Dear Biomechanist,
As Blender
-is meant to create animations
-supports Armatures and constraints
-supports Motion Capture files
-allows to associate 3D shapes to the MoCap files,
it provides an original approach for the study of biomechanics.
To be influenced by the armature, the 3D objects are usually parented to the armature.
As these parenthood relationships are already used to represent the hierarchy of anatomical structures in the main file -because this is how a hierarchy can be exported from Blender to Unity- the anatomy and the biomechanics had to be separated.
You will find the 'Biomechanics Blender.7z' file, containing the armature, a series of positions and a few .bvh animations on the 'Atlas' page of this website, beneath the App.
Constraints were added to limit the body in physiologically coherent positions.
A system has been developed to automate the animation of the whole skeleton using .bvh files (standard Motion Capture format).
The reproduction of the physiological movements in Blender implies a good understanding of the biomechanics and of the 'drivers'. The drivers are the mathematical expression of the relation between two segments.
The following text explains the main principles:
See a demo here
Back to the CONTRIBUTORS'HOMEPAGE
If I'm reading this correctly are you trying to create an asset library of poses of the skeleton?
Right, one or two poses have been created as a demonstration but the idea would be to have more.
Although several adjustments are needed to reach a fully constraint and flexible model, the poses can already be created.
Besides the pose library, a list of clean actions can also be built.
My understanding of the "assets library / browser" is you need to have the blend file. So would we be uploading the blend file?
Yes, the collaborative process still has to be demonstrated but in a way or another, it will involve either a .blend or a .bvh.
It is possible to share zippped .blend files directly on the forum, to use 'PasteAll' or -if necessary- Drive or other services for large files.
If only one person works at a time, the file just has to be replaced and shared on the website; if more people start contributing at the same time, a merging step would be needed.
example: