Easiest workflow for editing mocap in Blender - Rokoko Guide

In this guide we look at the workflow for tweaking or editing Rokoko motion capture in Blender using the animation layer system. Using animation layers allows you to make edits to the motion capture without interfering with the original mocap - this workflow will also work for animations you get from the Motion Library or Mixamo.
David Han inspo video: rokoko.co/3q6PysM
Blender Retargeting Tutorial: rokoko.co/322CPiN
How to install Rokoko Blender Plugin: rokoko.co/3soHkit
Firmware:
Rokoko Studio v1.19
Blender v2.91.2
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Inspiration animation
0:52 - Exporting motion capture from Rokoko Studio
1:55 - Importing Character and Mocap into Blender
2:50 - Retargeting Mocap
4:12 - Tweaking Mocap using Animation Layers
12:40 - Final Result
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#rokoko #blender #mocap

[@noiamhippyman]

Insanely helpful and you actually taught me how to use a feature in Blender that I've totally ignored for years. Thank you for sharing.

[@Max-mn1yx]

Great tutorial & very much needed when working with rokoko animations in blender. Would love to see a whole series on this topic that delves a bit deeper. Adding multiple secondary layers of animation in NLA, overriding individual limbs with IK, blending between mocap takes, etc. I got my suit about a year ago, and the learning curve for those post-mocap parts of production can be especially daunting. Especially if you've never used the NLA/actions very much beforehand. Either way, great content! Very happy to see you helping us Blender folks with this crucial part of the process.

[@artigeniusStore]

so cool, love your art

[@scottlee38]

This is good! I plan on getting the Rokoko system this year. Just bought + set up my new Synology RAID. Need a new laptop next. Also: You can use the "in front" option on the rig in Blender so you can see + select the bones a bit easier!

[@Dossell]

Nice this is EXACTLY what I was looking for!!!

[@PrismaticaDev]

PERFECT timing! Got my suit a few days ago and loving it so far. Planning on using it for my video game :)

[@alirezakhademi6093]

THIS HELPED A LOT MAN !!! I LOVE THIS KIND OF TUTORIALS , LOVE MY SUIT AND THE WAY IT WORKS THANKS A LOT GUYZ, YOU ARE AMAZING...

[@RokokoMotion]

Sick!! Happy you found it helpful :)

[@deluxepopper]

Nice tutorial, i really like the fast way Rokoko Suit and gloves get's you from A - Z in shortest possible time and almost instant results.. I'm most certainly going to order this one..No more copying and pasting and no more sh*tty overused Mixamo mashups trying to get cohesive results.... what a blessing. Some feedback on your videos is to try and put more imagination into what you are doing to show you are actually "in the moment of the action".. now it's clearly visible there is 0 threats when you record the data.. Cheers

[@LATEFX]

Just got my suit today! This was such a great tutorial

[@RokokoMotion]

Happy it helped!

[@Aartin]

ROKOKO, I have a very important question, can your suit be paired with other motion capture gloves?

[@RokokoMotion]

Hi Artin - You can pair our suit with other motion capture gloves, and you can pair our gloves with other motion capture suits! HOWEVER, you will need to use a workflow involving Motion Builder or something similar if you want to do this in a live production (virtual production) type way. Alternatively, you can use most software to retarget the mocap from our suit to just your character's body, and then go in and retarget the gloves separately to the character's hands - but it will be more involved than keeping everything within one ecosystem - for example, when you use our suit and gloves together, you can export out a single FBX mocap animation from Rokoko Studio instead of combining two separate mocap animations from two separate mocap softwares. Hope that makes sense and helps!

[@TheSaul1973]

Me gustó 😋😋😋👍👍

[@talalmeshari9573]

Great tutorial!!👏👏 would love to see how u can smooth out the animation a little bit in Blender because it looks like it needs a little bit of smoothing

[@RokokoMotion]

You could definitely spend more time tweaking the animation to make it a little smoother - there are also ways to reduce the keyframes over all so you have less movement and you get that smoooooth, keyframe animation vibe. The jitter at the end is especially jarring on the sword, but the way to fix that would actually be to use an sword prop when you do the recording, so you aren't just holding your hand out in space, resulting in shake (a hand that is in theory holding a heavy sword!).

[@talalmeshari9573]

@@RokokoMotion Thanks for the tips❤️

[@toktok9975]

@@RokokoMotion Hi, I'm thinking of getting your suite as it looks awesome, I would like to hear your opinion on Motion Builder vs Blender for cleaning up such jitter and foot sliding issues. I want to do dance animation, and I know there will be alot of foot issues. Would motion builder save me a lot of time compared to trying to clean it up in blender? (I also want to mocap faccial animation with iphone)

[@TheOfficialSeraphim]

Loving the tutorial! Is it possible to slow down/speed up parts of the mocap animation using nonlinear animation?

