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Bojo
06-10-2003, 02:33 PM
Hi!
Iīm new to Motionbuilder but are beginning to really appreciate the working environment.

A couple of things has got me wondering though.

1. Can you have custom geometry acting as a floor, lets say a outdoor scene with slopes, so the actors feet stops automatically on contact? (I thought i heard Buzz mention it in a VTM)

I have tried the left floor right floor but that doesnīt affect the character.
must you set up some sort of expression?

2. Second, when plotting the character and merging the data back to LW, you get keyframes on every frame. Is this really the only way to easily transfer character bones RT data?
(Ordinary import or merge of a MB-scene in LW doesnīt seem to work on characters)

With just single entities like camera or a null animated in MB, ordinary save (no plotting) and Merge in LW i get all TR with exactly the same keyframes that I made in MB. In that case itīs easy to make small adjustments without having to go back to MB.

Appreciate all answers.

/Jonas
imagesh
06-12-2003, 09:01 PM
These are all great questions, I'm curious as well. Hopefully someone will step up and respond to these.

My copy is coming early next week, but I haven't seen anything in the documentation about custom floor shapes, I heard the mention of them in the Buzz tutorial as well.

Jim Arthurs
CurtisG
06-25-2003, 11:10 PM
Hey Bojo,

To answer your questions:

1- Floor contacts are can only be flat surfaces (such as a plane), but you can animate the position of these planes to simulate a multi-level floor.

2- You have to plot the animation back to your characters skeleton before you go back into any 3D package. You can try selecting your characters skeleton after you plot, go into the FCurve editor, Select all the keys for your skeleton, and apply a 'Key Reducing' filter. This works with 3dsmax, but will be resampled going back into Maya. I am not sure if the FBX plugin for Lightware resamples on import.


Hope that answers your questions!

Cheers,
zipman
07-20-2005, 11:23 PM
how do you set this up? its just what i need to know for jumping from a building to a lower one.
thanks for any help

[QUOTE=CurtisG]Hey Bojo,

To answer your questions:

1- Floor contacts are can only be flat surfaces (such as a plane), but you can animate the position of these planes to simulate a multi-level floor.
hrydek
07-21-2005, 10:17 AM
1- Floor contacts are can only be flat surfaces (such as a plane), but you can animate the position of these planes to simulate a multi-level floor.



Well, as floor contact can be used any geometry, marker or null. Contact works taking global Y position and in infinte XZ plane. So it can't be rotated- it's not possible to create vertical wall as contact for hands.



how do you set this up? its just what i need to know for jumping from a building to a lower one.
thanks for any help



Define floor contacts in character properties / creation tab, and then animate it when you want to change floor.

Hope that helps.


It was answered a few posts ago:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=68631
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