The animation rig retargeting tool allows you to retarget an agent animation onto the original animation rig. This is particularly useful for:
- converting agents to hero characters.
- creating a quick layout with the Atoms Crowd layout tool and then convert your agents to hero characters.
This feature is for Maya only.
You can access this tool via the menu: Atoms > Tools > Retargeting > Animation Rig Retarget Tool
Please note, the animation rig retargeting process works only for controls which can be mapped directly to a joint. Retargeting inverse feet and legs might not always be possible.
Controls Mapping
This feature requires some extra setup when exporting your agent type config.
You will need both your skeleton and animation controls in your scene, they can be part of the same rig or coming from two different rigs.
You map joints to controls within the "Setup" tab of the Animation Rig Retarget Tool.
Every time you select a joint the tool will cache it, leaving you free to select any other item in the scene. Select the controls you want to map to the current joint and click on the "Add button".
If you are not happy with the mapping list for a joint, you can remove an item at any point by selecting it from the list and pressing the "Remove" button.
If you don't want the joint selection to be automatic, you can toggle the "Automatic selection" checkbox.
Once your control mapping is done, export your agent type config.
Retargeting
The retargeting tool needs an FBX file as input. You can export an FBX file from your agent group simulation with the Atoms FBX exporter (Atoms > Exporters > FBX Exporter).
In your animation scene, import/reference your animation rig.
From the "Retargeting" tab provide the namespace you used when importing your rig (optional) and the FBX you previously exported.
Click on "Run".
The retargeting process will match your rig with the FBX animation.
Key frames on the animation controls will be created following the key frames of the FBX joints. For this reason if the FBX animation is not baked, you'll see key frames on the controls only on certain frames.
The tangent types are also copied from the FBX key frames to the animation controls.
This tool only works with FBXs exported with Atoms FBX Exporter.
The retargeting process plays the time line for the duration of the FBX, for this reason it's best to run the retargeting on lightweight scenes.