[@RokokoMotion]

I believe it is, just by manipulating the clip created in the NLA editor.

[@alejandrobarajas4404]

Is it possible to combine the original nla strip with the new changes into one strip?

[@noahguthier6615]

Thank you for this tutorial. I am however running into an issue. Once I've cleaned up my Rokoko motion capture in blender I can't seem to export it as a .fbx with the applied changes. Is this something that's not possible with this technique of using animation layers? Or is it perhaps the way I am exporting it? Was hoping to rig/clean up the animation in blender and then use it in another software i.e. Spark AR or Unreal.

[@RokokoMotion]

Good question! I recommend checking out this video by Pierrick Picaut for a breakdown of his export workflow. The first 7 minutes explain the process: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4OtZYKkiaaUe5o I also recommend you check out our Discord community server and ask in the animation-rigging-acting channel, if you need more hands-on help: discord.gg/rokoko

[@ugoangeletti3556]

How would one proceed with the rigging and retargeting of an model that has several pieces of armour onto it?

[@RomboutVersluijs]

I guess you could then back them together into a fixed action right?

[@mafia-mr5pd]

is that possible without using lna editor? lna editor only good for short animation,or is that possible to expoer the animation layer to normal keyframe into Graph Editor?

[@Chester000]

ROCOCO, will I be able to connect your program to Cinema 4d, use plugins and real-time animation if Cinema 4d is pirated, until I can afford to buy it!

[@AfterLandz]

After retargeting the animation, both the armatures lose their position transformations (they stay in place instead of moving). Did i miss a setting?

[@nu-beings]

What does it mean when my smart gloves have 1 red light and 1 blue light? I don't have magnetic interference, and I'm using the Anker battery pack recommended by Sam.

[@RokokoMotion]

Hi! It means that your glove is currently not picking up any wifi signal - sometimes just restarting the glove will solve it, and otherwise I would re-pair the glove with Rokoko Studio, and make sure to re-select the WiFi you're on - even if it is already there from last time! Hope that helps!

[@darianagreen9082]

Could you show us how to do smooth animation with Unreal Engine control rig? There ar ese real problems that we sometimes need to fix in Unreal Engine: Smooth walking. Feet still Clip even if animation is previously cleaned with Rokoko studio . Knees bend in and out a few times unnaturally and very brusquely , so it make the movement very unnatural, too Hands clipping and positioning - that’s a very common problem So please could you make a detailed tutorial where you show not only how to address clipping but all of these common problems in Unreal Engine?

[@AppleExpeditionProductions]

Very informative video. I am using Blender 3.3. Whenever I hit "S" for setting keyframes, in pose mode, nothing happens. What seems to be the problem?

[@peter7147]

did you figure that out?

[@AppleExpeditionProductions]

@@peter7147 Yes. Just right click and choose insert keyframe - click on rotation and location.

[@Marco18363]

Anyone have the issue with the hips not being part of the rig? Everything else falls into place but the hips.

[@nickromo5591]

7:30 When you added the keyframes at frame 280 by pressing S how did that work? I press S and my scale tool starts doing work. and Yes I am in pose mode. I have been following along with the video as practice. Edit: So I am using v2.82, I found that selecting the bone in pose mode and hitting I in the pose mode window achieves pretty much the same thing as the tutors hitting S key deal.

[@RokokoMotion]

Hi Nick! Yes indeed the I-key might be more appropriate for other versions of Blender - just remember that you only need the rotations to be keyed when working with FK (the I-key also allows for location to be keyed with "LocRot" which is not the case here) 🤓

[@peter7147]

@@RokokoMotion not working

[@tempstep4058]

How do I get rokoko with its smart suit?

[@RomboutVersluijs]

A mask modifier would look better perhaps :)

[@Thats_Cool_Jack]

when i add all the keyframes at the beginning it holds its influence for the entire animation. my character starts out sitting and i make the keyframe their body doesnt stand all the way when they stand

[@RokokoMotion]

Stretchy! It does indeed sound like you might be applying that frame to the entire animation - I recommend heading on over to our Discord and asking in animation-rigging-acting for advice on how to fix this: discord.gg/rokoko

[@salimlarochelle7489]

Hello! Does this workflow still work when exporting your edited animation into a game engine such as Unity?

[@RokokoMotion]

It does!

[@aceportdgas1371]

hi what happen if we break the original animation mocap?

