Blender and MakeHuman – Immersive Arts Space

How to use MakeHuman and Blender to create characters that can be animated with Mocap data from Motive, FaceRig, PerceptionNeuron etc..

Install MakeHuman

Download the Makehuman release from http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/downloads.html
Unzip and move the folder to your applications directory

Download MHX2 Plugin for Makehuman from http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/plugins.html
Move the 9_export_mhx2 directory to the MakeHuman plugins directory. On osX probably: /Applications/MakeHuman.app/Contents/Resources/plugins/ On Windows C:\Program Files\Makehuman\makehuman-1.1.1-win32\plugins (or wherever you’ve installed Makehuman)

Download the MHX2 Plugin for Blender from http://www.makehumancommunity.org/content/plugins.html
Move import_runtime_mhx2 to the Blender addons directory C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons
Enable the MHX2 importer in Blender. Open Blender, Select File > User Preferences. In the window that opens, select the Addons tab and then the MakeHuman category. Enable MakeHuman: Import-Runtime: MakeHuman eXchange 2 (.mhx2)
In the File tab, enable Auto Run Python Scripts and Save User Settings.
Save User Settings

Open MakeHuman and design you character.
Select the Pose/Animation tab and set Rig Presets to Default No Toes.
For facial Animation you probably want your character to have teeth, toung, eyebrows and eyelashes. To do this enable the parts by selecting the Geometries tab…
In the Files > Export tab, select MakeHuman Exchange (mhx2), select the export path, and press export.
Open Blender Select File > Import > MakeHuman (.mhx2), and navigate to the mhx2 file exported from MakeHuman.
By default, the exported character is imported into Blender as it appears in MakeHuman. However, if Override Export Data is selected, the character will be rebuilt according to the options that appear.

This might be useful to make a makehuman character have similar proportions as a 3D scan.. https://www.blendernation.com/2016/07/10/add-sync-makehuman-mesh-pose/

Follow the documentation by FaceRig

Here’s an indicator of what is probably important and what part of the documentation can probably be ignored:

Geometry : Important
Geometry Naming : Important
Default pose : Should be ok with MakeHuman characters
Geometry rules : Should be ok with MakeHuman characters
UV Mapping : Should be ok with MakeHuman characters
Deformaton : Important
Fur : Can be ignored
Shader (materials) naming : Important
Shader Types : For visual fine tuning
Texture maps : Should be ok with MakeHuman characters
Texture Types Sufxes : Important
Additonal skins for avatars and props : Can be ignored
Skeleton : Important
Pseudo-physics driven bones : Can be ignored
Animatons and expression poses : Important (this step is probably the most time consuming. We might be able to reuse the animations once they’re done for the first time)
Avatar confguraton fle : might be important, but try ignoring this at first
Full Body Animaton Specifcatons (Studio only) : Important if working with PerceptionNeuron for body capture
Skeleton hierarchy : Important

Makewalk is used for retargeting of Bvh in Blender. Check Makewalk documenation for more information.

Download blender plugins
Add the directories makewalk, maketarget, mkeclothes and import_runtime_mhx2 directory to the blender addons folder. On osX probably: ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/2.79/scripts/addons
In blender go go File/User Prefferences..
Select Add-ons, then in Categories select MakeHuman
Check MakeHumna: Import-Runtime: MakeHuman Exchange 2 (.mhv2)
Check MakeHuman: MakeWalk
Save User Settings

Export an mhv2 from makehuman, import it into blender using the “Override Exported Data” and select Rig type: Game.
Open the MakeWalk Tab in the Tool Shelf and click Load and Retarget to load a .bvh file exported from motive.
In MakeWalk: Edit Actions use GlobalEdit to make set the animation onto the ground…

Mhx2 rig explained here.