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McKap User Manual

1. Loading Plug-in

2. Setting up Pre Rig

3. Creating the Rig

4. Coloring Controls

5. Accesing Skin Joints

6. Features and finishing up

7. Connecting Mocap

8. Editing Mocap

9. McKap Starter Pack

• Open or import your character.
• To get started open McKap, and click the New button on the Pre Rig tab.

• Allign the shapes with the joints of your character.
• Start with the square shapes to move entire sections.
• Use circular shapes to mark exact joint locations.

• Note the arrows pointing away from preferred bend direction.

• Use the Mirror buttons for symmetry.

• You can save the Pre Rig setup for your character using the Save button.

• If you previously saved the Pre Rig setup for your character, you can load it using the Load button.

• Go to the Rig tab of the McKap window.
• Write the number of elbow twist joints you wish to have on the rig.
• Click the Rig button to create the McKap rig for your character.

• Your McKap rig is now created.

• You can use the McKap interface to assign colors to the controls.

• You can also do this manually.

• Joints intended for skin binding can be easily accessed with the SkinJoints layer.

• McKap features both IK and FK arms, legs and spine controls.

• Knee and elbow controls can remain independent or follow the feet/hand controls.

• You can take the time to adjust control shapes to fit your character.

• Don’t forget to save your file.

• Reference your character rig created with McKap.
• Import the motion capture file you wish to work with.
• McKap has a skeleton that drives the character rig. The motion capture animation needs to be connected to the McKap driver skeleton.

• For best results, scale the motion capture skeleton so that the leg length matches you character, and align the pelvis to your character.
• Make sure the poses of the two skeletons match at the start frame.
• Adjust either skeleton to achieve this if necessary.

• You need to tell McKap what rig you are working on.
• Open McKap window and go to the Connect Mocap Data tab.
• Select the main control of the rig you wish to work on.
• In the drop-down menu Select Rig, click on the icon on the right.

• Select a joint on your motion capture skeleton, and click on the corresponding box on the McKap window.

• The box will turn green, indicating the selected joint is loaded.

• Tip: you can use the arrows on the keyboard to move quickly through the joint hierarchy.
• If possible, use the Mirror, Search and Replace feature to automatically load joints to the opposite side.

• Make sure all the joints are loaded in corresponding boxes.
• For the most common motion captures, you can also use one of the presets.

• Click the Connect button to connect your motion capture skeleton, to the McKap driver skeleton.

• To set the weight of an individual control blending with the motion capture, use the Mocap attribute.

• The value 1 means follow the motion capture completely.

• The value 0 means do not follow the motion capture at all.

• Animate the Mocap attribute to easily blend between motion capture and custom animation.

• McKap Starter Pack contains more than 50 motion capture recordings and 16 rigged characters.
• Locate the McKap Starter Pack folder:

   C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\McKap\Contents\starter-pack

• Note that ProgramData folder is hidden. In Maya’s File > Open dialog, right click over the main explorer window, enable Show hidden files checkbox.
• Open the Animation Template scene (Female_ANIM_Template or Male_ANIM_Template).
• You can simply File > Import… any mocap animation from the Starter Pack. Mocap is already connected to the rig.
• Use Reference Editor to simply replace the rig.
• Make sure that you re-open your Animation Template scene for each mocap. Importing several mocap files consecutively in one scene can cause errors.