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Rendertom

BVH Importer

BVH Importer allows parsing joint skeleton structures and accompanying motion data, and transforming them into Solid/Null based skeleton animation for use in After Effects.
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  • Trial
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Description

What is BVH Importer

A BVH file is a format that was developed by Biovision, a motion capture services company, as a way to provide motion capture data and skeleton hierarchy information in addition to the motion data. A .bvh file is nothing more than a text file that has data that was captured from a moving skeletal system. Another name for this type of data capture is “Motion Capture” which has been abbreviated as mocap. You can find tons of free BVH motion data on the web or motion libraries for sale in BVH format. By using BVH Importer you can convert all these available resources to something that After Effects can handle and enrich your motion content.

The goal is to use motion capture data on an avatar, or an articulated figure,
which could be the first step in creating real world motion gestures in After Effects.

Euler angles

BVH Importer not only supports "standard" ZXY Euler rotations, but goes beyond that and accepts mixed joint rotations. Any XYZ, XZY, YXZ, etc combination is acceptable. The tool has a built-in file compatibility check option that will report any errors regarding the BVH file.

Skeleton

You can have skeletons in it’s rest position which will make rigging much easier, even if neutral pose is not defined in the BVH file. No motion data deformations are applied to it at the beginning of the animation. Use options to set the skeleton in the center of composition screen instead of arbitrary offsets defined in the BVH file.

Workflow

  1. Run BVH Importer and import BVH file. Check for file compatibility if it’s your first run for that particular file;
  2. Adjust parameters such as FPS, duration, animation range. Enable rest pose if you are planning on rigging this skeleton;
  3. Set composition parameters and geometry options;
  4. Apply the Beam Effect in order to get visual lines between joints;

Simple as that

Where to get BVH files

There are several different formats that mocap files can be stored in. BVH Importer can only deal with files in Biovision BVH format. BVH files can be bought from many commercial sources, but a large range of mocap files are also available for free download. Here are some sites that I found to be useful:

User manual

Looking for more info about the tool? Find it in User Manual.

Trial version

The free trial version can be downloaded above and is limited to 50 animation frames.

Discussions

Want to talk about it?

Head over to r/aescripts to chat with fellow users about this product.

Need Support?

Please open a support ticket to be connected directly with the author of this product

Version History

1.6.1 -

change:
- allow maximum 999 FPS for AE v18 and newer,
- link to online docs

1.6 -

Adds support for MacOS Catalina

1.5.1 -

- Adds support for AE CC2019

1.5 -

- Speed improvements when adding keyframes;
- Rewrite of the BVH parsing algorithm;
- Minor UI changes;

1.0.1 -

Minor UI changes for CC2014 and CC2015

1.0 -

Initial release

Compatibility

After Effects

2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018, CC 2017, CC 2015.3, CC 2015, CC 2014, CC, CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4, CS3

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