trying to do the full setup in one frame, things began to work perfectly.



Thanks again for your support

 

Great. Glad you got everything working.

 

Hello guys.

I released man and woman base character.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/adam-and-eva-base-characters.327570/

And now adapting all my animation collections to fit it 100%.

So if it is any way we can combine our assets. If it is possible to make my characters UMA changeable proportions abilities with my models and animations?

Thank you!

 

Just repeating this post so I can Like it again.

hopeful likes this.

 

There are two parts to this.

The animations are easy, UMA already works with all of your animations that you've redone to support Mecanim retargeting.

Modifying your characters to work with the UMA changeable proportions is more complicated. UMA uses a rigging system with a second "layer" of bones to do the adjustments. You'd have to re-rig your characters using this method. If you look at the Male_Unified and Female_Unified FBX files you can see this extra rigging or you can get the Blender files as part of the content creators pack from github: Content Creator Pack

Here's the video Fernando did about creating a new "race" which is what you'd be doing for your characters. It's probably a little out of date, but the way in which the rig works hasn't changed.

 

Mr. Necturus can make a new race, but the only way to be compatible with the clothing, hair, and beard slots already created is to have the same mesh as that provided in the Content Creator Pack, right?

 

Thank you for helpful information guys. I will look into it soon.

 

Yes, if you want to use the existing content the base mesh shape has to be the same. In that case you would start with the existing mesh, do a new base texture and/or a new high resolution sculpt to bake a new normal map. Much simpler, but if you have existing clothing or accessories for your own model those would still need to be adjusted to the UMA mesh (this is what justb is doing.)

 

hello guys i just bought the uma wizard editor today and was having problems with compilers error? i was wondering if anyone could help me out plz???

 

Are there any good "neutral" base meshes compatible with UMA 2? Specifically the face, I find that the UMA default meshes have a "dead eyed" look to them and I can't seen to figure out why. o-o

 

I've been having trouble importing the (raw) base meshes into 3dsmax 2014 (from ContentPack_1.0.1.0.rar). I followed the video by lane fox on youtube, ensuring that deformation settings are checked, and bones are kept as bones, and the units are 1.0. However, upon importing the result is a small character base mesh, with large spikes (the bones) shooting out everywhere. I have tried many import settings, the only thing that kind-of works is importing the base mesh and coverting the bones to dummies.

I don't know where I am screwing up the importing into max. Any help is appreciated.
picture of import settings and result:


Edit: Closing 3dsmax, repoening and importing with the same options got it to work. I don't know how, but, it worked so whatever!



Also I assume due to the way the rig was created, that the best options for animating characters that use uma are using a different rig with set-up control curves and using mechanim's humanoid animation retargeting system?

 

I have zero idea if it will help, but I'm pretty sure the file is in meters.

 

just to be clear, i cant use the base character made by mr necturus with justb clothing?
and if mr necturus decided to create clothing using the base character he made, it cannot be used with the one included in UMA?

 

Hm... Don't know exactly what is justb clothing. But there is high possibility that my character can use armor and clothes created for another character. Of course it will nee some of my work. I just need to try.

3D MAX I am working with have pretty nice skin wrap modifier. So depending on clothes/armors it may work "out-of-box", may need some tinny adjustment or may not work at all. It also may not sit so precisely as on character for which it was build.

 

It depends entirely on how similar the base meshes are in shape and rigging. Worst case scenario you could probably still get it to work via an extra conversion step, but it might not work "out of the box."

 

Hm... Unfortunately I have no experience working with Blender.

But If someone from UMA team wish, I can give to you my Eva and Adam characters so you will make it one of the UMA race. I will stop to sell it and everyone can use it as other UMA characters for free to create modifications and armors... I will use it it as well.

More then that I am sure that I can easily adapt many of armors and clothes I already created for my other character to Adam and Eva. So your UMA collections will grow.

How about it?

 

If no one else picks it up, I will give it a shot. I am a Blender noob though, so it might take me a bit to get it right. As well, I am still working on other things in my game development cycle, so I am not sure how fast I will get it done. Its worth it though, especially if you're willing to use the finished product to make clothing, etc. for it.

I already own the Adam and Eva models as well, so we're covered there.
This list is really active and responsive, so I am sure I will get the help I need to get it done.

First I will start reviewing the existing videos.

 

I've never really figured out how to download stuff from the github site easily. How can I download the contents of the Content Creator Pack?

Never mind, I figured it out, just downloaded the zip a couple folders up.

