The Carnegie Mellon University Motion Capture Database (short: CMU data) provides a large range of motion capture data in various ranges: human interaction between two subjects, interaction with the environment (playground, uneven terrain, ...), locomotion (walking, running, ...), or even physical activities (basketball, dance, ... ). This guideline shows how to import these CMU data into our Unreal projects.

1. Preparation Steps

• Install Autodesk MotionBuilder 2018. It is available as a free trial for 30 days as well as under an education license, in case you are enrolled at a university. However, you can also use the installed version on the modeling PC in our Lab.

• Export the skeletal mesh from Unreal
  right-click on skeletal mesh asset --> Asset Actions --> Export,
  on which you want to map the CMU data.
  By default, we provide a character called Henry (CharacterCreator model) in our character plugin, so ensure, the data is mapped to his skeleton as well.

• Finally, download the desired CMU data from the CMU website. Please download the .amc as well as the .asf file! Additionally, add a T-pose to the .amc file, like this
  (see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfM-KYbhLzo)

2. Prepare MotionBuilder Character

• Open --> File to load the .fbx of your character into MotionBuilder

• Tip:
  Find your character under Scene in the Navigator window. Right-click on the mesh and select Create Group From Selected Item(s). The resulting group entry can be found in the Resources window in tab Groups. Here you can also set a descriptive name. Repeat this step for the skeleton. Therefore, select the root, right-click, and choose Select Branches first, to select all elements of the skeleton. Then repeat the grouping action and the descriptive name. Disable the mesh group, as the skeleton is of importance for now.

• Manually adopt the pose of the character to a T-Pose. Therefore, you can use the Rotate option on the right of the view window on the respective bones.

• Pull a Character from Asset Browser / Characters in the Resources window onto the skeleton (rename it to Character_Model for sake of clarity).

• Double click on the new character in the Navigator window.

• Fill in Character Definition, e.g., for Character Creator 3 (drag and drop bones from Navigator window)

  Name	Bone
  Base
  Hips	pelvis
  LeftUpLeg	thigh_l
  LeftLeg	calf_l
  LeftFoot	foot_l
  RightUpLeg	thigh_r
  RightLeg	calf_r
  RightFoot	foot_r
  Spine	spine_01
  LeftArm	upperarm_l
  LeftForeArm	lowerarm_l
  LeftHand	hand_l
  RightArm	upperarm_r
  RightForeArm	lowerarm_r
  RightHand	hand_r
  Head	head
  Auxiliary
  LeftShoulder	clavicle_l
  RightShoulder	clavicle_r
  Neck	neck_01
  Spine
  Spine	spine_01
  Spine1	spine_02
  Spine2	spine_03

  (keep the rest blank)

• If you are done, click on Characterize and then choose Biped

3. Map the Motion

• File --> Motion File Import both motion files (.amc in TPose and .asf) together into MotionBuilder. Adapt the FPS number (info can be found on the CMU site) in the import dialogue.

• Tip: Group the animation data found under Scene in the Navigator window, as you did for the skeleton.

• Pull a Character from Asset Browser /Characters in the Resources window onto the animated skeleton (rename it to Character_Motion).

• Double click on the new character in the Navigator window.

• Fill in Character Definition (drag and drop bones from the animation from the Navigator window)

  Name	Bone
  Base
  Hips	VICON:root
  LeftUpLeg	VICON:lfemur
  LeftLeg	VICON:ltibia
  LeftFoot	VICON:lfoot
  RightUpLeg	VICON:rfemur
  RightLeg	VICON:rtibia
  RightFoot	VICON:rfoot
  Spine	VICON:lowerback
  LeftArm	VICON:lhumerus
  LeftForeArm	VICON:lradius
  LeftHand	VICON:lwrist
  RightArm	VICON:rhumerus
  RightForeArm	VICON:rradius
  RightHand	VICON:rwrist
  Head	VICON:head
  Auxiliary
  LeftShoulder	VICON:lclavicle
  RightShoulder	VICON:rclavicle
  Neck	VICON:lowerneck
  Spine
  Spine	VICON:lowerback
  Spine1	VICON:upperback
  Spine2	VICON:thorax

• If you are done, click on Characterize and then choose Biped

4. Test And Export Mapped Animation

• For Character_Model choose the Source in the Caracter Controls window to be Character_Motion.
• Hit play in the Transport Controls windows. Now your model should be moving.
• Click on the mesh and in the top right on Bake (plot) Skeleton
• File --> Save
• Drag and drop the fbx into Unreal, make sure to remove the tick on Import Mesh and set as Skeleton the skeletal mesh that you exported in the first step