gbionics/cmu-fbx

CMU Motion Capture Library — FBX Format

A large-scale library of 2,548 human motion capture animations in .fbx format, organized by subject/motion number. This dataset is derived from the CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database and is intended for use in robotics, computer animation, game development, and machine learning research involving human motion.

Source page: https://rancidmilk.itch.io/free-character-animations

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Dataset Summary

This dataset contains over 2,500 human full-body skeletal animations covering a wide range of everyday and athletic motions (walking, running, jumping, crouching, etc.). The animations were originally recorded as optical motion capture data at Carnegie Mellon University, then converted from .bvh format to .fbx using Blender by RancidMilk via BVH files sourced from cgspeed.com.

The animations are stored as bones-only armatures (no mesh). They include root motion and do not have finger animations.

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Dataset Structure

Files are organized into folders by subject-number range, and named using the convention {subject}_{motion}.fbx:

animations/
├── 01-09_V1/
│   └── 01-09_V1/
│       ├── 01_01.fbx   # Subject 01, Motion 01
│       ├── 01_02.fbx
│       └── ...
├── 10-14_V1/
├── 15-19_V1/
├── 20-29_V1/
├── 30-34_V1/
├── 35-39_V1/
├── 40-45_V1/
├── 46-56_V1/
├── 60-75_V1/
├── 76-80_V1/
├── 81-85_V1/
├── 86-94_V1/
├── 102-111_V1/
├── 113-128_V1/
├── 131-135_V1/
├── 136-140_V1/
└── 141-144_V1/

Property	Value
Total files	2,548 .fbx files
Format	FBX (Filmbox), importable in Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot
Skeleton	Bones-only armature (no mesh)
Root motion	Yes (not in-place)
Finger animations	No
Version	V1_01

Metadata labels

• metadata.csv is the only label file and contains one row per clip.
• Columns are: file_name, clip_id, subject_id, motion_id, label.

File naming convention

Each file is named {SS}_{MM}.fbx where:

• SS — zero-padded subject number (e.g. 01, 86)
• MM — zero-padded motion trial number within that subject (e.g. 01, 12)

An index of animation contents (i.e. what action each subject/motion number corresponds to) is available from cgspeed.com and was originally published alongside the CMU database.

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Source Data

Original data

The motion capture recordings were produced by the CMU Graphics Lab and are freely available at http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu. The database was created with funding from NSF EIA-0196217.

BVH conversion

The .bvh intermediate files used for this conversion were sourced from cgspeed.com, where Bruce (cgspeed) converted the original CMU data to BVH format with no additional restrictions.

FBX conversion

RancidMilk converted the BVH files to .fbx using Blender and the Auto-Rig Pro add-on for re-targeting onto a CC0 character model by Quaternius. This dataset distributes the Anims_Only FBX variant (bones/armature only, no character mesh), which results in a smaller file size.

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Usage Notes

Loading in Blender

Use File → Import → FBX (not File → Open). The armature will appear as a bones-only rig.

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License

Animations

The animations follow the CMU Motion Capture Database terms of use:

"The motion capture data may be copied, modified, or redistributed without permission." — http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/faqs.php

"You may include this data in commercially-sold products, but you may not resell this data directly, even in converted form." — http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu

In short: Free to use, modify, and redistribute — including in commercial products — as long as you do not sell the animations themselves (even as conversions). If you redistribute them, you should make these same terms clear to recipients and credit mocap.cs.cmu.edu.

Attribution

If you publish results using this data, please include the following acknowledgement:

"The data used in this project was obtained from mocap.cs.cmu.edu. The database was created with funding from NSF EIA-0196217."

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Acknowledgements

Source	Role	Link
CMU Graphics Lab	Original motion capture recordings	http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu
cgspeed (Bruce)	BVH conversion of CMU data	cgspeed.com
RancidMilk	BVH → FBX conversion via Blender	itch.io
Quaternius	CC0 character model used for re-targeting	quaternius.com

This dataset re-distributes data originally published by the parties above. None of these parties necessarily endorse this distribution.