 

I've been looking into UMA again after quite a while away from it. Am I right in concluding that blendshapes are not supported by UMA because Unity has crap API regarding blendshapes? Or are blendshapes doable with UMA somehow?

Go to the repo root, "Download ZIP" on lower right side.

 

Of course, boysenberry. I will be glad you will help with it.

After finish to upgrade my animation collections I will start to make staff for Adam and Eva. I also have pretty many things I need only adapt for them. Maybe skeletons armor will fit them as well.

 

I imported the Adam model into the UMA_Blender_Separated.blend file and have lined up and re-sized the Adam model to line up with the UMA_Male_Rig (a duplicate of it anyway) and UMA_Human_Male mesh, but in its own layer (basically repeating what I saw with the other UMA models).
Currently, I still need to slice up the Adam model into the slot parts I need to export and rig up the Adam mesh.

What I am not sure of is how close the bones need to match up to the mesh to work correctly. The Adam model is posed slightly different than the UMA_male model so the bones don't line up exactly. Being new to Blender (and 3D modelling) I am not sure the right way to get this working. I have some good books on Blender and Rigging, so I am not asking for a Blender "how to", but more what is the right process to do it in based on how the UMA defaults are setup. For example, to I re-pose the rig to fit the new model (it seems like the bones aren't 'inside' the mesh on the UMA_Male)? Do I cut up the base mesh after I setup the rigging? I don't see rigging on the UMA_Human_Male_Head_Head, but it is still animated when I move over the keyframes, is that because it was animated first, then cut? Maybe there is an easy way to re-rig that a noob like me isn't aware of?
I am reviewing the creation of clothing more because that is the most detailed videos I've found when dealing with setting up rigging. Is there a video that shows the re-rigging of a new race? I didn't see a video setting up the rigging for the werewolf, for example.
Right now, I am under the assumption I will need to re-pose the UMA_Male_RIg (which I've duplicated and relabeled UMA_Adam_Rig. Once I am done reposing, I will need to bake?(still looking that up) the rig to the new mesh. Then I will slice and dice the mesh and export the individual rigged slot pieces (similar to how its done for clothing, etc), along with their texture maps, etc.
Does that sound right?

 

Hi there,
i have the same problem like h8spaCec4EspUdE and riodespain reported the last days. I didn't find any solution to that. Are there any solutions to that wired problem?

using:
- Unity 5
- current Blender
- UMA (from assetstore or from github results in the same problem)
- UMA-Extra Files (From github too)

Like the others i made a simple mesh, but a export of the original unified mesh cause the same problem. After exporting the validation against the "male unified" result in many errors. Did the Unity2 Models has a different T-Pose, or some different Angles?

Like h8spaCec4EspUdE i tryed exporting in many different ways, but all result in the same. (Can unity5 behaves different and correct some angles, that unity 4 doesnt?)

Before and after converting it to a slot it seems correct in unity, but the "Global" BoneTransform is (0 180 0 instead of 90 90 0 in the Male Unified). I think this result in this wired behavior.

I also tryed to use the extra-files-male-unified model while creating the slot for the race, but this ends up in the same results

 

I keep getting errors like this and i can't find out why

`UMA.UMAData.UMARecipe.umaDna' is inaccessible due to its protection level

 

So I've figured out the next step (I believe), and am retooling the vertex groups (weights, etc.) to match the bones and groups of the corresponding UMA meshes in the Adam and Eva meshes. Once I get them matched it should be easier to set up the bones that manipulate the meshes. I imagine I will need to do some adjustments along the way, but nothing I shouldn't be able to handle.

 

Blendshapes is a way to do deformation that requires you to supply multiple meshes (blendshapes) for every affected mesh. While I know most people only want to use blendshapes for the facial expressions, it will still affect hair, glasses, beards, etc... lot's of meshes that needs to support matching blendshapes, and that is virtually impossible considering the number of artists making content.

Blendshapes is a very good technology when you have one team of artists with one workflow. It really doesn't fit UMAs open source approach, you can get very similar results with bones.

Adding blendshapes to UMA will be quite hard and it will only benefit larger professional teams who make their own exclusive content where they can ensure that all their content matches in blendshapes. So blendshapes will be added the second any large team decides they want it. Personally I think Eli's expression system is all I need.

 

@UnLogick - Thanks. Stylized characters with exaggerated facial expressions are near impossible to animate with bones without obvious penetration. That said, I understand UMA's approach in regard to having multiple artists build on a central character. It seems like if it weren't an API issue (I believe it is) then it would be easy to implement for those that wanted it regardless of the obstacles. Thanks again for the insight. Cheers.

