MakeHuman To Blender To Visionaire
Software used in this tutorial
MakeHuman Community
The Current version
Blender
Blender 2.93LTS was used in this tutorial but any 2.8+ version should be fine
Visionaire
Any V5 version
The Current version
Blender
Blender 2.93LTS was used in this tutorial but any 2.8+ version should be fine
Visionaire
Any V5 version
Setting up
If you don't have the above software installed you will need to download and install as recommended by the developers, there is nothing special to consider
MakeHuman
After installing MakeHuman keep the extracted folder that contained the setup files we will need it again shortly.
You will need to enable the server, to do this:
Start MakeHuman
Select the Community tab
Under the Community tab select the Socket tab
Enable the Server/Accept Connection checkbox
MakeHuman is now ready to connect to Blender
Blender
Start Blender and we need to install the plugin
From the Edit Menu select Preferences
In the Preferences panel select Addons and click the install button
Navigate to the folder containing the Makehuman setup file, at the time of writting this the folder was called "makehuman-community-1.2.0-window"
Open the folder then open the "addons_for_blender_28"
Select the "makehuman-plugin-for-blender.zip"and click "Install Addon"
After a few seconds you should see the addon appear in Preferences, check the checkbox against the addons name
At the bottom of the Preferences panel there is a small button in which you can save the preferences, usually Auto save is enable but its worth checking.
You can close Preferences
You can if you wish install the other addons that are in the folder but the main focus is getting a Makehuman model to Visionaire.
Returning to Blender if you select "n" on the keyboard a control panel will open with a Makehuman tab
The addon is now installed!
MakeHuman Character
Make yourself a Makehuman character, add some clothes, shoes and a figure texture.
At the time of writting I hadn't tried eyebrows, eyelashes etc
For the skeleton I use the game engine option.
Save your file for future editing
Into Blender
Leave MakeHuman open with our figure still loaded.
Start Blender and delete the cube.
Press "n" on the keyboard and select the Makehuman tab.
Click on the "Import Human" button this will load our Makehuman figure.
Just for fun go back to Makehuman and set a pose.
Back in Blender click the "Sync With MH" button, this will update our Blender version
Blender Material Fixes
Before the figure goes to Visionaire we need to fix the body shader otherwise his skin texture won't export, it would be a good idea to now save your projects and create and use copies as the next steps most likely break the MH sync ability. it's always good practice to do so anyway.
.Click on the Blender Shader tab to open the shader node editor.
Select the characters head or arm
Press the tab key on the keyboard and the body_skingroup will expand
Press Shift and hold and select the "Diffuse Texture" node and "Principled" and right click and copy, Press Tab on the keyboard.
Right click on the node window and paste the nodes
Delete the body_skingroup node and connect the "Diffuse Texture" node and "Principled" respective color inputs and outputs and connect to the material output node
Now when we export to Visionaire the skin texture will work
Before we can export
The character will need an empty animation Action otherwise the character will export like a creature from The Thing!
1/ Select the Animation tab
2/ Select the armature
3/ Change theobject option to Pose Mode
4/ Change to the Actions Editor
5/ Adjust the time line to maybe 30 frames
6/ Create a new action, rename it to "idle" this will be edited later
7/ Click the shield icon to create a fake user
Now to add some key frames make sure frame 1 is selected
Press "a" on the keyboard to select all the bones
Press "i" on the keyboard and select "Location Rotation" from the dropdown
Advance the timeline to frame 30 and repeat selecting the bones and location/rotation
Export as FBX
I'm assuming there is a Visionaire project to export to, the model needs to be in the graphics or data folder along with the ved file.
From "Files/ Export " choose FBX
Choose a folder to export to.
Add the Models name.
Inside the export dialog change "Path Mode" to "Copy"
Set Forward a "-z Forward"
Set Up as "y Up"
Check "Apply Tranform"
Click the Export FBX button
It usually takes a few seconds to export, Blender might stop responding, it's normal
To Visionaire
At this stage I'm assuming you have a visionaire studio project that needs the character, I'll expand on this at a later date.
Open Visionaire Studio and open your project
Select the character tab and create a "Controllable Character" and give him a name and name the characters "Outfit"
Next we load our fbx file, click on the ... button at the end of the" 3D Model File" field
navigate to were your file is, it should be with your ved file system.
The file filter doesn't have fbx defined so we need to select "*.*" so we can see the file
Select the file
If all has gone to plan; if you click Walk Animations Front, you should have your textured character facing you
Click on the gear icon on the timeline to switch to Properties and select the idle animation from the 3D Model Animation drop down
You can delete the Walk and Stand Animation directions back,left,right and just keep front, in the properties you just assign the characters animation track, ie idle for stand and walk to walk..
