The Character Animator Toolkit for MotionBuilder

TAG Blog: Animation and Motion Capture

2012-02-02T10:31:00.000-05:00

TAG Blog: Animation and Motion Capture

This is an excellent talk about motion capture and how an DreamWorks dealt with starting to work with it.

If you are a TD or animator or motion capture editor using Maya or Max or MotionBuilder then you need to listen to the advise in this talk.

There is something that I want to talk about though is the part of advice about being able to select key poses and key that directly to the rig.
It is possible to do this on the MotionBuilder control rig or the HIK rig in Maya and I and many others have done it successfully with out having the problems of not having the rig be able to animate or interpolate between but it is a huge issue on a custom animation rig and it is important to keep in mind as you approach using motion capture in to the pipeline.

Anyway it is a great discussion and they address a huge amount of issues that are brought up all the time by people that misunderstand motioncapture and rigging for motioncapture.

Effects Corner: Acting and Animation

2012-01-13T17:46:00.000-05:00

Effects Corner: Acting and Animation

Amazing post on Performance capture and some more insight in to the current fight between animators, motioneditors vs. the actors that think that all they do is push a button and put "make up" on them.

python moBu- changing name of ControlRig - Tech Artists Forums

2011-12-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

python moBu- changing name of ControlRig - Tech Artists Forums

Maya 2012: HumanIK - Page 2 - Tech Artists Forums

2011-12-22T14:12:00.000-05:00

So if you have been needing to work with or create poses for Maya HIK check out the latest thread and the great tools from Red9.

Maya 2012: HumanIK - Page 2 - Tech Artists Forums

Details on the tools

Red9 StudioPack v1.10
------------------------------------

Well it's been a long year and I've been busy beavering away with a full update to the Red9Studio pack, I've also been slowly adding videos to my Vimeo channel below, hopefully I'll get to do more of these over the Christmas break.

The latest version has full HIK support for all the Animation Tools allowing you to copy poses, effectors, animation data as well as use all the snapping functionality as you would on normal rigs. There's also a ton of fixes to the way the NodeSearcher and Filters work.

http://red9-consultancy.blogspot.com/

http://vimeo.com/user9491246

https://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/animation/c/red9-studio-pack

Brad

CGTalk - Realistic Shoulder Solver

2011-12-12T21:43:00.000-05:00

So a user posted this problem and yes there is a bug in the Right shoulder of the shoulder solver.

Fix- don't use the HIK 4.5 solver and switch back to the MotionBuilder solver. It works and does not leave the shoulder dead.

Brad

2.0 update for the Masterclass

2011-12-08T12:58:00.000-05:00

The masterclass DVD is no longer available for download, we are working on a 2.0 update with new HD videos and content. We will post an update once we get the new version up but the ebook is still for sale through LULU.

Thank you to everyone that as purchased the class and found it helpful in your work, we appreciate it.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Brad and Chad.

Tech Animator Dump: MotionBuilder Python & Window Focusing

2011-10-18T00:12:00.000-04:00

Tech Animator Dump: MotionBuilder Python & Window Focusing

make sure to read the comments on how to do this ..hack away friends.

3ds Max Reference: MotionBuilder and Maya scaling

2011-09-25T22:14:00.000-04:00

3ds Max Reference: MotionBuilder and Maya scaling

Glad to see this in the latest docs, clearly explained. This has caused more than a little confusion and problems for teams working on projects in the past.

An Open Letter To Andy Serkis #AltDevBlogADay

2011-08-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

An Open Letter To Andy Serkis #AltDevBlogADay

While not directly MotionBuilder related it is very good discussion on some of the current issues surrounding performance capture and animation and who controls the performance.

Autodesk - Autodesk MotionBuilder Services & Support - Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 Service Pack 2

2011-08-15T15:38:00.002-04:00

Autodesk - Autodesk MotionBuilder Services & Support - Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 Service Pack 2

Some very important fixes in here, get it now.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Weta Featurette

2011-07-28T03:40:00.000-04:00

Some amazing performance capture and acting along with the layer of WETA sauce (animation, rigging, rendering) showing another example of appropriate use of technology to tell a story.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Comic-Con 2011 Uncut Panel (PS3)

2011-07-27T01:27:00.000-04:00

They are using motion capture correctly and it shows in the final product, if you are wanting to learn from a great example, drink up all the info you can from the Uncharted series and production coverage that is published.

Brad

Area :: Blogs :: Maya 2012 Hotfix 2 Now Available

2011-05-31T16:57:00.000-04:00

Area :: Blogs :: Maya 2012 Hotfix 2 Now Available: "Graph editor: cannot view multiple f‐curves on a character set"

With lots of HIK fixes, grab it while it is hot and fresh if you are using HIK or Character sets.

Area :: GDC 2011-MasterClass for MotionBuilder

2011-05-18T23:06:00.000-04:00

Cross-platform Animation Pipeline at Behaviour Interactive Studios

In this MasterClass, we will explain how we did optimize our animation pipeline for the production of Wet2 using Motionbuilder 2011, Maya 2011 and Human IK. We will talk about our production constraints, question marks, bottle necks and how the flexibility and the interoperability of the Autodesk products helped us out. In more details, the MasterClass will demonstrate how Motionbuilder took care of the motion capture data and how easily we transferred the resulting animations to Maya in batch mode, how we did edit and retarget these animations to our in-house Maya rig, using HumanIK features, how we used MEL and Python to speed up and customize our processes, how we were able to transfer the characterization and the retargeting parameters over to our in-house game engine using HumanIK API and much more.

watch now

David Coleman - Creating QT interfaces for Maya and MotionBuilder

This Masterclass will demonstrate the workflow of creating interfaces in QT Designer, and connecting them to functions within Maya and MotionBuilder. The basics of QT Designer will be covered, along with connecting sliders to drive facial blendshapes using the same interface for both Maya and MotionBuilder. Some techniques for procedurally creating QT widgets using PyQt will also be demonstrated.

watch now

free registration required.

Using the FBX Converter tool

2011-05-15T18:33:00.000-04:00

A great update if you have not seen this updated tool, a great update including new viewers and browsers.

Maya 2012 : HIK menus and MEL commands (part 1)

2011-04-14T01:31:00.000-04:00

Maya 2012 : HIK menus and MEL commands (part 1): "

Great post from the MayaStation blog.
Brad

"With Maya 2012 the HIK menus and windows have been revamp. Here are some of the most needed MEL commands to use the tools without going through the UI

The basic thing to know is that you need to set the current character in order to affect it, this is done by:

To set the current character

//in this example I am setting Character 2

$gCurrentCharacter = "Character2";
refreshAllCharacterLists();

Once the character is set, we can use it with these commands

Locking the Character definition
characterizationLock();

Creating a new Characterization
characterizationCreate();

Creating a ControlRig
characterizationControlRigCreate();

Deleting a Control Rig
characterizationControlRigDelete();

Using the skeleton generator
skeletonGeneratorToolNewCharacter;

Setting the source for a HumanIK character
//to control rig
mayaHIKsetRigInput( "Character1" ); updateHIKCharacterToolEnableCheckBox();

//to stance pose
mayaHIKsetStanceInput( "Character2" ); updateHIKCharacterToolEnableCheckBox();

//to set to a character input
mayaHIKsetCharacterInput( "Character1","Character2" ); updateHIKCharacterToolEnableCheckBox();

Choosing a keying mode, i.e. full-body, partial, or selection
//full body
optionVar -intValue keyFullBody 1; setKeyingMode( );

// body parts
optionVar -intValue keyFullBody 2; setKeyingMode( );

//selection
optionVar -intValue keyFullBody 3; setKeyingMode( );

Turning on and off pinning for individual effectors
//Here I am Character1_Ctrl_RightWristEffector as the effector

//unpinned
setAttr "Character1_Ctrl_RightWristEffector.pinning" 0;

//pin Translate
setAttr "Character1_Ctrl_RightWristEffector.pinning" 1;

//pin Rotate
setAttr "Character1_Ctrl_RightWristEffector.pinning" 2;

//pin all
setAttr "Character1_Ctrl_RightWristEffector.pinning" 3;

Baking the retarget to the control rig or skeleton
//Bake to Skeleton without opening the options
hikBakeToSkeleton 0;

//Bake to Skeleton with opening the options
hikBakeToSkeleton 1;

//Bake to Control Rig without opening the options
hikBakeToControlRig 0;

//Bake to Skeleton without opening the options
hikBakeToControlRig 1;

Using the FBX Converter tool

2011-04-14T00:49:00.000-04:00

Using the FBX Converter tool

Not the most energetic video but covers the new updated tools and gives some workflow use ideas.

Personally I use this tool more for up converting older files but the new animation take options are worth looking over.

[Paid] Looking for a character animator - Polycount Forum

2011-03-26T02:35:00.000-04:00

[Paid] Looking for a character animator - Polycount Forum

Just passing this along for him.

