MakeHuman To Cheetah?

MakeHuman To Cheetah?

Does anyone know how to export characters out of MakeHuman, and then import them in to Cheetah?

Many thanks!

I've tried both exporting and saving a character in MakeHuman. Exporting yields a .dae file. Saving creates a .mhn file.

Cheetah doesn't seem to recognize either file format. Or I'm doing something wrong.

I can find nothing on the subject on google or youtube. Same for help system built in to Cheetah.

If I can't create characters in MakeHuman for use in Cheetah, can I create characters in any other app and import to Cheetah?

As best I can tell, Cheetah will not import anything MakeHuman can export. Darn, that's probably the end of that.

If true, I may be stuck creating characters in Daz, and then export for animating in Cheetah. Anybody doing this??

I'm not a huge Daz fan, so if anyone would like to suggest another Mac app for creating characters, please do.

If my research is correct (might not be) here's the import/export situation for Daz => Cheetah.

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DAZ will export these formats

3D Studio (3DS format)
3DMF (Apple's QuickDraw 3D format)
After Effects (CAE)
AI
DXF
EPS
DirectX format
Flash (SWF)
Kaydara FBX (Pro version only)
Shockwave (W3D)
SVG
VRML
Wavefront OBJ

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Cheetah will import these formats

.3ds
.dxf (quite limited yet)
.fbx
.lwo
.obj
.sia
.stl (binary and ASCII)
.jas (binary and ASCII)

Yes, quite a few people here have used MakeHuman / DAZ to import characters. The three main export options to get it to work are .fbx (FilmBox), .obj (Wavefront), .dae (collada)

I usually use fbx or obj, but the collada will also work if you are using C3d v7. dae files will not import into v6. Just put the exported file into the same folder as the textures that were exported and they should load automatically. Also you will want to check the "alpha" button on the material and set the index of refraction to 1.0. This will help the material show transparency for the eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes.

You can search on the forums for more info. There are some other posts about importing these.

Hi Felasco,

You must be doing something wrong. There are several export/import configs you could do.
I recommend FBX because materials and skeleton rigs are more intact upon import into Cheetah.

I'll look closer at your post and see if I can figure anything out that may be causing your trouble.

--shift studio.

edit: see Swizl's post above as its better

Swizl said:

Yes, quite a few people here have used MakeHuman / DAZ to import characters.

Click to expand...

Ok, great, and thanks.

The three main export options to get it to work are .fbx (FilmBox), .obj (Wavefront), .dae (collada)

Click to expand...

MakeHuman will export .dae, but I can't get Cheetah to recognize the file.

I see no way to export .fbx or .obj formats from MakeHuman, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

dae files will not import into v6.

Click to expand...

I just downloaded Cheetah yesterday, but seem to have version 6, an old version? Puzzled...

Just put the exported file into the same folder as the textures that were exported and they should load automatically.

Click to expand...

Cheetah blind to .dae file where ever I put it.

Also you will want to check the "alpha" button on the material and set the index of refraction to 1.0. This will help the material show transparency for the eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes.

Click to expand...

Thank you much.

Still stuck on square zero though.

Shift Studio said:

You must be doing something wrong.

Click to expand...

This would be great, because then we can fix it.

MakeHuman has a save button, saves .mhn files.

MakeHuman has an export button, exports .dae files.

That's all I can see.

When I use Cheetah to navigate to .dae file, the import button remains grayed out, apparently not recognizing the .dae file.

Felasco said:

Ok, great, and thanks.



MakeHuman will export .dae, but I can't get Cheetah to recognize the file.

I see no way to export .fbx or .obj formats from MakeHuman, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.



I just downloaded Cheetah yesterday, but seem to have version 6, an old version? Puzzled...



Cheetah blind to .dae file where ever I put it.



Thank you much.

Still stuck on square zero though.

Click to expand...

You must still be using v6 (which in the current version, but there is a v7 beta out now). v6 will not import a dae file, only v7 will.

In MakeHuman on the file go to the "Files" tab on top left, and then select the "Export" tab on the bottom right. There are radio buttons on the left side to pick the format. Click the ellipses (...) to tell it where to save the file (I like the desktop). Then just click the export button on the right side. This will give you a file that will open in C3d. Then put the fbx or obj file in the folder that says "textures" that MakeHuman made. The file may not put the textures in automatically unless the 3d file is in this folder. Let us know if you're still stuck.

Felasco said:

This would be great, because then we can fix it.

MakeHuman has a save button, saves .mhn files.

MakeHuman has an export button, exports .dae files.

That's all I can see.

When I use Cheetah to navigate to .dae file, the import button remains grayed out, apparently not recognizing the .dae file.

Click to expand...

If you look at the image I attached you can see the "Mesh Format" on the top left with different formats to choose.

Swizl said:

There are radio buttons on the left side to pick the format.

Click to expand...

Aha! Thank you again. Happy to be the problem. Trying now....

I get it now, and think import to Cheetah may have worked, but character is very very small.

I need to learn how to zoom in obviously. Duh... On to that.

Many thanks for assisting me. After unhappy times with Blender and Daz, this is looking quite encouraging.

Learned to zoom, MH character now in Cheetah, and under my control. Well, sorta.

Felasco said:

Aha! Thank you again. Happy to be the problem. Trying now....

I get it now, and think import to Cheetah may have worked, but character is very very small.

I need to learn how to zoom in obviously. Duh... On to that.

Many thanks for assisting me. After unhappy times with Blender and Daz, this is looking quite encouraging.

Click to expand...

Great!, yes C3d is a million times easier than Blender. You can set the import export size of different formats in the C3d preferences. Also there is a focus camera button on the tool bar in the top right of the window. Just select the object you want to focus on in the object browser and then click the focus camera button (see attached image).

Let us know if you need any other help.

Cheetah's units are arbitrary, but you could imagine one Cheetah unit is 1 metre.

If you want to go with that, then in MakeHuman's Export tab, set 'Scale units' to 'decimetre'

In Cheetah Preferences/Files, set the .fbx Import 'Scale factor' to '0.01'

This will bring a 1.5 metre tall MakeHuman person in at 1.5 units in Cheetah.

note: you could probably change the scale units to 'Metre' and Import scale factor to '0.001'.
I'm unsure why I didn't do that, but I think I had a reason when I was figuring it out for myself.

Hope this helps
--shift studio.