No Current Character ! (the character is not found if the blender scene is not the exact same it was initially imported in.)

[loicbramoulle]

Hi, quite often when we want to retarget an iClone anim onto the rigified version, the pipeline addon says "No Current Character!", because we're not in the exact same scene that the fbx from CC4 was initially imported. (we could be in another rig scene where it's been imported, or an animation scene where it's been linked or appended ect...) Is there any way to make the addon detect the character again, like some attributes that are in this initial scene that could be copy pasted ? I'm in a case where I would like to retarget, but the char is not recognized in the anim scene obviously, but not either in my riggign scene (because I've imported the initial rig to customize it there.) but not even in the initial scene/blend file where I initially imported and rigify the FBX from cc4.

My current workaround would be to find or create a new scene/file with a fresh Kevin fbx imported from cc4, rigify it, and import the iClone anim there for retarget, and then append these actions to my anim scene, that should more or less match my character. (another workaround is importing the iCLone anima s a character in a fresh file, rigify it, and grab the actions that should be retagreted during the rigify process. But it's a bit convoluted to generate a whole rig each time we update an anim from iC to blender.)

Many thanks !

[loicbramoulle]

Ok for anyone else running into this issue, I think the perfect method is indeed to:

• create a special retarget file,
• import the iClone fbx as a new character,
• Rigify it
• In Rigging & Anim (pipeline addon) retarget, select the source armature (the iC fbx), the action, bake retarget.
• IF you want/need to have the action as Euler (to animate or because you converted your character to Euler.) you can now convert both the Rigify & the baked action to Euler, in pose mode, via Pose > Convert rotation mode (at the very bottom)
• Save this file as "Retarget" where you can retarget all your next iC exports.
• Rename nicely your baked body action, and your shape key facial action.
• Append these two actions onto your character. (in whatever file you want them, anim file likely.)

PS: dunno if it's just me but Rigify creation doesn't work in 3.6, so I use 3.5 and it generates the rig fine with the addon too.

[soupday]

I suppose it could work on a linked/appended character rig without the meta data from the import.

Looking through the code, it only needs a few bits of this meta data to generate the re-targeting, and these could be written into the Rigify armature itself as custom properties and the add-on could then see these as a valid character rigs, for re-targeting at least.

[micahganske]

@loicbramoulle I believe this is currently the most convenient method and what I've been doing. It will be great when this issue can be fixed in the addon, but for now this method works well and doesn't add too many extra steps.