Any Mobu Animators out there available?

Know Don’t Tell #AltDevBlogADay

2011-03-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

Know Don’t Tell

Read it and pass it along, very well written about what is right and wrong with how performance capture and the state of animator bashing.

EA MMA created using Maya, MotionBuilder and Human IK

2011-03-02T03:43:00.000-05:00

This is a great example of how HIK middleware and Animation and Motion Edit should be handled. The team did lots of work to get it extended to do what the game needed but it worked.

Notice on the MotionBuilder clip how the two man edits were being done with AUX ctrls and the double solving feature of the control rigs lets this work.

Plus it is nice to see my old art director Peyton Duncan show up, He was great to work for.

This is from EIDOS Montreal, FBX and MotionBuilder are heavily used there, they have a great attitude towards the tools and pipeline.

more info here-

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/shawn/its_gdc_time_again

MotionBuilder 2012 first look

2011-03-01T15:25:00.000-05:00

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012

Check out the new and improved look and features, some really big things in there:)

Area :: Blogs :: 3ds Max and Motion Builder Workflow (and a bit of Kinect)

2011-02-18T23:50:00.000-05:00

Area :: Blogs :: 3ds Max and Motion Builder Workflow (and a bit of Kinect)

RT @Autodesk_ME: Louis Marcoux shows you how to use #3dsMax, #MotionBuilder and the #Kinect for at home motion capture: http://bit.ly/gIQr0w

Yes, I am re-tweeting from twitter as a blog post:)

I am really happy to see this set of videos because it is one of the biggest/most asked/ most troubled issues artists hit when trying to get MotionBuilder working at their studio and for motion capture studios to have to deal with when delving data to a client.

Great work Autodesk!

Additive Animation creation for Motionbuilder � eduardo simioni

2011-01-21T01:19:00.000-05:00

Additive Animation for Motionbuilder Python Script

This is a great script idea and I would imagine not be hard to use/convert the idea to Maya and its animation layers as well.

I know several game teams and myself included that could have used this for either creation or just pre-viz of the additive animation work needed for the game engine.

From the Readme
"This creates an additive animation to be used on real-time engines, where the animation is to be "added" over another playing animation. You shouldn't actually subtract one animation from the other, but a "pose" (on Take02) from the animation on Take01."

Infinite Monkey Engine

2010-12-18T23:09:00.002-05:00

The next gen in realtime animation:)

How to use AUX ctrls for weapon holding.

image by: Zoltan Erdokovy

Mocappys - Motion Capture Made Easy...or easier at least!

2010-11-07T01:41:00.000-04:00

Well, I am not sure it makes it easy but there are some good reads and tutorials on this site for working in MotionBuilder.

I like his

Quick Start Guide to Motion Capture

Stuff like that is good for animators and really the team in general to read when looking to do a capture. So much of the " mocap is the devil" attitude comes from all the poor planing, misunderstanding and overall attitude of "this will save so much time and money..bla bla.." and it does not do either of those things.

And this is a great segue for the contest Rigging Dojo is running this coming week..

Teach to win Novmber contest!
"The best way to truly understand something is to teach it. Do you have something to share, a tip or trick or a great example from your latest work you want to talk about?
We want to see it! You can post the link here on our wall, or tweet it on twitter, including the #rigTip @riggingdojo tags.
The most helpful or interesting example will win a "Personal Rig Review" or a "Half hour live QA" from one of our Mentors,the winner will be announced the following week. Open to all All skill levels.
The contest will run for this week...ending Sat. November 13th.
Good Luck everyone, have fun!"

Web Questions and Answers for Autodesk MotionBuilder

2010-10-26T23:49:00.000-04:00

Between running Rigging Dojo and other things I have been trying to checking in with the questions being posted on various forums for MotionBuilder.

So here is a quick compilation of answers to issues that have been showing up.. hope it helps others as well.

How to limit constraint effect across multiple takes?
There is a setting under the animation/keyframe menu Take options, normal or muliti
select the constraint. set it to 0 first. Then select the constraint only in the navigator and change the take setting form normal to multi take, so that its settings save per take.
How can I rotate my Animation with out having to us story or other hacks?
Use the move keys tool.
First hit the unpin all button, rotate your character to the new direction, but instead of adding an animation layer, just select all the keyframes in the timeline and hit the move keys button. It will update the translation keys based on the rotation allowing you to redirect the character.
How can I update geometry and skeleton in MoBu? (MotionBuilder)
See past blog entry http://motionbuildertraining.blogspo...ting-with.html on updating with out having file referencing like Maya.
How do I retarget prop animation or motion capture data in MotionBuilder?
It just depends on how your trying to retarget the data, Props require a mix of custom rigging and offseting, most of the time I can just do it with basic constraints.
http://the-area.com/tutorials/props_editing (have to log in,free) but it covers the basics, although not one of my best demo scenes:)
MotionBuilder - Batch tool - Char has no reference ,error message?
This is because the skeleton is missing a top node above the root, it can be a null or anything above root. Uncharacterize the "character node" then drop the new null/node in to the reference slot in the character settings and re-characterize.
If I have a set of animation files,Is there an easy way I can characterize these animations without going in each file, and still preserving the file name?
You only need to characterize the skeleton once.. in a Tpose then import all the non characterized animation files on to your characterized skeleton, in to takes all in one file.(each take should have the file name)
Then do an export to one take per file, useing the take name from your file as the exported .FBX file name and that should work.
Takes – Merging key data between takes
The fastest way to do combine or put two animations that live in separate Takes together on one take...simple select the animated object, CTRL C to copy, switch takes and while the object is still selected, CTRL B, This will let you do a paste special and past the animation quickly.
The other option is to select the animated object and then select the range of keyframes to then copy and paste, in the main timeline. This lets you pick only a small portion of keyframe data instead of all of it as CTRL B would do.
Bugs found in MotionBuilder 2011-
Take order after reordering in the navigator is not saving, no fix currently
Macros in Relation Constraint does not correctly save/reopen if the macro is in any other node but the first constraint created. (Fixed in the 2011 advantage pack"
Extrapolation for keyframes , doing loops etc, does not save correctly and reopen-Workaround you have to bake/plot the keys on a layer to make for easy editing/updating with changes.

Hope this helps some people out, and Fan/Like the Rigging Dojo Facebook page for future surprise question and answers live by myself or other RD guys where I will take MotionBuilder questions live and it will be free.

MoBu script: additive animation

2010-10-15T01:06:00.000-04:00

MoBu script: additive animation

If your not following Neills blog, you should be and check out this fantastic script.
There have been many times on game projects I have needed or wanted to do this very thing but had workarounds to do it...now I don't have to.
His site is a gold mine for Mobu and programing, check it out.

Brad

MOBU: Retriving cluster shapes from character face? - Tech Artists Forums

2010-10-13T15:58:00.000-04:00

MOBU: Retriving cluster shapes from character face? - Tech Artists Forums:

One way to do it at least, anyone else know of a way to get at this information?

Check the thread out.

Brad

FBX Converter Service - Mac OSX

2010-10-04T00:44:00.000-04:00

Grab my FBX Converter Service - Polygons, Pixels & Paint

Excellent idea and tool for adding conversion right in the MAC OSX browser.

Check out the rest of Dave Girards blog as there are some nice Maya hacks as well as other goodies.

Brad

The Motionbuilder-friendly BVH Conversion Release of CMU's Motion Capture Database - cgspeed

2010-09-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

The Motionbuilder-friendly BVH Conversion Release of CMU's Motion Capture Database - cgspeed

That is a ton of motion!

LightWave and FBX

2010-09-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

LWandFBX

I know there are still many people working with LightWave,check out a nice video guide with sample file for
working with FBX.

The Area :: Blogs :: What the heck is HIK anyway?

2010-09-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

The Area :: Blogs :: What the heck is HIK anyway?

This should help clear up any confusion over the names and systems that are in MotionBuilder and Maya right now, Great post with lots of good video examples.

Autodesk - Autodesk MotionBuilder Services & Support - Sample Files

2010-07-22T01:49:00.000-04:00

MotionBuilder motion capture samples 2011

A set of moves that are worth having for testing and training reasons.

Mobu Python - Scripts

2010-07-22T01:06:00.000-04:00

MotionBuilder Python - Scripts

I just found this site and wanted to share it, there are some good helpfull MotionBuilder python scripts on there

createCharacterExtensionFromSelection.py
and
createMirrorExtension.py

both could come in very handy when doing MotionBuilder rigging.

Mixamo: Workflows_maya_fbik

2010-07-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

Mixamo: Workflows_maya_fbik

The Mixamo guys have posted a nice tutorial on their site that covers how to use the FBIK rig and get motions on to it in order to edit in Maya.
You can also login and get free motions to test with, their site is a great concept and is really a great resource for game developers and others that don't have a full motioncapture team.