 

You're correct that in addition to being difficult with UMA there's currently no way to programmatically create or edit blendshapes even if we wanted to. They've said that's coming in a future update, but I haven't seen a specific release mentioned.

 

Right. I'm waiting for a response here. I think the best bet if someone wants to blendshapes is to roll a custom system that imports the blendshapes into a custom format. I'd like to see it in UMA, but I understand why it isn't or why it might never be a part of it.

 

If you've already built blend shapes it would be pretty easy to hook them up to the same channels as the expressions are using, but I guess you're trying to dynamically generate them? I've done something similar with realistic faces using the MegaMorphs stuff, but I think it would be really tricky to do for exaggerated characters of any kind.

 

Any of the dynamically created blendshape stuff that I've mentioned is in regard to skinned-mesh-combining. That's not a part of Unity yet though. I know what to do with blendshapes that already exist... Keeping them in existence after combining various parts is what I thought UMA could help me do.
Ideally, I want the player to be able to customize my character(s) at runtime, while maintaining lyp-sync (phonemes) and expression (12 total, combine-able) blendshapes. I'll probably just go the traditional route of using blendshapes with separate meshes, since that fits my needs.

 

Ah yeah, clever. We can't support that yet, but if and when they put in better blendshape access we should be able to.

 

BTW, you might keep some notes on everything you're doing to create a race from this store bought model, with the idea that the notes could be added to the wiki.

I bet some new UMA users would love to have a guide on how to do what you're doing.

 

I was thinking the same thing, maybe even a video or something. I want to get the first one done before I do though, so I know I have it right.
I am a little more than halfway through retooling the vertex groups, most of what I have left will be just mirroring the right side from the left site. I am not sure how much tweaking the bones and vertex groups will need when all is said and done though. One step at a time.
Now back to my 9 to 5... I'll post updates as I get further.

PS This have all been pretty fun learning. Its inspiring me to want to get a non-human UMA character going. I was thinking maybe a horse/centaur type creature, or maybe a fairy. Both of them should be doable pretty easily (at least not too much harder than the human UMA.) The only thing is I am not sure about how DNA works yet, so I'll have some studying up before I get there. I certainly plan on making cloths, armor, etc with these models when I am done.

 

Hello again. This fixed my problem with the materials, thank you!
But now with the new version of UMA 2.0, a new problem arises that I didn't have in the previous version.
I now have a problem with my chracters using ragdoll. In the previous version of UMA I added the ragdoll to the races
prefabs in the Races folder using the "Create Ragdoll" in Unity, and the races were changed with the ragdoll, but in UMA 2.0 It doesn't work. Maybe it's simple, but I can't find the solution.
Can someone help me out?

 

Unfortunately there is no such thing, the Unity rag doll is Editor Only. So essentially you'll need to decompose the rigid body and colliders that make up the rag doll setup and then create those at run-time.

 

Hello, I'd just like to say thank you to the UMA Team for developing a great solution to skinned mesh combining and texture atlas packing, I don't doubt for one minute a large open world game could exist without such a solution and therefor I am encouraged to try out UMA 2 with unity 5.

I just downloaded the latest release on the Git, after trying the asset store version hoping that PBR shader wouldn't be black with normals enabled but unfortunately this is still the case.

Example:



Here's the method:

1) Overlay



2) Material (Alebedo, Metallic, Normap map are set here)



3) UMA Material settings as ecurtz said.



- Normal map is marked as Normal map.
- Slot has the PBR Material Defined
- I've followed ecurtz instructions regarding the uma material.

What I've noticed is that when I disable the normal map on my PBR material everything works fine (Aside to no normal map! which is important because I was hoping to make use of them from substance painter but of course I can wait for a fix)

I accept that there is no time to create documentation, I feel exactly the same over my own project working on it 24/7 when ever I am not in the land of nod, although spent the last 24 hours just understanding UMA to that degree was a stressful but self-rewarding experience.

Is there any way someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Also is this the correct way to add a slot item manually in code?

Code (CSharp):

1. SlotData plates = slotLibrary.InstantiateSlot("Shoulder_plates");
2. plates.AddOverlay(overlayLibrary.InstantiateOverlay("Shoulder_plates"));
3. umaData.umaRecipe.slotDataList[0] = plates;
4. umaData.Dirty(true, true, true);

The above code isn't working for me, it adds the slot item to the character but it's invisible unless I manually edit the colour and then it updates automatically, I've even tried setting a colour the InstiantiateOverlay but nope, it works fine if I just add it to the Female Recipe slots manually before runtime.

