Retargeting with HEAT

Retarget a HEAT animation from a HEAT armature to your own rigged character.

PREPARING YOUR RIGGED CHARACTER

For successful retargeting from HEAT your character's Rest Pose must be in a T-Pose.

• Begin by checking your characters rest pose by selecting the armature of your character and opening the 'Armature Data' tab () in the properties window along the right side of the screen. Next click the 'Rest Position' button at the top of the window.

Rest Position pose selector

Character with Rest Position set in A-Pose will need adjustment

• If your characters 'Rest Position' is not in a T-Pose follow these steps to adjust it:

  1. Select your characters armature.

  2. In the upper left hand corner of the 3D viewer change the 'Object Interaction Mode' to 'Pose Mode'

  3. In the armature data panel switch the back to 'Pose Position' from rest position.

  4. Adjust your characters pose to be in a T-Pose by selecting the upper arm or shoulder bones and rotating them until the pose is correct. If you need more help with posing we recommend reading the Blender documentation for more information.
  5. Once your rigged character is in T-Pose select the 'Pose to Rest' button () in the HeatTools Armature pane of the heat sidebar menu. Make sure you are still have the armature selected and are still in pose mode.
  6. You're current pose position will now be set as the 'Rest Position' and you are ready to retarget!

Example of applying pose position to rest pose using HEAT

RETARGETING TO YOUR RIGGED CHARACTER

Please follow above section to make sure your rigged character is in T-Pose before retargeting with HEAT. Retargeting will not come out as expected if the character is not in T-Pose.

• Make sure you have a HEAT armature in your scene that has a HEAT animation applied to it.

• Open the 'Heat Retargeting' pane () of the HeatTools sidebar menu.
• In the Heat Retargeting pane click the eyedropper in the 'Source' section () and select the HEAT armature in either the 3D viewport or in the Scene collection window.
• Now click the eyedropper in the 'Target' section () and select your rigged characters armature.
• With both armatures properly in the 'Source' and 'Target' fields click the 'Build Bone List' button ().
• The bone list will appear and HEAT will attempt to match all of the HEAT bones to your rigged characters bones.

HEAT Retargeting bone list

• Look through the bone list and ensure that all of the HEAT bones are matched to the correct corresponding bones. If any bones are missing or not properly paired click the bone field () and select the correct bone.
• Once the bone list looks correct click the 'Retarget Animation' button ().
• Play your animation and you should see your own rigged character now performing the same movement as the HEAT armature.

Retargeting process using HEAT

When retargeting it is best to keep your custom character zeroed out in the 3D viewer in the same space as the HEAT armature. This will ensure that the retargeted animation on your character has the same origin point as the source animation.

Next we will go over binding a HEAT armature to your own custom character mesh.