Introducing PyMoBu 0.1- Scott Englert

2010-06-16T00:40:00.000-04:00

CGTalk - Introducing PyMoBu 0.1

Excelent news for the Mobu and python users out there. I have not had a chance to try this out but I hope it can get support as any effort like this.

Here is the quote from the article
"

Hello fellow MotionBuilder users!

I have been working on a project for a little while and I wanted to share it with the MotionBuilder community for contribution and feedback.

The name of the project is PyMoBu. It is a python enhancement for MotionBuilder. It is essentially a Python wrapper for a few areas in MotionBuilder at the moment. Using this Python module allows you to have many new features and functions that work with FB components. For example you now have a much more user friendly way to list properties with different options, individual constraint classes with personalized methods, listing objects based on a variety of parameters, a complete vector and matrix math method additions and much more!

Information and demo videos can be found on the PyMoBu google code project page located here:
http://code.google.com/p/pymobu/

There is a link to documentation off that page as well as included in the download zip file. Instructions are also in the zip file but basically it is like any other python module, you simple put in in the Python PATH that MotionBuilder can find and import it in.

Currently I have only tested this in MotionBuilder 2010. It will NOT work in previous versions unfortunately. I haven’t tested yet in 2011. So please let me know if you get an error and put in an issue report on the google page so I can keep track of the bugs.

A few bugs may still exist so this is mostly a testing and proof of concept stage that I hope will inspire some good ideas and additions as more areas are added. This is only the beginning and has a lot of room to grow.

Please leave any questions or comments here. I appreciate any feedback and ideas. If you would like to contribute your code, we can talk about becoming a member of the project as I would like to have the community help out and keep this project growing.

Thank you for taking a look and I hope that it will benefit the community in some way.
Scott Englert

__________________
http://www.scottenglert.com <- personal website

"

EBook Now Avaible

2010-05-24T15:52:00.003-04:00

This is an updated tutorial book with over 100 pages of information, tips, tricks, step by step tutorials and screenshot breakouts from the videos. Now only $13.64.

Required Software	Adobe Digital Editions, Adobe Acrobat, Apple Preview, Stanza
Supported Devices	Windows PC/PocketPC, Mac OS, Linux OS, Apple iPhone/iPod Touch... (see all)
# of Devices	Unlimited
Flowing Text/ Pages	Pages

Click to Buy Now

Note: if you all ready own the edvd of the class you all ready have the ebook version.

Fast animation retargetting using python and MoBu scripting

2010-05-11T23:35:00.000-04:00

here to peek ?: Fast animation retargetting using python and MoBu scripting

A great post to check out when wanting to automate your motion conversion pipeline.

Also, worth checking out would be the MotionBuilder 2011 Batch convert rewrite, what used to be a closed plugin is now a python script that can be edited and customized per studio.

New FBX Quicktime Plug-in

2010-05-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

New FBX Quicktime Plug-in

Always handy to have, looks like they took the time needed to make it usable.

This was always great to have for asset viewers or art review when you were on a computer with out MotionBuilder.
Very happy to see it improved.

Tutorials: Physics Ragdoll with joints and Python tool

2010-05-02T23:55:00.006-04:00

KXL has done it once again, this time a fantastic video and script you can find here: Physics video - Ragdoll with joints AND Python speedup

He included a new python script for MotionBuilder and his video covers, Tails simulation, characters on a ropes,hair and python for physics ( a new tool that puts all the needed settings for simulation in Motionbuilder in once location!!!! YES, so needed.)

For all the people having trouble with the new 2010 and 2011 Joint tools in Autodesk Motionbuilder the new python script and video will be a huge help.

to see more examples you can check out my previous post on his other great videos

Tutorials : MotionBuilder Physics

Autodesk: MotionBuilder 2011

2010-03-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

Thanks for letting me contribute to this release Autodesk. The unified FBX format workflow and updated layers among the many updates are really great and for all the people
that have been pushing for faster story, it is finally here. Also rocking out the new materiel and texture workflow, check out the multi-sub object support from Max now, this has been asked for and needed since
I started working in filmbox and MotionBuilder!

The Area :: Autodesk: MotionBuilder: 2011

What's New in MotionBuilder 2011

Autodesk^® MotionBuilder^® 2011 3D character animation software includes the following new and enhanced features:

NVIDIA^® PhysX^® plug-in enables better creation of rag-doll simulations.
Improved animation layers match the behavior of those in Maya 2009 and higher, and offer better interoperability.
Skinned characters play back faster by using the computing power of the GPU.
Updated native Autodesk^® FBX^® 2011 format support helps eliminate extra translation steps.
Expanded Mocap samples provide access to data for various human body types and motion to help bring characters to life.

Podcast: Avatar with Richard Baneham! � Speaking of Animation

2010-03-09T01:56:00.000-05:00

Podcast: Avatar with Richard Baneham! � Speaking of Animation

Animators, MotionEditors and all cg students should listen to this.

I am officially declaring mocap vs. keyframe bullshit argument dead and buried.
Any time some one brings that long dead argument up again (oh they will still try) just please send them this link and force them to
listen to it.

Amazing interview with Richard and I am happy to say he is not the only one that gets IT, there are really great animators at ILM and WETA and many others
that do what it takes to move the audience with the best tools they can use. Pixar and Dreamworks prove there is still need and room for incredible traditional animation so no, I am not saying that performance capture is right for everyone but it has its place. Yet I still hear over and over the arguments still (it's not 2001 any more) but they are time traps, energy sucks and huge wastes of life for any creative person who is trying to connect with the audience.

Congrats to every one that worked on breaking new ground and moving the industry forward on AVATAR.

Autodesk FBX - What’s New- Many people have wanted to have a smoothed model in MotionBuilder

2010-02-27T00:12:00.001-05:00

****update: http://area.autodesk.com/fbx2011 check out what is coming up for 2011.

Autodesk - Autodesk FBX - What’s New: "Support for Maya Smooth Meshes

FBX 2010.2 now supports base mesh and subdivision level information for the Maya Smooth Mesh Preview capability."

There are other updates and enhancements but I thought people would like to know this.

Tutorials : MotionBuilder Physics

2010-02-15T02:15:00.003-05:00

People looking for physics tutorials in MotionBuilder read this post:)

First you can read over my post here on a hack way to pin a ragdoll for older versions of MotionBuilder.
It is one of this blogs top links but there are much better ways to do these things now.

Also if you register for http://area.autodesk.com (free) you will be able to
log-in and watch my web masterclass on MotionBuilder physics

->MotionBuilder Physics: Ragdoll Tricks for Production <- to go to my original post here on the blog to find the link to the video and more information. Now thanks to the amazing "KXL" (he not only programed the physics tools for MotionBuilder he is doing free video tutorials, can't get better than that). You can log in to Autodesk Area and go to this thread Next Physics video poll where you will find the links to below videos covering
the following topics for MotionBuilder and vote for what you want to see next.
(he does this on spare time so thank him! and don't complain there is no audio)

Physics videos for MotionBuilder:

- Solver basics
- Rigid bodies basics
- Joints
- Setting up ragdoll
- Rider setup (part 2 for Joints)
- Little about Animation Mixing
- Animation Mixing

They are all full of fantastic tricks and tips for all kinds of really cool stuff like setting up a car to adjusting the settings to get great playback and correct solving.

Hope you all find this helpful!

:)

LINK: Personal Gaming: Uncharted 2 Motion Capture

2010-02-12T14:45:00.001-05:00

"behind the scenes of Uncharted 2: Motion Capture"

The videos talk about the actors mindset and physical issues when doing a capture session.
A must watch for any one that is involved with performance motion capture.

It is really great to see more and more footage like this and the videos from Avatar. I hope it helps educate
people on how much hard work and effort goes in to doing a capture session well and for the right reasons and
that you still need animators and artists to take that data and make it work on the final 3d character.

It is no magic pill that replaces animators, it is the same amount of work just shifted around in time and actually puts more
pressure at the start of production than animation where the pressure is more weighted near the end. Producers and scheduling need
to take that in to account when deciding on useing performance capture or not.

LINK: http://personalgaming.blogspot.com/2009/10/uncharted-2-mo-cap.html

LINK: Autodesk Softimage - MotionBuilder Pipeline Tutorial

2010-01-07T00:38:00.000-05:00

Ricardo Tobon over at MocapClub.com has a new tutorial up Softimage - MotionBuilder Pipeline Tutorial.

Should help anyone working with data flow between Softimage and MotionBuilder and any character TD/Rigger that has to build an exportable, motion capture ready skeleton
in Autodesk Softimage XSI.

Also if you have not read his interview with the the guys from Naugty Dog on the motion capture process used for Uncharted , make sure to check it out in the new interview section.
I love seeing an active community and Ricardo is doing a great job.

Brad

TIP: Path animation for characters in MotionBuilder

2010-01-03T00:25:00.005-05:00

For some one that wants or needs to have a character walking follow along a path in MotionBuilder as my friend Kiel Figgins shows in Maya http://www.3dfiggins.com/tuts/MoPath/.

