CONTRIBUTE MOTION DATA

Contributions of motion data to the DMD Motion Library are welcome with the following criteria:
We accept collections of two or more motion in a standard open format such as .BVH. All contributions will retain the copyright of the original author and must be released with an open CC0 or public domain license. While the Library will acknowledge data authors here this ensures that no attribution is required by students or end users. Collections which are guided by a particular theme will be considered more strongly. Motions should be clean and ready for use.

To contribute to the Library, or for other types of contributions, contact Dr. Rama Hoetzlein at: rhoetzlein@fgcu.edu

CONTRIBUTE RIGS

We welcome the contribution of reusable rigs for open source use. Anyone can contribute a rig.
To contribute rigs we request submissions follow these criteria and guidelines.

A. Steps for Rig Submissions

Only rigs which are clean, reusable, working, and low to medium detail (not too high res), based on open licensed 3D models, will be considered.
To be considered as a “clean reusable rig” for this library, it should follow these guidelines:

Step 1) Find or create a 3D character model which is licensed as public domain, CC0, CC-BY or CC-BY-SA.
Models should be low to medium detail, ideally below 60 MB, with texturing in a single merged file.
If you create the character yourself you must be willing to license it CC0/BY/BY-SA.

Step 2) Create a simple license.txt file which contains the following lines, and place it with the model file.
Here is an example:
– Model name: Oldman
– Creator: Hipuff
– License: CC Attribution
– Downloaded: 10/14/2021
– Source: sketchfab
– Rigger: {your name}
– Date Rigged: {rig date}
– Rig features: {fingers, accessories, cloth, etc.}

Step 3) Rig the 3D model according to the tutorial videos here:
Part 1 – Rigging for Reusability: Mesh Preparation – vertices must be soft selected and moved into a T-pose
Part 2 – Rigging for Reusability: Joints & Skinning – create joints & skin with identity transforms for stability
Part 3 – Rigging for Reusability: Weight Painting – paint weights for better motion
Part 4 – Rigging for Reusability: IK Rigs – optionally create an IK rig for keyframe animation
These videos are especially detailed as they prepare a rig for reuse with multiple data sources and other characters.

Step 5) Models will be reviewed and accepted based on the following criteria:
* The purpose of these criteria is to ensure each rig work correctly – every time – at the right default scale, and with other characters, even when rotated or scaled, with minimal effort by the animator
C1. Detail. Models should be <60 MB ideally. Reduce the polygon count if necessary. A tool to simplify meshes is MeshLab. C2. Tpose. The character mesh must be rigged or moved into a near-exact T-pose, at frame 0, as shown in video #1.
C3. Scale. The character mesh vertices must be scaled to a standardized real world scale and centered with the feet at the origin.
Setting real world units is missing from the tutorial videos.
To do this. Goto Windows -> Settings/Prefs -> Open the Settings entry -> Working Units. Set Linear: meters. Now the create cylinder 1.7m in height (y-axis). That will provide a standardized character height.
C4. Naming. Rigs must have well-named nodes with a root locator, and skin geometry and joints as children, as shown in video #2 above. All joints must follow the common naming conventions for Maya.
+ Oldman_Rig – root locator, entire rig are children nodes
— Oldman_Geom – skin mesh, identity transforms, inherit transforms off
— Oldman_Joints – joint locator, identity transforms
——– Oldman_Hips – root of remaining skeletal joints
C5. XForms. The skin and joints must use identity transforms to avoid scaling issues, as shown in video #2.
C6. Skin. The skin must have ‘inherit transforms’ turned off, to avoid ghosting or other weirdness.
C7. Simple. There must be no extraneous objects in the Maya file such as environments, lights or other characters.
C8. No History. The files must be compacted by going to Edit -> Delete All by Type -> History, prior to submission.
C9. Tested. As a final test, it should be possible to drag-drop a Target, and drag-drop a Motion, and have the new Rig animate is less than 2 minutes.
C10. Thumbnails. Render the rig in Arnold with lighting to provide a few “thumbnail” images for reference.
C11. Files. A submission .zip should contain only the following:
\textures <- folder with model textures
{Name}.obj <- cleaned mesh exported as obj
{Name}_FK.mb <- model as an FK Rig
{Name}_IK.mb <- model as an IK Rig
{Name}_img1.jpg <-- thumbnail renders license.txt <- required license file
Submissions may be reviewed and returned for further corrections if the criteria are not met.

Step 6) Once accepted, new rigs will be added to our Characters Page.
The listing will show the license text, model creator, rig features, and your name as the rigger.

B. Models Yet to be Rigged

Here is a collection of 3D models which have already been license-tagged and are ready for rigging:
– Aiko (aka. Pretty)
– Angel (aka. Anime Girl)
– Chaos Marine
– Debra
– Diana (aka. Witch Naked)
– Don
– Gwen
– Jennifer
– Maria
– Mountain
– Ogre (aka. Not a Monster)
– People (multiple low-poly)
– Redhead
– Ryuu
– Strongman

Once these have been rigged and approved they will be added to our Characters Page.

C. Notes for FGCU Students

– Service Learning hours are available, up to 20 maximum per semester, for contributions.
– This is about the time it should take to complete 1 or 2 rigs.
– Rigs will only be accepted if they meet the submission criteria above.