Some of our products include free supplimentary bvh files retargeted for various Daz 3D characters. These are very experimental files. They have been retargeted from our clean FBX skeleton, however, due to the retargeting process there may be some errors introduced (Euler flips etc) that require cleanup. I've included them as they are generally ok as a start point and may help some customers that are unable to retarget the animations themselves. Some they may require further cleanup before they work well in all cases.

There are some very specific steps you need to take however to successfully import them into Daz which we are going to cover here. If you have retargeted the animations yourself from our FBX or any other motion capture source, these instructions will apply the same.

Video Tutorial

Steps to import bvh files into Daz3D

1. DRAG DAZ CHARACTER INTO SCENE

Drag your Daz character from the library into the scene. The supplimentary files we have supplied include bvh files for the Genesis Character ( This should work with G1 and G2 characters), Genesis 8 ( This should also work with G3 characters ) and V4 (Should work with Victoria 4 and Michael 4 characters). You may find some of these files also work with various other characters, but it may be a bit hit and miss. Ultimately the correct bvh file for a specific character should be used otherwise the animation will not work.

2. SELECT ALL CHARACTER NODES

By default the Daz characters have limits on their bones. Our animations will likely move outside these forced limits so we will need to turn all the limits off. To do this first select all the character nodes by right clicking on the character / character node and click the select all option.

3. UNLOCK SELECTED CHARACTER NODES

Before we can turn the limits off we need to unlock the nodes we previously selected. To do this go to the menu option File > Figure > Lock > Unlock Selected Nodes.

4. TURN LIMITS OFF FOR CHARACTER NODES

We can now turn the limits off for the characters bones. To do this go to the menu option File > Figure > Limits > Limits Off

5. IMPORT CORRECT BVH FOR YOUR CHARACTER

We can now import the bvh file. Go to the menu option File > Import and browse to the correct bvh file for this specific character. It is very important that you do not select an incompatible bvh file as it will not import correctly if you do. Please note that a Genesis 1 bvh will likely work with Genesis 2 characters as well. And Genesis 8 bvh files should also work with Genesis 3 characters. Genesis 3 and 8 have rotation bones though in the arms that earlier characters do not have though so they will not work with them.

6. IMPORT SETTINGS FOR BVH

On the window that pops up you can leave the import settings as they are. They should appear as follows.

7. WAIT FOR BVH TO LOAD INTO DAZ

Wait for the bvh to import. It may take a little while if its large.

8. DROP CHARACTER TO FLOOR

Once imported you will notice that the character is floating off the floor. This is easily corrected by hitting Ctrl+D. This will drop the figure to the floor.

9. CHECK ANIMATION AND SAVE PRESET

Test the animation. If it all looks ok we can save it as a preset to your library somewhere. It will then be quicker to load into the scene in future. Please note you will still only be able to use the animation on the correct character so you may wish to lable it so you know which character it is for. You will also need to make sure that the character has limits off when you use the preset otherwise the animation may not look quite right ( foot slide and other problems ).

10. MAKE SURE TO SAVE FULL ANIMATION RANGE

When saving the pose preset make sure you select the whole animation range is selected, otherwise it will just save a 1 frame pose.