There are a few times where this could be very helpful for background characters or when trying to deal with uneven ground and should give you an idea on how to approach controlling the character with a story clip and cycle. Make sure to read over Kiels tutorial to understand the details.

*note the video has no audio, showing proof of concept and the relation constraint settings at the end.

LINK:Video.swf of the Path Animation examle

In the video is an example of hooking up an FK skeleton on to a path and having it follow along a curved path.

Download : Sample File for MotionBuilder

If the Path and Story are giving you trouble or you find you don't need a complex solution, here are a few other ideas and tricks on how to control motion direction over and around surfaces.

1. Chop the cycled clip in to chunks and rotate each chunk and blend between them so the character walks around the corners, each clip controlling over all direction and Blend.

For a cleaner edit Animate a Turn/lean move, make one clip, mirror the motion, make another clip and use that to blend between the walk cycle clips much like a game would.

2. Bring it out of story in to the take. First cycle the clip and then bake it to the fk skeleton in the current take. Then you could constrain just the forward direction of the hips to the path

You could also plot/bake it to a control rig, cycle the character in place (button on the character controls) and plot/bake, now you have a FK skeleton walking in place that you can map to a path node .You can also use the time warp in Fcurve to help adjust speed of the walk along the path based on stride length.
Leaving it on the control rig (if you want to use IK you will have to make a custom hiearchy with the control rig (shown in the DVD) and adjust reach settings to allow for the rig to follow the path. Doing this you might be able to use the foot L and R floor objects and animate them along a path or just key them so that the ankles and feet match the angle of ground the character is walking up.

3. Like example 2, plot to the scene, on the control rig or fk skeleton , with out the path and use the “move keys” tool and regular manipulation of the character to rotate the animation in the direction you want, select the key frames from the turn forward and hit. “move keys” you can do this for each turn. If you do this on the control rig you can adjust the feet ctrls easier to help with the turn transitions.

All that said creating or capturing the correct move list you need is the best solution, while not always possible.

Shortcuts always look like shortcuts, to many of the same walk cycle, to much walk down spline, turning with out taking the “turn” in to account in the motion, auto walks, etc.. all just end up when left as is, producing “computer movement’, so be aware of it and you will be fine:)

Brad

UPDATE: Class on CD and new Preview

2009-12-15T02:05:00.004-05:00

First things, for people on a slow connection or that don't have a cd burner you can order a physical CD with our course on it. ( I also added direct link url files to this blog and the errata doc)

You can get it here:
"The Character Aimator Toolkit for MotionBuilder on CD"

And we updated the class preview video, the compression is soooo heavy but it is a much better and longer preview for people that have not purchased it yet.

preview video from the DVD

Thank you.

Class Excerpt: Skinning Updating with out file reference ability

2009-11-15T17:14:00.005-05:00

I have seen this question pop up a few times now and figured I would share this from our eDVD.

Currently Autodesk MotionBuilder does not have true file referencing ability and this would normally cause lots of problems when it comes time to update a rig file or lots of animation files. The lucky thing is that MotionBuilder has a very robust and configurable import and export system that allows us to create new files very quickly or update old ones.

Skin Update and or Blendshape update:

First open the file you want to update then

Go to File >Merge and pick the new updated file that has been fixed in some way, skin weights or joint alignments for example.
We will set the options for the merge
- Right click on Element and set it to Discard All
- Click on the square next to Models until it shows a circle of arrows
Models are now set to merge meaning that MotionBuilder is not adding any thing to the file just replacing the matching object it finds in the scene with what your loading in. Iin this case the skeleton/mesh/weights etc. anything that is considered a model)
When it is done you should have the updated character, still characterized and with any motion edits etc you have done in the file playing back correctly.
Note that there is a bug where this operation removes the objects from any groups they are in and they will have to be added back in after the update.

There are other work flows to create updated files but this is a fast and clean solution that I have used a lot. This also works with more complex changes like skeleton adjustments , LRA, rotation order, position, etc done in Max or Maya but be aware that you would want to re-characterize and rebuild the control rig after doing an update where joints change so that the rig updates itself. This is still faster than having to start the file over from scratch.

News: MotionBuilder Mentoring coming soon from Rigging Dojo

2009-10-31T01:46:00.006-04:00

Hi every one, just a quick bit of advertising a few friends and I have started a new online mentoring/training school for artists looking to expand their technical skill set like rigging characters and scripting python etc... and because the demand for training and education is so hi we are offering MotionBuilder mentoring also.

There is a lot of information up on the website all ready that you can check out but I wanted to note that it is not just a eDVD video system , it is a customized mentor led class based on your needs and educational goals all online.

http://www.riggingdojo.com/

From the main site you can find us on Facebook and Twitter and check things out.
I am really excited to get this started and help students, professionals and even studio teams learn how to get the most out of the software.

Chad and I will be focusing a huge amount of time on the school of course but still support our masterclass and the people that purchased it (thank you) and post cool MotionBuilder stuff here when it is of value.

Thank you for reading this, check out the new school and contact us if your interested in classes.

LINK: Area Blog post :: Maya <-> MotionBuilder workflow demo (part2)

2009-09-08T15:57:00.003-04:00

The Area :Blogs : Maya; MotionBuilder workflow demo (part2)

Steven Roselle has posted the second part of useing Maya with MotionBuilder.
Thanks for the MotionBuilder love.

* I ,Brad, have been buried under a bit of work including lots of time contributing to the next possible future releases of certain software, or in Alpha test land. I hope people are still getting value and use out of the Toolkit DVD.

Also in other news- Digital-Tutors has MotionBuilder Training available as part of the subscription service, great if your all ready signed up. It is currently basic looking stuff that is good to build upon but there are still free resources available from Autodesk on the Area that cover most of the basics and plenty of advanced topics (that I have created and linked to here on the site). Either one, I am glad to see more traning available for MotionBuilder

TIP: Selecting objects in MotionBuilder

2009-09-08T15:13:00.001-04:00

Some times the hotkeys and options are not very clear.
There are some great selection tool in MotionBuilder and I wanted to quickly mention them.

This group select trick I use in the Master Class for making selection handle objects in the view port.

"In the Viewer window, G-click an object belonging to the group you want to select.
To select multiple groups:
Press Ctrl-G and select multiple groups.
If an object is part of more than one group, all groups to which the object is connected are selected." (form MB help)

For selecting objects in the main Viewer window- selection tools..useing mobu hotkeys

Ctrl -right click child object, selects only very top root object
Spacebar-right click object pick it and children (Maya select hiearchy tool)
Ctrl-shift- right click on any obj in hiearchy picks entire tree, up and down.

Should help make your selections much faster to work with in MotionBuilder.

LINK: Cartoon Rigging in Motionbuilder

2009-09-03T16:59:00.000-04:00

Setup ave_cartoon on Vimeo

I don't know this person but the rigging on the bird is great and he has some other MotionBuilder tutorials.

Really nice to see some non-mocap work being done with Mobu.

Tip: Constrained Ragdoll in Motionbuilder 2009

2009-08-22T23:06:00.001-04:00

***Update***
In MotoinBuilder 2010 you can now use real dynamic joints and also animate the state of the ragdoll solver on and off to allow you to setup this kind of grab,drag,throw action without this hack.
***end Update***

Just a quick note, if you are new to Motionbuilder 2009 (Mobu), they added a basic Ragdoll solver and some new realtime physics tools that you can put to use If you have not used the new tools, the helpfiles do a good job of going over how to setup and use the new solver. Also a quick plug I am working on another video tutorial for http://area.autodesk.com/ that will cover more MotionBuilder physics tircks and ideas on how to use them for production. ***find the post on that tutorial here motionbuilder-physics-ragdoll-tricks ***

I wanted to post this here after seeing this question. over at cgtalk.

What you want it to follow must be animated all ready
Constrain the Ragdoll node (hand for example )to the animated object ( I used a position constraint )
Turn on Record ( turn off live in the physics solver)
Select the ragdoll object before you hit playback
Click play and you will have your ragdoll following the animated object it is constrained to.
If you want it to let go of the constrained object while playing back.. just double click in the scene to deselect the ragdoll obj. and it will let go of the constraint and do a full solve.. like being thrown by another chracter or dropped from a plane or thrown from a car.

While not yet as powerfull or "smart" as something like the Natural Motion products, there is something to be said for having a system like this built in to MotionBuilder where the artist is all ready working with the eidting tools and NLA animation tools.
Brad

TIP:FBX layers and Maya 2010 more reason to check it out

2009-08-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

from http://mayastation.typepad.com/maya-station/2009/08/fixes-in-maya-2010.html

Import layers from MotionBuilder
The FBX plug-in included with Maya now supports the import of
MotionBuilder animation layers into Maya. However, note that the FBX plug-in
does not support the export of Maya animation layers into MotionBuilder.
For more information on the FBX plug-in for Maya and to check for the latest
releases of the FBX plug-ins go to http://www.autodesk.com/fbx.

