d-bohn/mhr

A R package to work with MakeHuman model files

mhr: An R package to work with MakeHuman files

Installation

install.packages('devtools')
devtools::install_github('d-bohn/mhr')

Rationale

MakeHuman is a wonderful, free, open source, and user-friendly 3D model generator for human-like avatars. It is often used in conjuction with other 3D rendering and manipulation software for a complete end-to-end 3D modelling solution. However, despite MakeHuman’s user-friendly approach, there is no command line interface, nor internal scripting. From a programatic standpoint, this make it particularly hard, for example, to batch process and manipulate files. Theoretically this can be done by adding a “plugin” written in python to the user’s installation of MakeHuman, but this has a number of drawbacks.

This package provides some simple functions to work with MakeHuman files. In particular, it helps with batch processing of models.

Getting started

Funcutions are provided (currently) to:

1. Read in a file

mhm_file <- system.file('random_female.mhm', package = 'mhr')

mhm <- read_mhm(mhm_file)

This reads in a file to memory, and creates an object of class . MakeHuman model files are simple text files, so each file is parsed and saved to a list object to be futher manipulated.

2. Randomize the 247 modifiers

mhm_rand <- mhm_rand_modifiers(mhm,
                           sym = TRUE,
                           mod_limits = c(-0.6,1),
                           gender_limits = c(0,1),
                           breasts_limits = c('rand'),
                           age_limits = c(.363,1))

3. Write out a file

write_mhm(mhm_rand, 'makehuman_random.mhm')

Planned Features

• Manipulating camera angle in a user-friendly manner

• More detailed controller over how the modifiers are randomized

• Manipulating modifiers individually by name

• Converting files to files

• Manipulating files in a similar manner to files