Talent File Format

MotionSampler stores information about talents in ordinary text files ending with the file extension .tal. A single talent file can contain many calibrations for several different talents.

Basically, a talent file contains a sequence of Talent objects, each with a unique name. Each Talent object contains a sequence of Calibration objects, each with a name/type pair unique to the Calibrations in the containing Talent.

Talent files are arranged as follows:

begin talent TALENT_1
	begin CALIBRATION_TYPE CALIBRATION_1
		...
	end CALIBRATION_TYPE
	...
	begin CALIBRATION_TYPE CALIBRATION_n
		...
	end CALIBRATION_TYPE
end talent
...
begin talent TALENT_n
	begin CALIBRATION_TYPE CALIBRATION_1
		...
	end CALIBRATION_TYPE
	...
	begin CALIBRATION_TYPE CALIBRATION_n
		...
	end CALIBRATION_TYPE
end talent

One Talent object is delimited by lines of text in this form:

begin talent TALENT_NAME
	.
	.
	.
end talent

All text that falls between the begin talent line and the end talent line is considered part of the Talent object.

Talent Block Format

Calibration blocks are specific to individual modules that require them. The following example of a talent block includes two calibration blocks for a Biped filter:

begin talent "john"
	fullname "John Smith"
	title "Digital Movement Artist"
	company "Freelance"
	address "Minneapolis, MN"
	begin biped "as Clip"
		offset_rotation head 51.9 180 90
		offset_rotation chest 15.3 180 -88.5
		offset_rotation hip -7.1 -7.1 -90.5
		...
	end biped
	begin biped "as Stick"
		offset_rotation head 51.9 180 90
		offset_rotation chest 15.3 180 -90
		offset_rotation hip -7.0 -7.0 -92.1
		...
	end biped
end talent

You may want to match the name specified in the begin talent line to a UNIX login name, if appropriate, because MotionSampler makes use of login icons in the Talent Editor.

The talent file format also recognizes strings associated with the keywords fullname, title, company, and address to collect personal data on human talents. In each case, a line beginning with one of these keywords stores the string that follows it. The text that follows the keyword should be inside quotation marks.

Calibration Block Format

A single calibration is delimited by lines of text in this format:

begin CALIBRATION_TYPE CALIBRATION_NAME
end CALIBRATION_TYPE

CALIBRATION_TYPE is replaced with a keyword that specifies a calibration type defined by one or more cooperating plugins. The BipedTalent and Biped2 plugins create and use biped type calibration as shown in the following example:

begin biped "as MC_ALIAN"
	offset_rotation head 17.9 180 90
	offset_rotation chest 19.8 172.5 -88.8
	offset_rotation hip -38.6 -6.6 -89.5
	offset_rotation left_arm 0 -8.5 -164.9
	offset_rotation right_arm0 -170.6 6.6
	offset_rotation left_hand -90 12.3 0
	offset_rotation right_hand 112.9 -178.1 0
	offset_rotation left_leg 0 -176.2 0
	offset_rotation right_leg 0 0 -180
	offset_rotation left_foot -119.7 -65 -12.3
	offset_rotation right_foot 68.8 121.6 36.8
	offset_position body 0 0 0
	offset_position back 0 0 0
	offset_position neck 0 0 0
	offset_position left_shoulder 3.93 6.13 -5.5
	offset_position right_shoulder -6.44 3.61 -5.18
	offset_position left_elbow -1.5 0 0.75
	offset_position right_elbow -1.5 0 0.75
	offset_position left_wrist 9.58 0 0.47
	offset_position right_wrist 9.58 0 0.47
	offset_position left_hip 4.87 -0.79 0.16
	offset_position right_hip -2.98 -1.41 0.31
	offset_position left_knee -3 0 -2
	offset_position right_knee -3 0 -2
	offset_position left_ankle 13 0 -1.41
	offset_position right_ankle 13 0.47 1.41
	offset_position position 0 0 0
	joint_scale left_arm 0.95
	joint_scale right_arm 0.95
	joint_scale left_leg 1.15
	joint_scale right_leg 1.15
	solution reach
end biped

The specific information that comes between the begin CALIBRATION_TYPE line and the end CALIBRATION_TYPE line is determined by the plugin defining it.