This is great news for any one wanting to finally be able to work in MotionBuilder and final in Maya but still use the FBIK rig. There were hacks for working around this
and it was possible to do before this release but native support is always great.

Tips on Layers in Maya-

Maya layers are a mix of the "story" tool tracks in MotionBuilder along with the layer animation functions of layers in MotionBuilder.
What this means is that while you can bring in one "take' with layer animation in it now your still stuck to one take.

Hack (thanks Manu): Load animation from MotionBuilder Takes on to Maya Override Layers. These act as the animation instead of an offset allowing you to store
many "takes"(timelines or separate maya scene animations are ways to think about it.) all in one Maya file.

You can do this during your regular workflow for other game animations or to work with a custom pose bank and leave it in the file as you animate and export it between
files. All great things you can do with the Override layers in Maya.

I am really pleased that the flow between the Software is getting better, now if only Biped was as smooth.

Tip : Contextual Help In Python Editor for MotionBuilder 2010

2009-08-18T15:12:00.000-04:00

The Area :: Tip :: Contextual Help In Python Editor for MotionBuilder 2010

Just wanted to link to this tip because this feature was a huge help to me when I was learning Mel and Max script and when I started trying python in
MotionBuilder I was really slowed down and having trouble with getting info on what functions were doing. This should help speed that up quite a bit.

"There is one nifty feature in MotionBuilder 2010 that should ease some of the complaint about Mobu documentaion: contextual help printed in console accessible with a shorcut! If you press F1 (or if you use the contextual help button Python Editor Toolbar) while there is text selected in a Python editor or while there is text on the interactive console you get documentation about this text. This feature is similar to Maya.cmds.help (but it’s available from a shortcut). You can find more information about this feature in MB 2010 help in the Python Editor Enhancement section."

more at the link.

2010 is going to be a great release.

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010

2009-08-04T01:41:00.004-04:00

Well Autodesk has released a bit of stuff on the new MotionBuilder 2010.

Here is a nice set of vids on their youtube channel dealing with the very nice new
physics and ragdoll features . New Ragdoll feature videos

Also if you missed it, Maya has now gone to just one version and they have a bundle with MotionBuilder called the 'Autodesk Real-Time Animation Suite 2010

Cory Mogk posted more info on his blog , it is a short list but it gives you a quick overview of whats new.
"

MotionBuilder 2010 offers:

Finger controls for Actor
SDK access to Actor
Custom Keying Groups
Pose Controls for Objects
Enhanced support for 3ds Max Biped and Softimage Character templates
Performance Updates
More options for Joints in Physics simulations"

Once it is released look to this blog for a few new posts and tricks as well as news on future training options. I am still under NDA so I will only be posting links and info released from Autodesk at the moment.

Also if your on Twitter you can look for MotionBuilder posts under #MB or #motionbuilder and more general news at #autodesk

FBX download and Biped enhancements

2009-07-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

The Area :: Blogs :: Announcement: FBX download and Biped enhancements

I just noticed this off the Autodesk site, large update for FBX and I wanted to pass it along here.

FBX enables the acquisition and exchange of 3D assets and media from a variety of sources more quickly and easily. This means you can interchange major NURBS and polygon surface types, plus Maya subdivision surfaces, keyframe and mocap animation, shapes and morph targets, materials and textures, lights, cameras, hierarchical information, and character animation data: inverse kinematics (IK), envelopes, and deformations. We expect the list of data supported to grow with each new release.
Bug fixes for 3ds Max:
- New warning messages have been added to the import/export warning managers
- NURBS model with Morph targets not exported
- Materials/Textures and Geometry replaced on merge
- Link Inheritance" ignored on export
- NURMS Subdivision iterations ignored on export
- NURBS deformation lost on re-export
- Slow Import/Update Scene Elements on Biped
- Incorrect interpolation of RGB data
- Inverted normals on imported NURBS objects
- Incorrect interpolation of custom tangent types
- Incorrect resampling of "Slow" and "Fast" tangent types
- Linear tangent type resampled as Custom tangent type on import
- Import crash while in DirectX - mode
- Crash on processing animation with no animation in scene
- Integer" custom attribute values do not import properly
- - Max camera targets lose connections on export
- New UI option: Re-evaluate Normals
- Free Handle" toggle ignored on export; causes incorrect interpolations
- Skin exports incorrectly when scaled
- FBX UI missing options after export to COLLADA
- Exporting polygons without volume causes - Max to freeze
- Improved Photometric light interoperability
- Keys created at every frame for certain imported lights
- ASCII uses OS regional file settings for FBX file creation
- If lights or shadows are OFF, light parameters are lost
- New scripting option: Name Take with scene name on export
- Animation data not read on files over network
- New UI/scripting option: Toggle log files creation on export
- Smoothing Groups are generated with Autodesk Architectural Preset
- COLLADA: Importing .dae files takes - minutes or longer
- COLLADA: Skinned objects change position on import
- COLLADA: Crash while importing on AMD Opteron - bit
- Unable to import trimmed NURBS
- New FBX branding (logo)
- Re-evaluate Smoothing Groups option not functioning correctly
- FBX User Interface changes
- MotionBuilder FBX files that contain characters not importing animation
- FBX201000 must be the default version in the exporter
- Rename "Name Take with Max Scene Name" to "Use scene name" in Exporter UI
- Add Tangents and Binormal export/import option
- Presets saved in C:My Documents- FBXPresets
- Log files saved in C:My Documents- FBXLogs
- Localization of dropdown menus in UI
3.3 Potential instability importing very large scenes
***Improved in 3ds Max 2010***
A number of enhancements have been made concerning the importing of large FBX files
to 3ds Max. However, certain Revit-exported FBX files with a very large amount of
metadata (Revit object information) may still cause instability during the FBX
import process. As this has been identified as a 3ds Max defect, it has been
addressed in 3ds Max 2010. For now, when you import files with large
amounts of metadata into 3ds Max, ensure that the System units of both the FBX file
and host program match (Revit Imperial setting = 3ds Max System Units set to Feet).
This avoids the unnecessary lengthy conversion of units and may prevent 3ds Max
from becoming unstable during the import process.
3.4 Explicit versus implicit normals
A known limitation occurs when an FBX file contains Smoothing group data and
that file is imported into 3ds Max with Import Smoothing groups option activated.
If any objects in the FBX file contain explicit normal modifications
(for instance, you modify the normal directions, but the object also has smoothing
group information), the FBX importer imports only the smoothing group
data and ignore the normal modifications. This has been the behavior of
the plug-ins for the last few releases. In this current release, a new option
has been added to workaround this limitation when you activate it.
MAXScript Commands:
FBXImporterSetParam "ForceNormal" true|false
FBXImporterGetParam "ForceNormal"
Setting this command to true forces the 3ds Max FBX importer to ignore
smoothing groups data and import explicit normals data.
Warning: Forcing the import of explicit normals makes it impossible for the
user to make smoothing group modifications after import; Explicit normals
always dominate.
This issue will be documented in the next 3ds Max FBX User Documentation release.

Biped merge-back workflow enhancements (as told to us by Trevor)

3ds Max 2010 and 3ds Max Design 2010 have been provided with enhancements to the Biped Merge-Back workflow.
What is the Biped Merge-Back workflow?
3ds Max users can use the installed FBX plug-ins to export their Biped data to the FBX file format, to then import into Autodesk MotionBuilder. Users can then animate their Bipeds with MotionBuilder tools. Once the animation is completed and plotted (re-sampled) onto the skeleton of the character, the scene can be saved once again as an FBX file. It can then be merged back onto the original Biped character in 3ds Max, using the FBX importerâs âUpdate scene elementsâ feature, to copy MotionBuilder animation data from an FBX file onto a Biped character.
Performance Enhancements
Previously, this merge-back operation could be quite time-consuming. A lot of effort has gone into the 2010 release of 3ds Max to improve the speed of this operation. Weâre proud of the results. Take a look at the following few examples to get an idea about how much faster this merge-back operation is:
Case 1:
3ds Max 2009 FBX Import: 55 seconds vs. 3ds Max 2010 FBX Import: 2 seconds
Case 2:
3ds Max 2009 FBX Import: 40 seconds vs. 3ds Max 2010 FBX Import: 1 second
Case 3:
3ds Max 2009 FBX Import: 4 HOURS vs. 3ds Max 2010 FBX Import: 18 SECONDS
Overall, the biped merge-back workflow is now many, many times faster.
Precision enhancements
In previous releases of 3ds Max, when users would merge MotionBuilder animation onto 3ds Max Bipeds, several precision issues would take place at the knee and elbow joints. For instance, on a few select frames, elbow and knee joints would pop out of place only to pop back into place a few frames later. This resulted in animation that would evidently not be 100% identical between the two programs, and in some cases, render the workflow as impractical. The 3ds Max 2010 development team has fixed this problem. Now, plotted animation in MotionBuilder, saved as FBX and imported onto 3ds Max Bipeds, are 1:1 identical.
Trevor Adams
Autodesk FBX Technologies Group

Tip: Custom Properties in Motionbuilder

2009-07-17T00:45:00.006-04:00

There are actually going to be a few tips for MotionBuilder based on this thread over at the Area. Custom properties are very powerful in MotionBuilder and here are some tips on working with them.

