Can I reuse a animation on a different model with the same bone names

Help & Support
1

I have several models that all have human like bone systems. I tried to use an animation for one on the other but it wouldn’t play, maybe I deleted one of the necessary bone mapping files from the fbx. Is it possible to just reuse an animation like that?

2

Hi @Austin_Michaud,

Yeah, normally animations that reference the same bone system will work in any model that uses it.

You need to make sure that the both names/hierarchy match between the models.

Here is how the animation asset in Playcanvas asset looks like:

image
image.png663×585 27.7 KB

If you deleted by accident something usually exporting again from your modelling app and re-importing will resolve the issue.

3

I re-tried to use one animation on two models and it didint work. I checked in blender and both models have the same bone names. The animation works on one model but not the other. The animations and models are from mixamo.

4

I’ve never had any problem using Mixamo animations with Playcanvas, on properly prepared models.

Though if it’s a bug in the Playcanvas side, I’d say try raising an issue on the engine repo including a sample project that includes the models and animations not working.

5

how do i share the editor url with you

does this work: https://playcanvas.com/editor/scene/892074

its a simple scene with a animation called hiphop dancing on two objects

6

Taking a look at both animation files (Hip Hop Dancing.json and Hip Hop Dancing (1).json) they both contain bones named in this pattern:

  • mixamorig1:Hips
  • mixamorig1:Spine
  • mixamorig1:Neck
    etc.

The Ch45_nonPBR.json model uses the same bone names, whereas the vanguard_t_choonyung.json uses the following pattern:

  • mixamorig:Hips
  • mixamorig:Spine
  • mixamorig:Neck
    etc.

So somewhere in your export/import pipeline the bone names don’t match. Blender most likely uses the bones order instead of the names to match them, but not sure about it.

1 Like
7

So if a similar imported model from mixamo has “mixamorig1:Hips” named bones while the original model from mixamo (with animations) has “mixamorig:Hips” named bones, how do we re-use the animations ?

8

I think this has to be fixed upstream, on Mixamo or in Blender or similar modelling app, before importing in PlayCanvas.

2 Likes
9

Or you can rename the bones in the scene hierarchy to match the animation

1 Like