Regards
Chris

 

Chris, I think it is up to us to make the documentation since it is open source. You could post what you learned on the Wiki. That would be useful. I waded through UMA 1 a little easier due to a bit of documentation someone sent me.

My goal today was to get UMA 2 working for me but I am concerned now I had trouble with a PBR asset, same issue you are having with the normal map it seems. If I get it figured out myself, once the error is fixed, I will try to put some documentation on the wiki. I think it would help if we all contributed.

 

Yeah I think this might be the case, but it does give us a sense of self-achievement factor in figuring it all out to, minus the hairs that fell out yesterday which I've yet to vacuum up as I'm so busy today trying to fix the PBR.

I would appreciate if you could figure this out, and is there any way you can figure out what I'm doing wrong regarding the placement of the shoulder pads code, all the code I've looked at points to creating a SlotData from InstiantiateSlot and then adding an overlay which is clear to me as it's material/texture, and defining one of the slots on the UmaRecipe? although it's completely invisible, and what is more interesting is that as soon as i make changes to the colour in the runtime meshes slots it appears by magic... almost like theres one more function I'm not calling like Update or Regenerate, if only I know what it was , I assumed umaData.Dirty(true,true,true) would of solved this?

If you have skype add solidcore, I would appreciate collaborating together to get this working

Edit: fixed the Dirty update.

 

In the screenshot you posted the Channel Type for your normal map is wrong. It needs to be set to "Normal Map" rather than "Texture". Although you say you did this in the text?

 

Ecurtz,

Thank you for your quick response,

Your last shot it was 'texture' rather than 'normal map' and I tried a variant of Texture/Normal map on the asset itself and the UMAMaterial, still a fail, all I know is when the normal map is applied it fails, I'm sure i'm doing something wrong if you're replying to this a sense that it should work?

Can I get access to the Skype group? Thanks again.

As for the Dirty() it seemed i was calling it too early the shoulder pads at least appear now programmatically, but same black issue.

Chris.

 

In your post, Element 1, "_BumpMap" is set to "Texture" in the "Channel Type", but it should be "Normal Map". So that needs to be fixed.

But looking at your screenshots again it also looks like the textures on your OverlayDataAsset are in the wrong order. You have Albedo, Metallic, Normal in the overlay, but the UMAMaterial is defined as Albedo, Normal, Metallic.

 

It seems like there's a problem with the workflow using newer versions of Blender and Unity 5. Unity is doing something different with their weird top level rotation stuff and/or the updated FBX export in Blender has changed enough that it's messing up the mesh processing. We're looking into what's going on.

 

I put them all in the right order after reading this post, same issue. Albedo, Metallic, Normal, , have you had success with this yourself and if so can you package up a sample .zip with it working, I'm so confused as to what's wrong. But I'm not the only one, as you've noticed Teila also has the same issue.

Edit: Should I even be using overlay for something like this seeing as slot defines the UMAMaterial anyway?

 

The binary FBX export in Blender seems to be FUBAR. It sounds like the ASCII version should be working still.

 

My problem was with an asset and it may have been fixed. I am going to check it out soon.

 

Well the Ascii version is what is causing the problem for me, perhaps we can get a better export on it?

Teila, it turns out the normals are the problem and therefor black bug occurs, if you set unity to calculate normals for you on the fbx it works, but not very optimal , so whoever exported the asset may need to reexport it with different settings I don't know what they are yet.

Thanks again ecurtz for helping me fix it

 

Well, there's not working like you were getting where something looks a bit wrong and not working like others have seen where the new slot mangles your existing model or throws a million errors in the console.

 

Having a bit of a problem here.

I'm trying to use custom mesh with custom skeleton in UMA.

I managed to get it working, however there is a problem:

Model I imported is very low polygonal and has hard edges (That's on purpose).

When building combined mesh, uma merges model normals, which destroys edges.

How do I fix that?

Original model is depicted on the right. Merged models generated by uma are in the middle and on the left. I need them all to look like model on the right.
They actually have proper texture coordinates and are fully unwrapped.

As I understand it, there should be some point in uma where it tries to determine whether to merge normals (UV/position are equal) or not (uv/positions are not equal), so if I added normals into comparison, that would fix the issue. The problem is, I but I can't pinpoint in which portion of uma that happens.

So, help would be appreciated.

P.S. DNA data is ignored, because I don't need it. Only need to fix the problem with edges.

 

Are you using a reference mesh in the Slot Builder? That's one thing which could mess up your normals. I'm actually not sure where else it could be happening off the top of my head. UMA doesn't do any vertex merging with the slots, it only merges the skeletons.