Important changes to nightly DEBs

Starting tomorrow, the nightly build DEB files will use a new approach for managing the large set of data files required by MakeHuman.

Up until now, the data has been included inside the DEB file, which has resulted in larger and larger files until we ran into the quota roof at TuxFamily. At last check, the DEB files were around 80 mb.

From now on, the data will instead be downloaded automatically as a part of the DEB postinst configuration step. This shrinks the DEB file to 9 mb.

The data will be downloaded using subversion, and this will only happen the first time the package is installed. When in the future upgrading to a new build, the data dir will instead be upgraded using "svn update" so that only changes are downloaded.

The nightly deb files have gained three new dependencies to manage the above: subversion, wget and dos2unix.

In addition to this, the large "skins" bitmaps will be downloaded using wget and placed in the appropriate central directory.

This is a significant change and it might take some time to stomp out the bugs with it. If you run into trouble, please comment in this thread:

http://www.makehuman.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1845

Note that the above info is ONLY applicable to the nightly deb files for linux. The alphas are not changed, nor are the distribution packages for other platforms, nor the tarballs.

makeHuman included in Dream Studio 11.04

DickMacInnis.com is proud to announce the official release of Dream Studio 11.04. This exciting new version of Dream Studio (http://dream.dickmacinnis.com) has all the features that have made past releases one of the most successful multimedia software packages out there, including: multi-user, pulseaudio-integrated realtime audio via JACK, for use with programs like Ardour; the renowned Cinelerra video editor, a full graphic and web design suite; photography tools; and hundreds of assorted audio and video effects, fonts, and utilities for everything from multimedia file conversion to simple office work and web browsing. Not only that, but this latest version of Dream Studio also included hundreds of bug fixes and the following new features:

-Blender has been upgraded to the new version 2.59, with the oceansim patch applied

-Several new programs have been added, including MakeHuman (http://makehuman.org), Sonic Visualiser(http://www.sonicvisualiser.org/), and Smasher(http://smasher.sourceforge.net/)

-A lowlatency kernel is installed by default, with automatic installation of the lowlatency-pae kernel for systems that have more than 3GB of RAM

-Separate meta-packages have been created for graphic design and photography, as well as for software instruments and audio effects, for easy selection/removal of software you don't need

-Dream Studio software sources automatically re-enable and update to newest distribution release on upgrade, to smooth transitions for less technically advanced users

-All software has begun being moved from a personal repository to PPAs (personal package archives), to allow easier porting to different architectures and faster upgrades to new releases. This move will also enable easy backporting of newer software, so that users of LTS (long term support) releases will no longer need to upgrade to unstable releases to get the newest features of the software they use

-KXStudio Team PPAs have been added by default, allowing users to easily install hundreds of additional multimedia applications

-The unity desktop is now default (for users whose computers support 3d compositing). We realize, however, that many users find functionality missing in this controversial desktop, and as such have added useful packages to our repository for a smooth transition, such as a weather indicator (to replace the functionality lost in the new system clock), and a workspace indicator (for users who miss one-click workspace switching)

-An all new look (screenshots)

As always, Dream Studio is based on Ubuntu, and as such is 100% compatible with ubuntu software, PPAs, and support forums and documents.

*Special Notes

-Although Dream Studio is fully compatible with virtualisation software like VirtualBox and VMWare, it is not intended to be used in this way. Due to the high availability needs of video and audio editing, hardware access is the only way to get the full Dream Studio experience. If you wish to test Dream Studio for evaluation or reviews, the recommended method is a full installation to and boot from a USB flash drive (which can be done via the aforementioned virtualisation software if you have no DVD drive - but will suffer from a loss of boot and application startup speed compared to a full Dream Studio installation), or by simply booting from the installation DVD (this method uses a compressed filesystem, however, and as such, boot and application startup times will be even slower than booting from USB)

-Users who need to continue working on Cinepaint projects should remain on Dream Studio version 10.10 or earlier, as it has been functionally replaced with the Gimp Animation Package.

New mocap tool

Recently I have been working on a new mocap tool for Blender. The old one had grown to large to keep in a single file, so I had to split up the code into separate files to keep it manageable.

Perhaps the main new feature is the possibility to edit motions. The animation below was created from CMU 49/08, which consists of a single flip. Using the tools in the Mocap:Adjust panel, the motion was displaced to make feet and hands rest on the ground (more or less well, I was using FK), and then the F-curves between active markers were looped and repeated. The point is that the repeated flips fit together seamlessly, something that I was unable to do before.



The new mocap tool is the entire folder importers/mhx/mh_mocap_tool, which must be copied to Blender's addons folder (blender/2.58/scripts/addons) before start-up. Under Linux you can alternatively keep it somewhere else and put a link to it in the addons folder, but this does not work under Windows (Blender does not recognize Windows shortcuts). The mocap tool must then be enabled user preferences; it is found in the Animation category.