Problem: (Custom Properties range)When useing the MotionBuilder Character face the sliders that are created only go from 0 to 100.

Fix: The Face expressions that get created are just custom properties and can be edited with the property editor (properties window->customize->custom properties). Here you can set them to be -100 to 100 or what ever value you want.
Fix: Instead of editing the existing custom attributes (custom properties) it would be best to add your own on to an animation control where you can blend the expressions so one slider controls the opposite shape. You can also drive them with viewport based controls like Jason Osipa shows in his "Stop Staring" book useing relations constraints and control objects.

Problem: (Custom Properties Organization) While you can create custom views for objects to selectively show some properties and not others, this does not work when your trying to filter a list of custom properties. For example 100 face shape sliders would all be one long list, yuck!

Fix: Here is a quick how-to video. (make sure you make the folder under the “character face” as I did in the video or they will not show up. The basic idea is you create a custom view for the properties and then you can add folders to the main category for the properties and then move them in to each new folder to clean up the long list.
Click to watch: Folders in custom views for MotionBuilder Custom Properties video

Problem: (Custom Properties story and posing) If you have created a lot of custom rigging or useing the MotionBuilder Character Face tool you need a good way to both store them as poses and be able to have their animation load in to the Story tool to do blending, cycles, etc.

Fix: Character Extensions allow both of those issues to be fixed. In the case of the Character Face tool, you can drag its auto created expression sliders on to the Character Extension those attributes will now work in story with the main character track.
Fix: Extensions also work with the pose tool allowing the pose tool to store poses for any other objects or properties(attributes) that the character tool needs to work with.

Thanks to Keo Heng SCEA Bend Studio for asking the questions, glad to help.

*Solutions like this are covered in our Masterclass. When you find you need more detail or a deeper understanding of how to work with MotionBuilder check out the class DVD and 100+ pages of step by step tutorials and videos.

MotionBuilder Physics: Ragdoll Tricks for Production : now up on the Area

2009-05-11T01:45:00.004-04:00

MotionBuilder Physics: Ragdoll Tricks for Production

Well it took a little while to get up but thanks to the hard working folks at Autodesk that had to edit/compress and publish this latest tutorial ( MotionBuilder Physics: Ragdoll Tricks for Production) you can now go and
watch how to creatively use the physics solver in your animation. This will take you from start to end in creating a mixed final motion blending both motion capture and simulation.
It does not go step by step over all the physics options but it shows you a fast and effective way to start useing the new solver tools in MotionBuilder 2009.
I hope you find some use out of it, I had a good deal of fun making this video, simulation can sure be fun when it is realtime.If you like these tutorials and find them useful then drop note on the comments here on the blog or at the Autodesk website.

This will be the last free tutorial going up from me at the moment but keep checking back here on the blog for tips/links and tricks as well as some other "free samples" from
the DVD class.

p.s. the other post on this blog about physics is this tip: Constrained Ragdoll in Motionbuilder 2009

Area : Tutorial (not mine but a good starting place for mobu start)

2009-04-22T14:36:00.001-04:00

Area : Tutorial MotionBuilder Feature Overview

This is a set of overview tutorials from Autodesk at The Area website ,that are very quick and should get any one needing to eval Mobu up and running.
It covers some core parts of the software, go watch them.. watch mine , buy our DVD and start bending motion to your will.

TIP: DVD foot rig mirror issue

2009-04-20T00:00:00.001-04:00

**Update**
There are two things: a bug that has been logged with Autodesk and a rig change.
There is small change to the rig that will help with a problem during mirroring where the character feet rig extensions don't mirror around the correct location.

Fix: Remove the character extension reference object to allow mirroring to work on the rig.

Currently the pose paste matching seems to not understand what to do with that information. If we remove the reference object, then pasting seems to work correctly again. This runs against what the docs say should work for the mirroring of extensions.

Bug: If you have an extension selected and try to paste with matching T or R turned on, it does not work. You must select part of the original ctrl rig or turn it off completely for the paste to work

Errata update:
Errata Doc linked on the side of this blog updates the step in the tutorial to fix it until there is a fix for the software from Autodesk.

__________________
orig post
__________________

It seems that some times the rig will not mirror the pose correctly unless you turn off the control rig and then re-plot to it. This seems to update the system and let the character extensions refresh and mirroring works from then on. Anyway I hope this helps anyone that comes across this issue. As MotionBuilder updates and changes I am sure there will be some things that break or need to be redone. If you notice something let us know.

LINK: How Motion Capture works

2009-04-03T01:06:00.003-04:00

http://fie.us/blog/mocap_series/

Any one wanting to know more about the actual optical stage of motion capture and also a better understanding of what it takes to get good data out head over to that link.

LINK: Handle pivot point script

2009-03-22T13:57:00.000-04:00

Programming and animation � Blog Archive � Handle pivot point script

Just wanted to share this link, it is a handy handle script to make setting up the pivot points faster for handles.
Glad to see a growing number of user tools coming out for MotionBuilder.
Brad

Programming and animation � Blog Archive � UI Builder for MotionBuilder

2009-02-23T20:49:00.000-05:00

Programming and animation � Blog Archive � UI Builder for MotionBuilder

I have not tried this out yet but I wanted to spread the word and help support efforts like this.
Once I have time to check it out I am going to do so.. if any one else finds it useful, leave a comment and let me know.

Brad

Editing multiple Characters tutorial: Up on Autodesk Area webiste

2009-02-22T15:37:00.001-05:00

Area : Editing Characters in MotionBuilder

My 3rd tutorial is up now, this one comes in at 45 min. almost a masterclass worth of content. Autodesk broke it up in to chunks thankfully so you
can watch it in short spurts. Working with Two or more Characters is important to understand when working with Motion Capture because there are many situations
where you have both characters interacting with each other and dealing with that relationship between the characters can be very difficult; I hope this
video helps out with that and also gives you inspiration on how to use Motionbuilder to its full potential.

-Brad Clark

excerpt from the video site:

"This video tutorial highlights the workflow of cleaning up and finessing a two character fighting sequence in MotionBuilder. It covers topics including:

• Character Tool interactions
• Control Rig Double Solving and Rig Alignment
• FCurve Layers
• Keyframe manipulation
• Pose Controls including Creation and practical usage of Poses
• Handle setup for multiple objects

It examines the workflow of how to maintain the relationship between the two characters in the scene."

Prop retargeting tutorial: Up on Autodesk Area webiste

2009-01-14T18:03:00.004-05:00

The second MotionBuilder 2009 tutorial is up on The AREA, this one covers prop editing and retargeting.

The Area Tutorial: Props Editing and Retargeting

Brad

Tip: Synced Zooming

2009-01-14T01:46:00.005-05:00

I am not sure how often this will be handy but I don't think it is known to very many people.
It is handy some times to be able to zoom or pan all the views you have open at the same time.

Watch the video and you can see that clicking and useing the view hotkeys like shift and ctrl on the view pane split will let you do this.

Story Loop tutorial: Up on Autodesk Area webiste

2008-12-01T16:54:00.008-05:00

A gift for 3December

The Area Tutorial: Looping and editing with the Story tool

The first tutorial for Autodesk is up on the website The AREA, it covers how to use the story tool to take a motion capture segment, trim it, align it to go in a strait line, blend it between clips and finally do a offset pose blend to create a seamless loop that can be used for a game or in other parts of story.

The scene files are included for download so you can take a look around.. This is done in MotionBuilder 2009. (There is a free trial of it out now for download)

Feedback is very welcome. leave it here or on the Autodesk site.

Brad

"Macromedia Projector has encountered an error and has to be closed. ...".

2008-11-18T22:04:00.000-05:00

Several of our customers have reported an issue with the eDvd stemming from the Macromedia Projector.

"Macromedia Projector has encountered an error and has to be closed. ...".

The projector simply loads the quicktime movie located here ...

The Character Animator Toolkit\Character_Animator_Toolkit\Application_Data\content_folder\Character_Animator.mov

If you see the error you can open that quicktime movie directly.

Hope this helps, and thanks very much for supporting the training material!
Chad

Tip: Cycle with Offsets

2008-10-30T01:19:00.002-04:00

This question has come up a few times how do I "cycle with Offsets" in MotionBuilder like I can in Maya.

The short answer is you can't in the fcurve window, you can in the story tool if your clip is readonly and you cycle the clip...it will offset its self.

