MB rules !

[elektronaut]

hi!

did you try the fbxplugins directly from kaydara ?! it´s the ultimate transfer filetype between any 3d application. so it will be no prob to animate in max and transfer it into lightwave (exports also the uv coordinates)



Kaydara (http://www.kaydara.com)

greets
marco.

[LFGabel]

ddjix,

Motionbuilder exports the motion applied to bones, so I would imagine, as long as the bone hierarchy is the same in both Max and Lightwave, you'd have no problems.

As for morphing (lip sync, emotion, etc.) I don't know how Max deals with that stuff... and translating to LW might be an issue.

Best alternative is to download the demos and test out a possible pipeline.

[Unraveled]

The .fbx plugins are available free on Kaydara website. You can test compatability between packages using those plugins without using MB at all.

[policarpo]

I believe that LW can only read animation data in .FBX files that originate from LightWave.

3dsmax, Maya, and Cinema 4D are the only apps which support the full .FBX interchange.

[LFGabel]

Not entirely true, Policarpo.

A while back I had to get a model from a FBX file generated in 3dsMax and load it into Lightwave. All I did was import the FBX and the appropriate meshes were saved to LWOs. Blend targets were a little whacked because they were all separate files, and I can't remember if the bones came through or not...

I don't think it's impossible... with a little massaging...

[policarpo]

Well, your meshes will come in fine for the most part...but the animation data on the character will not.

Just try exporting the Gremlin model with some Mocap attached to it and opening that in LW...it doesn't work like it does with 3dsmax, Maya, and Cinema 4D.

In order to import animation on a rig from MB, the original bones must be created in LW and exported.

There's a limit with the LW SDK which prevents LW from reading animation data from an .FBX that did not originate from LW.

[LFGabel]

Doesn't that just rot your socks... Hmm... Perhaps LW8 will address that.

[policarpo]

Originally posted by LFGabel
Doesn't that just rot your socks... Hmm... Perhaps LW8 will address that.

not really. having cinema makes it all a breeze now. :)

[pixelranger]

Well, I'm using the fbx exporter to (primarily) export camera data between Max and LW. This works great!!

But I also just the other day exported a whole scene from LW containing a modeled, rigged (with IK and Fk) and animated lion. It loaded up in MAX, no problemo.
Even the 20 morph targets were preserved and converted to Max's native "Morpher" blend shapes!!!
The only problem was that I had to reassigh the IK targets to the IK chains. But everything else went straight from one package to the other.
I've also imported models and animations from max into lw using the fbx-format, but not containing any skeletons/bones/joints only keyframed meshes.

[yog]

I'm finding importing FBX's into Max a breeze. Even FBX's where the model and bones originated in LW, before being animated in MB, no problem.

On the other hand FBX import into LW is quite a hit and miss thing. And if the model and bones did not originate in LW then you can all but forget it.

[softdistortion]

We have been going between LW and Maya. The only way we get things running 100% is to export the scene from layout. Then open it in MB. Resave the .fbx in MB. Then use it in Maya.
This works for us anyway> :-)

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