The main entry is the Load, retarget, simplify button in the Mocap:Old retarget panel. There is also a New retarget panel, which uses code that I have stolen from Blender's Pepper branch. However, it does not really work, or rather it works too well. In particular, the pelvis bone is rotated into the same global direction as in the bvh file. If the pelvises' rest poses differ (e.g. Accad down, Mhx up), some really ugly hip deformation result.

Preliminary documentation is available at https://sites.google.com/site/makehumandocs/blender-export-and-mhx/new-mocap-tool. Since this is work in progress, things may change without notice.

Expression Analysis for Makehuman

Hello everyone! This is my first blog for Makehuman, so I'll try to give you the 'big picture' of why I began to post three years ago on the forum.

I believe--and I'm quite sure Looxis does also-- that Makehuman has the potential to be a revolutionary mobile app; for example, the first open-source mocap avatar, or free 'talking head'.

But, with any mobile app there have to be design constraints, especially in terms of CPU footprint and screen resolution.  So, I've re-created my Ellie model to function as a mocap avatar. UV texture mapping, sub-surface scattering and subtle lighting had to go. Next a simple 'thumbs-only' interface would need to be designed that could lip-sync at the end of a phrase, and add facial expressions. If no one else has coined the term, I'll call them 'expressicons'.

And here, we run into a major design constraint: which emotions, and who decides which ones? I'll answer quite simply: "We used the same system that the Forture 500 companies have settled upon, namely Paul Ekman's Facial Action Coding System, or FACS."  So, it seemed like an easy task to match the FACS to the Makehuman expression interface.

Unfortunately, not so.

As of nightly build 2701, there are 56 separate expressions in Blender 2.58a export, each with at least three, to a maximum of six sliders.

We will assume a binary expression value, that is, an expression is either zero or one.

If we assume that each slider has only a binary full of 0 or 1, and we conservatively estimate that only four sliders will be used (central tendency theory applied here), then a permutation value of
P(56,4) = 56! / (56 - 4)! = 8814960

That's over 800,000 possible combinations, with severe limits on the settings. Clearly, for a real-world application such as I am suggesting, there will need to be some design constraints.

The goal of this discussion is to see how to manage scenarios of Makehuman characters interacting with real people, using motion capture.  And here we can apply the core of Ekman's findings: there is no single simple human emotion in any verbal exchange, it is always of sequence of combinations of expressions.

I'm going to use artistic license to decider what combinations of emotions to use; however, to keep things simple, I'll use only three at a time.  The sequence will be: intial emotional expression, opposing emotional expression, resolving emotional expression.

I'll use the same sentence in different contexts to indicate the power of Makehuman. For this blog, I'll do the lip sync first, then the emotional expression sequence.

(1) You (assumed male protagonist) are at a party, do your best to impress a young female (the Makehuman reactor) that you just met. You tell an outlandish story of an adventure you've just had, and as she waits for the punch line, you finish with: "Oh, it never really happened. I was just trying to impress you."

Her response is: "But, I really wanted to believe you." The espeak parameters are --ven+f4 -k10 -s 200.
For purposes of matching the Makehuman mocap avatar to the FACS, I'll use exaggerated positive expression.
The emotional expression sequence is:
Ekamn surprise = Makehuman Surprised 1.00 + Excited .25 at frame 20;
Ekman fearful = Makehuman Scared .75 + .25 Puzzled at frame 60;
Ekman true Smile = Makehuman Smile 1.00 + .5 Laughing.





The video link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkGD33-S1M4

(2) You (assumed male protagonist) are on a first date with the Makehuman female character, and you park at the edge of a very large lot. Out in Western Canada, the example we always use is the West Edmonton Mall. When you leave the Mall, you can't find your car, although you assured her when you went in that you had an unerring sense of navigation. Frustrated, she replies with: "But, I really wanted to believe you." The espeak parameters are --ven+f5 -k20 -s 150.
Now that we've got an Ekman-to-Makehuman baseline, let's just go with Makehuman settings.
The emotional expression sequence is:
Makehuman skeptical 1.00 at frame 20;
Makehuman upset 1.00 at frame 60;
Makehuman grumpy 1.00 at frame 80.

The video link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysB_HUOsAwo

And finally,

(3) You (assumed male protagonist) have just been accused of cheating on your girlfriend (Makehuman reactor) by her best girlfriend. You plead innocence, but she cuts you off with: "But, I really wanted to believe you."
The espeak parameters are: --ven+f5 -k30 -s 100. Note how I'm raising pitch and slowing down the statement.
The emotional expression sequence is:
Makehumna distress 1.00 at frame 20;
Makehuman disappointment 1.00 at frame 60;
Makehuman sadness 1.00 at frame 80.

The video link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myn_gjQSKsg&NR=1

Why did we need to call upon Paul Ekman's work? His research has demonstrated that negative emotions are more difficult to read than positive ones, and therefore more easily misunderstood.  To communicate through avatars/talking heads we would need to agree on which emotional expressions mean what, and that requires a mapping of Ekman's Facial Action Coding System and the Makehuman expression interface.