The Fcurve Hack: Do it by hand

Use layers.. copy the forward translation keys,
go to the end of the first cycle, the last key and paste on to a new layer, ignore the warning!
In the fcurve window select the keys again and in the lower left..text box for the selected keys, type in 0- to move the pasted keys to start at a value 0 on the last frame of the cycle.
For more offset cycles add another layer and repeat for your cycle.. the point is each layer will add to the existing one, so each pasted set of keys, you will offset in time your self and move the keys to start at 0 value on the time line at that point so that the layer does not effect the animation up to that time.

Here is hoping that they either make it part of the extrapolate options in the next version or make it so a clip does not have to be saved and read only for it to cycle.

Class Excerpt: Understanding the Reach settings and chracter contorls (or why my fcurves don't update the rig in the viewport)

2008-10-08T00:16:00.003-04:00

For artists useing Motionbuilder, understanding how the character controls work and how they effect the resulting animation is essential. Yet it is one of the most confusing areas to deal with when working with the Full body IK chracter rig in Motionbuilder (and also in Maya)

I see it as one of the most asked questions on the forums and so I wanted to post a few pages from our class PDF document. The PDF file explains what the pinning contorls do and how to use them and the reach contorls on the rig and what effect they have on the final animaton.

DOWNLOAD: CharacterControls Explained

This pairs well with the link in this post The Mocaptionator’s Handbook V1.0 and other tutorials
to the Mocap Club exampled guide to the character control rig .

:Public service anouncment: Torrent copy of the class

2008-08-26T16:02:00.010-04:00

Well, some one finally took our class and put it up for free:( I hope that if you have the "preview" copy for free and find it useful or like the content that you would be kind enough to at the very least stop by the lulu site and leave a comment /review of it.
That way we can have the feedback or maybe you might pay for the download that you got somewhere else, because the LULU site was to slow of a download for you:)

I am both amazed that it is something people want enough to pirate and sad that because it has been stolen that it will be harder to offer support to those who email us questions with out some proof of payment.

Just so you know how it works and where your money goes, when some one buys a copy of the class, Chad and I wrote the class together so we both get a split of the sale after LULU.com takes there % for hosting the site and doing the transactions. Then we still get taxed on the income as it is, so really in the end 40$ is not much for a class of this kind with the amount of content that it includes. We have Sold about 60 classes in the months that the lulu site went live and , in just two days of the class being up on the bit torrent site, there were several hundred downloads, goo d times. ***Update- so far from the torrent download count, we have had almost 2000 downloads of the class***

So for those of you who will still buy the class, Thank you.

Direct Link to leave us a review on the LULU site.

Thanks,
Brad, Chad

MotionBuilder 2009 announced

2008-08-21T01:53:00.002-04:00

The new MotionBuilder looks great with built in rag doll and a real python script editor now. Also all those of you who have been wanting to use some nice fancy cgfx shaders in there for better preview of final assets should be happy.

MotionBuilder 2009 release notes

Also to follow up about FBX from my last post , they just made it even a better choice for a true 3d format by including "published source code for the reader/writer that enables users to extend and adapt it for use in custom pipelines. "

Sweet!, as always, check the main fbx site often for updates, they do it often and make working between , Maya, Max and MotionBuilder so much better... now here is hoping they get layer animation supported between all 3 software now that Maya 2009 has layer anim ability as well.

Autodesk® FBX® 2009.3

The Mocaptionator’s Handbook V1.0 and other tutorials

2008-07-30T23:50:00.003-04:00

Matthew Kapfhammer just posted a very nice guid called The Mocaptionator’s Handbook V1.0 , It is well put together and it is a nice guide for animators that might have to work with motioncapture. Thanks to Matthew for taking the time to write this up and I hope people that have purchaed our class go over and check it out and send it on to people that might need some insite in to hows and whys of motioncapture and how to use it.

Also I wanted to point out that over at the MocapClub.com Ricardo has put up a very well exampled guide to the character control rig and how it works in MotionBuilder. It builds on what I talked about in the Animator Toolkit masterclass and it should be a great help to people trying to figure out how to use the rig. So go over and read the tutorial there (after buying our DVD:) and get the most out of MotionBuilder.

Brad

FBX - interchange file format and how we used it for our chracter

2008-07-24T01:48:00.006-04:00

I wanted to do a quick post on working with .FBX as an interchange format and talk over some uses and how we have used it in the past.

Both on this DVD project and the character rigging book I wrote, the character creation process happened in several software packages by many diffrent people. FBX let us work this way and not worry to much about getting the files back and forth between Maya and Max and MotionBuilder.

Book Character:

The mesh was built in Maya, (but could come from any where)
Exported as FBX
Imported in to Max- UVs were created and textures were done
Exported out as FBX
I had all ready started skinning the mesh in Maya, so I imported the FBX file and copied the skinning on to the textured final mesh from Max.
I also use the FBX export and import process to check the mesh during building of the model to check for normal/scale/bad geo issues, much like you would with the .OBJ format

Animator Toolkit Character:

Mesh and Skeleton Built in Maya
FBX out to MotionBuilder to start rigging prcoess
Final skinn weighting and texturing were done in Maya
Final chracter exported back to FBX to update the rigged file in MotionBuilder

Some other notes about FBX. There is an option to install it in to Apple Quicktime Player, this has a few nice bonuses.

Any one that needs to see a model or animation or pre-viz can use Quicktime to open the .FBX file, but they can't edit it and they don't need to have MotionBuilder,Max,Maya etc. installed to do it.

This is a full 3d viewer inside quicktime so it saves the trouble of having to render out previes or genereate a whole seperate set of content for approvals or presentations. Letting the production file and the aproval files stay up to date

A few more ideas of how you can work with FBX.

Animation transfer- I like to use FBX as a fast way to save and load animaiton data between Maya files instead of useing other animation saving tools. It will only load data on to attributes that were animated.
Skinning- Max has some nice skin tools and it is for some people faster to skin and edit weights in MAX than Maya. An artist I worked with uesd this wrokflow since he was faster in MAX and it worked well.
Point Cache- For rendered scenes you have the option to cache out data from all 3 apps to FBX and this lets you animate with all the rig and deformation tricks of your software and then just export the animated mesh to render where you want.

If you have not used FBX in a few versions , give it a second chance as there are lots of updates and more features making it a great option for helping your art team work in the software of there choice. How ever you end up useing FBX make sure you read the help files and do some tests in your own pipeline as well as check for updates often.

great python script form Jason Parks

2008-07-03T01:15:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to post this info that Jason Parks just cooked up. One of the big issues of dealing with Maya rigs and MotionBuilder is the SDK or Set Driven Key, and how fast it is to setup in Maya and what a slow process it is to create in MotionBuilder. (our class shows how to do this by hand in MotionBuilder on a foot rig by the way)

And so Jason posted a really nice set of scripts and tools to test out, learn from and just help all us out.

So here is a link to his post about it (Jason The-Area Post) and I am going to copy and paste the info here as well so you don't have to leave the site..

"OK,

I’m daring to release, finally.

Instructions and download here:

click on the link

I wanted to be able to transfer Maya’s unitless animCurve nodes (also node as Set Driven Keys, or more accurately Driven Keys) into an FCurve Number (%) FBBox inside of a Relation Constraint. At first glance this seems like kind of a direct port but as you can see with nearly 1000 lines of code it is not so simple.

The above link points to one of my webpages with a download link which includes the main python script, a utility mel script and a couple sample exports files. There is also simple usage instructions and my large disclaimer.

The further I got into this, the more I realized it will probably never really be ready for prime time. So I’ve realesed this to simply get the code into all of your hands so you can see some strong examples of wiring things up inside of a Relation Constraint. Though this wound up being pretty darn messy and convoluted so it may be a bit difficult to reverse engineer what I’m doing. If anything there are plenty of good examples of FBClasses with proper syntax usage.

I’ll upload it to the scripts section of The Area as soon as I can figure out how. If we manage to get it a little more robust, I guess I can release it under the Maya section of HighEnd3d someday too.

So download away. Break it quickly. Feel free to post questions and requests in this thread. Please be kind ...

File Attachments

MoBu DK Importer v0_1.zip (File Size: 20KB - Downloads: 19)

-jason"

A big thanks to Jason for posting these great tools and I hope people use and expand on the work we all have been putting out there for the users.

Brad

UPDATE: A nice tutorial was posted related to the same topic http://scottenglert.com/goodies/tut_CreateMayaSDKMB.html

Patches

2008-05-05T16:17:00.003-04:00

MotionBuilder Patches are out- (they just got pulled to fix a cgfx shader issue but should be back up in a week or so)

This link has more info about whats new and fixed, along with a plug for this class.

But the fixes allow the pose pasting to work with python and fix some serious bugs in the character rig and re target system so make sure if your on MotionBuilder 7.5 that you have all the latest patches/extensions and hot fixes downloaded from the support site. It will make things much better for you as a user.