In scene you set up the character as you would with a 2D character
You can change the camera angle to suit your scene, if it was an isometric scene you would set the camera to 30 degree to better match the angle
I will expand on this tutorial in the coming weeks, this is just a rough guide so there is something out there to help :)
MakeHuman
After installing MakeHuman keep the extracted folder that contained the setup files we will need it again shortly.
You will need to enable the server, to do this:
Start MakeHuman
Select the Community tab
Under the Community tab select the Socket tab
Enable the Server/Accept Connection checkbox
MakeHuman is now ready to connect to Blender
Blender
Start Blender and we need to install the plugin
From the Edit Menu select Preferences
In the Preferences panel select Addons and click the install button
Navigate to the folder containing the Makehuman setup file, at the time of writting this the folder was called "makehuman-community-1.2.0-window"
Open the folder then open the "addons_for_blender_28"
Select the "makehuman-plugin-for-blender.zip"and click "Install Addon"
After a few seconds you should see the addon appear in Preferences, check the checkbox against the addons name
At the bottom of the Preferences panel there is a small button in which you can save the preferences, usually Auto save is enable but its worth checking.
You can close Preferences
You can if you wish install the other addons that are in the folder but the main focus is getting a Makehuman model to Visionaire.
Returning to Blender if you select "n" on the keyboard a control panel will open with a Makehuman tab
The addon is now installed!
MakeHuman Character
Make yourself a Makehuman character, add some clothes, shoes and a figure texture.
At the time of writting I hadn't tried eyebrows, eyelashes etc
For the skeleton I use the game engine option.
Save your file for future editing
Into Blender
Leave MakeHuman open with our figure still loaded.
Start Blender and delete the cube.
Press "n" on the keyboard and select the Makehuman tab.
Click on the "Import Human" button this will load our Makehuman figure.
Just for fun go back to Makehuman and set a pose.
Back in Blender click the "Sync With MH" button, this will update our Blender version
Blender Material Fixes
Before the figure goes to Visionaire we need to fix the body shader otherwise his skin texture won't export, it would be a good idea to now save your projects and create and use copies as the next steps most likely break the MH sync ability. it's always good practice to do so anyway.
.Click on the Blender Shader tab to open the shader node editor.
Select the characters head or arm
Press the tab key on the keyboard and the body_skingroup will expand
Press Shift and hold and select the "Diffuse Texture" node and "Principled" and right click and copy, Press Tab on the keyboard.
Right click on the node window and paste the nodes
Delete the body_skingroup node and connect the "Diffuse Texture" node and "Principled" respective color inputs and outputs and connect to the material output node
Now when we export to Visionaire the skin texture will work
Before we can export
The character will need an empty animation Action otherwise the character will export like a creature from The Thing!
1/ Select the Animation tab
2/ Select the armature
3/ Change theobject option to Pose Mode
4/ Change to the Actions Editor
5/ Adjust the time line to maybe 30 frames
6/ Create a new action, rename it to "idle" this will be edited later
7/ Click the shield icon to create a fake user
Now to add some key frames make sure frame 1 is selected
Press "a" on the keyboard to select all the bones
Press "i" on the keyboard and select "Location Rotation" from the dropdown
Advance the timeline to frame 30 and repeat selecting the bones and location/rotation
Export as FBX
I'm assuming there is a Visionaire project to export to, the model needs to be in the graphics or data folder along with the ved file.
From "Files/ Export " choose FBX
Choose a folder to export to.
Add the Models name.
Inside the export dialog change "Path Mode" to "Copy"
Set Forward a "-z Forward"
Set Up as "y Up"
Check "Apply Tranform"
Click the Export FBX button
It usually takes a few seconds to export, Blender might stop responding, it's normal
To Visionaire
At this stage I'm assuming you have a visionaire studio project that needs the character, I'll expand on this at a later date.
Open Visionaire Studio and open your project
Select the character tab and create a "Controllable Character" and give him a name and name the characters "Outfit"
Next we load our fbx file, click on the ... button at the end of the" 3D Model File" field
navigate to were your file is, it should be with your ved file system.
The file filter doesn't have fbx defined so we need to select "*.*" so we can see the file
Select the file
If all has gone to plan; if you click Walk Animations Front, you should have your textured character facing you
Click on the gear icon on the timeline to switch to Properties and select the idle animation from the 3D Model Animation drop down
You can delete the Walk and Stand Animation directions back,left,right and just keep front, in the properties you just assign the characters animation track, ie idle for stand and walk to walk..
In scene you set up the character as you would with a 2D character
You can change the camera angle to suit your scene, if it was an isometric scene you would set the camera to 30 degree to better match the angle
I will expand on this tutorial in the coming weeks, this is just a rough guide so there is something out there to help :)
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