[@peter7147]

lm having issues inserting keyframes once l modify the model, l hit S or I key and nothing happens. If l add the only active or layered recording keyframe; the whole modification l gave to the model maintains that modifiication the whole animation pd; does someone else has that problem? Im sick of loking in YT and forums and there is no exact solution of my issue

[@RokokoMotion]

Hey Peter! Have you tried jumping on our Discord channel? Our community is typically very helpful when it comes to workflow hacks!

[@bertrandflanet9519]

I am working for someone and we bought one of your suit and we can't work the produced mixamo rig within Blender. We had simply liked to modify its starting location and angle, as the character isn't facing the right direction in our scene. That sounds simple enough. Although, we just can't find a way to do it without the rig either completely bugging or walking background (that is, if we rotate its starting angle 180°). We assumed using NLA would solve the issue (as it is presented here), but it isn't. We wrote your service and haven't got an answer and we are under tight deadline. So, kinda helpless message here. Does someone using the suit encountered such an issue? Likely there is something we don't understand in how the data location are embedded in the rig and how stiff it is. Also, there is no 'main bone' on the skeleton, which would be just what we need here. Ultimately, the only solution I can think of now, is to set the animation on Treadmill, and create a path in Blender that the animation would follow. Although, that means, recreating all the path for the animation we recorded... which is insanely time consumming and I can't believe that such a simple thing have our face banging against a wall.

[@faysaldeve385]

How to buy a motion capture suit

[@moodytoonz]

@6.50 you say shift click on pose skeleton but this does not work for me, is this becouse i'm using a Maximo mo cap and not the one Rokoko ..

[@RokokoMotion]

Hi! This is just a shortcut for expanding the hierarchy view, it shouldn't matter what you are viewing as long as there is a hierarchy to expand. Make sure you click on the little arrow to the right of whatever you are expanding, when doing the shift-click 🤓

[@RomboutVersluijs]

Why do you add keys to all bones, i mean if you add it only to the needed bones wouldnt that works as well?

[@RomboutVersluijs]

PS would be nice if we could play with this Mocap data our selves. Would it be possible that the data file can be shared here? Would also be nice as we can follow along with this tut

[@RomboutVersluijs]

PS i would also be handy if you "on screen keys" addon was used, we could see key presses. Its not really hard perhaps, but for other tuts can be nice

[@WchiSaw]

7:37 What key does he says to press "S"? cause for me in blender S is scale :/

[@aaroncarey1584]

Same, I used "I" then " Location, Rotation, Scale" and that work for me.

[@nickromo5591]

Same question here!

[@nickromo5591]

@@aaroncarey1584 Tried hitting "I" but nothing happened. went into top drop down menu and no success either

[@aaroncarey1584]

@@nickromo5591 that's weird, are you in object mode or pose mode?

[@nickromo5591]

@@aaroncarey1584 no I was in pose mode

[@anficyon]

when I press S the keyframe is not created just scale the timeline

[@nu-beings]

Rokoko IMPORTANT request. Can you show an example of how to retarget/tweak your ML MoCap on a "rigged" character in Blender? I'm playing around with it myself now and have found it difficult to transfer data using your plug-in onto a rigged character. Mainly the root bone/animation either doesn't show up or distorts the entire body.

[@daverobot]

did you ever figure this out?

[@nu-beings]

@@daverobot Yes. I figured it out myself. But Sam from Rokoko also created an updated video I think. I also switched over to Maya from Blender (still like Blender though).

[@georges8408]

I m trying to get money for rokoko suit but honestly, you should let free of charge the ready-mocaps in rokoko studio, like mixamo did.

[@RokokoMotion]

Hey George - there are a bunch of sample animations included when you download Rokoko Studio, which is free! There are also a hundred or so free animations available on the Motion Library, our mocap marketplace, which you can access in Rokoko Studio or in Maya.

[@eric5580]

Hey thank you for the tutorial, but I am new to blender, and when I press "S" to add a keyframe, I have a scale tool instead of adding a keyframe, can someone help me with that?

[@nancymarcel9700]

I also had this issue! Can anyone help with this?

[@dyfx9788]

@@nancymarcel9700 you should press i to add a keyframe

[@kora2511]

Yeah same problem

[@RiiahTV]

@@kora2511 me too i bought rokoko because it was so dope. but the customer service is an all time low in denmark. and i have the same issue.

[@WilkoVFX]

@@RiiahTV press I for keyframe

[@DP-ee6qv]

I want your product free for learning. 😊

[@RokokoMotion]

You can actually download our Rokoko Studio software for free, and it comes with a bunch of mocap animations that you can export out and test for your workflows! There are also a bunch of free mocap animations you can download from the Motion Library, our mocap store!

[@DP-ee6qv]

@@RokokoMotion ok thanks. 😊