Brad

Outline for the class

2008-03-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

The Character Animator Toolkit for Motion Builder

Presenters: Brad Clark and Chad Moore

Rigging for Animation

Maya and Max prep for Motion Builder

Keep it clean

The importance of the T-pose
Animator Friendly rigs in Motion Builder

Control Rig System overview
Standard Hierarchy
What this all means to the animator
Character control window

Understanding Character Controls and Animator-driven Rigging

Positives of a Pinning Workflow

Example pin Configurations

Negatives of a Pinning Workflow

Issues to consider

Understanding Reach Controls

A few concepts regarding these new tools

Basic Set up for Keyframing

Visual Rig adjustment for animation
Control Rig visual properties
Default manipulation setup
Quaternion Rotation
Finger IK parent trick
Re-orient controls
Leg/Arm Roll controls

Fix the roll

De-sync FK/IK Rig option
Pinning and Reach settings for a typical rig

Advanced set up for animation friendly controls

Custom UI creation

Custom views of properties

Groups - secret power hotkey 'g' and custom selection handles
Custom Character Control Window
Make the Character picker match your project
Watermarking the default settings for the rig on the image
Pinning Sets
Space changes for the Rig
Parent Constraint
Aux Controllers

Aux Effectors

Pivot Adjustments: Hip
Python Scripts
IK/FK visibility feedback
Create a joystick

Flexible Finger Rig System

Finger Solutions

final thoughts

Relations Constraint and Python Tip

Keyframe Foot Rigging Concepts and Solutions

The Aux Pivot method of a foot rig
Revers Foot Aux style
Joystick Controls
Relation Constraint Setup

Animation Helpers

Rotate Around
Move Keys

Character Props
Ring Re-use and Non Linear Production Updating Without Referencing

Attaching and Detaching Rigs
Character Controls - File Load Animation

Load rig

Skinning Updating without File Referencing Ability

Skin update and/or Blend-shape update
Starting with Opening the Character you want to update

Animation in Motion Builder

Pre-planning animation

Be a reference sponge

Utilizing your Reference in Motion Builder

Camera Back Plate

Animation Workflow

A simple way to duplicate takes

Wave Animation Walk-through
Blocking

Stepped Keys
Keying Modes

Hotkey Tip

Thumbnails

Second Pass Blocking

Moving Holds

Spacing Control Tools
Dopesheet

Collapsible Tracks
Offsetting Keyframes

Refining your Animation

Converting to Linear or Spline
Arcs and Patterns

Trajectories

Editing in the Fcurve Window

Behind the Scenes: Character Creation

2008-03-13T23:38:00.002-04:00

So when Chad and I started talking about doing this class we knew we wanted to have a fun cartoony character to build the class around. So we looked at a few artists and did some sketches and then as it got to the point that we knew what we wanted style wise but did not have time to do it ourself we had our friend Jorma Auburn do a set of sketches and we picked one of his that had lots of fun energy. Chad did the modeling build out and I did a tweak pass as I built the skeleton for it and did the final skinning/texture work, after Josh Carey did the 99% of the skinning for us... I sent the tweaks back to Chad to finish doing the model. It was a very nice and easy collaboration between a remote group of artists. I think the final character came out really nice and has lots of personality.

To help with each one of us being in a different location and wanting to have a shared place to keep each other updated we used Google Docs to setup a quick shared work env. This is a small sample of the page as we worked.

Character for the rigging and animation class
due may 20th - going with jorma design..

As of May 18th 3PM.
Eyes are too large
I will clean up mouth area some more and try to build in check bones
-Chad

Ugly doll

http://flickr.com/photos/bloo_empire/68722858/in/set-659234/

http://www.timbiskup.com/artwork/

http://www.littlebrownheart.com/design/lo/joz6p.htm
(MY FAVORITE !!)

http://www.glbarr.com/

http://www.ourartsite.com/interview/soto.php
http://www.jeffsoto.com/art.html

Now available!

2008-03-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

The Autodesk Motion Builder Master Class eDVD is now available for purchase!

"The Character Animator Toolkit for Motionbuilder"

Click the image to go to the store

Included in the DVD download is ...

100+ pages of course notes.
1.5 hour video recording of the Master Class presentation at SIGGRAPH.
Two video walk throughs of the keyframe animation process in MotionBuilder.
Many example videos and files for rigging our character.
Python scripts for an alternate finger posing and keyframing methodology.

All this is included for $40.32 USD.

UPDATE: Here is a preview video from the DVD in case you did not see it on the lulu site.

The Character Animator Toolkit for MotionBuilder

TAG Blog: Animation and Motion Capture

Effects Corner: Acting and Animation

python moBu- changing name of ControlRig - Tech Artists Forums

Maya 2012: HumanIK - Page 2 - Tech Artists Forums

CGTalk - Realistic Shoulder Solver

2.0 update for the Masterclass

Tech Animator Dump: MotionBuilder Python & Window Focusing

3ds Max Reference: MotionBuilder and Maya scaling

An Open Letter To Andy Serkis #AltDevBlogADay

Autodesk - Autodesk MotionBuilder Services & Support - Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 Service Pack 2

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Weta Featurette

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Comic-Con 2011 Uncut Panel (PS3)

Area :: Blogs :: Maya 2012 Hotfix 2 Now Available

Area :: GDC 2011-MasterClass for MotionBuilder

Cross-platform Animation Pipeline at Behaviour Interactive Studios

David Coleman - Creating QT interfaces for Maya and MotionBuilder

Using the FBX Converter tool

Maya 2012 : HIK menus and MEL commands (part 1)

Using the FBX Converter tool

[Paid] Looking for a character animator - Polycount Forum

Know Don’t Tell #AltDevBlogADay

EA MMA created using Maya, MotionBuilder and Human IK

MotionBuilder 2012 first look

Area :: Blogs :: 3ds Max and Motion Builder Workflow (and a bit of Kinect)

Additive Animation creation for Motionbuilder � eduardo simioni

Infinite Monkey Engine

Mocappys - Motion Capture Made Easy...or easier at least!

Quick Start Guide to Motion Capture

Web Questions and Answers for Autodesk MotionBuilder

How to limit constraint effect across multiple takes?

How can I rotate my Animation with out having to us story or other hacks?

How can I update geometry and skeleton in MoBu? (MotionBuilder)

How do I retarget prop animation or motion capture data in MotionBuilder?

MotionBuilder - Batch tool - Char has no reference ,error message?

If I have a set of animation files,Is there an easy way I can characterize these animations without going in each file, and still preserving the file name?

Takes – Merging key data between takes

Bugs found in MotionBuilder 2011-

MoBu script: additive animation

MOBU: Retriving cluster shapes from character face? - Tech Artists Forums

FBX Converter Service - Mac OSX

The Motionbuilder-friendly BVH Conversion Release of CMU's Motion Capture Database - cgspeed

LightWave and FBX

The Area :: Blogs :: What the heck is HIK anyway?

Autodesk - Autodesk MotionBuilder Services & Support - Sample Files

Mobu Python - Scripts

Mixamo: Workflows_maya_fbik

Introducing PyMoBu 0.1- Scott Englert

EBook Now Avaible

Fast animation retargetting using python and MoBu scripting

New FBX Quicktime Plug-in

Tutorials: Physics Ragdoll with joints and Python tool

Autodesk: MotionBuilder 2011

What's New in MotionBuilder 2011

Podcast: Avatar with Richard Baneham! � Speaking of Animation

Autodesk FBX - What’s New- Many people have wanted to have a smoothed model in MotionBuilder

Tutorials : MotionBuilder Physics

LINK: Personal Gaming: Uncharted 2 Motion Capture

LINK: Autodesk Softimage - MotionBuilder Pipeline Tutorial

TIP: Path animation for characters in MotionBuilder

UPDATE: Class on CD and new Preview

Class Excerpt: Skinning Updating with out file reference ability

News: MotionBuilder Mentoring coming soon from Rigging Dojo

LINK: Area Blog post :: Maya <-> MotionBuilder workflow demo (part2)

TIP: Selecting objects in MotionBuilder

LINK: Cartoon Rigging in Motionbuilder

Tip: Constrained Ragdoll in Motionbuilder 2009

TIP:FBX layers and Maya 2010 more reason to check it out

Tip : Contextual Help In Python Editor for MotionBuilder 2010

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010

FBX download and Biped enhancements

Biped merge-back workflow enhancements (as told to us by Trevor)

Tip: Custom Properties in Motionbuilder

MotionBuilder Physics: Ragdoll Tricks for Production : now up on the Area

Area : Tutorial (not mine but a good starting place for mobu start)

TIP: DVD foot rig mirror issue

LINK: How Motion Capture works

LINK: Handle pivot point script

Programming and animation � Blog Archive � UI Builder for MotionBuilder

Editing multiple Characters tutorial: Up on Autodesk Area webiste