hahne
06-24-2010, 05:02 AM
(If there's some other CGtalk discussion forum where I should post this instead, let me know, however the Motionbuilder forum seemed like the best place.)
I want to pay somebody to write a short automation script in Python for Motionbuilder 2009, so that I don't have to spend 40 hours doing trial-and-error experimentation figuring out Autodesk's Python API.
I have a GUI-based workflow that works. The desired product is a Python script that fully automates the precise set of GUI steps. No window creation or other Motionbuilder GUI programming is required. Literally all that happens is we open an FBX file, open a BVH file, characterize the BVH, retarget the BVH onto the asset from the FBX, and save out the resulting new BVH.
This is probably only a few hours of coding for somebody who knows how to work with Python for Motionbuilder.
Here's the workflow that I want to automate:
http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/coding-job-motionbuilder-python
This script will be used to automate the conversion of the full Carnegie-Mellon free BVH library to a Daz-friendly format which people can then use to animate the Daz generation-3 and generation-4 characters within Daz Studio, probably within Cararra, and possibly within Poser. I'll be releasing the converted BVH files for free on cgspeed.com once the full conversion is done, where they'll join the Motionbuilder-friendly and Max-biped-friendly BVH releases of 2008 and 2009 (also on cgspeed.com).
In other words, although I'm willing to pay for the Python script, the purpose of this project is to release quite a lot of retargeted animation for free so that people can use it.
Guidelines:
- The script must work in Motionbuilder 2009 (64-bit version, if that makes a difference). If I must buy Motionbuilder 2010/2011 to make this project work, I probably will, but I'd really prefer not to.
- I'll provide you with the needed assets, including an .fbx of the target Daz asset (only for your use on this project), and as many source BVH files as you want.
- I can create a visual (screengrab) recording of my walkthrough of the GUI process, if that would be helpful. However it might just be easier to do a phone call where we both have Motionbuilder open on our computers, and I talk through the process as needed.
- I'm not asking for somebody to convert the full Carnegie-Mellon BVH dataset (>2500 files) - all I need is a script that converts one file. I can put a loop wrapper around the script to automate the rest.
- I want to pay for the job rather than pay on a per-hour basis.
- This will be a work-for-hire, which means that I own the work product (the Python script).
- I need somebody with strong written English skills who responds promptly to email. I'm based in California, however we should be able to use email for this project.
If you can do this programming job and want to take it on, please email me directly (hahne@io.com) with any questions, and/or with your price estimate and a copy of any standard work-for-hire contract that you use with your customers. If you don't have contractual language, I'm sure we can dig up some standard legalese to use for software work-for-hire.
Thanks,
Bruce Hahne
hahne at io dot com / hahne@io.com (http://forums.cgsociety.org/hahne@io.com)
Maintainer/editor, cgspeed.com
The free CMU BVH releases are at my sister Sites page: http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture
I want to pay somebody to write a short automation script in Python for Motionbuilder 2009, so that I don't have to spend 40 hours doing trial-and-error experimentation figuring out Autodesk's Python API.
I have a GUI-based workflow that works. The desired product is a Python script that fully automates the precise set of GUI steps. No window creation or other Motionbuilder GUI programming is required. Literally all that happens is we open an FBX file, open a BVH file, characterize the BVH, retarget the BVH onto the asset from the FBX, and save out the resulting new BVH.
This is probably only a few hours of coding for somebody who knows how to work with Python for Motionbuilder.
Here's the workflow that I want to automate:
http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/coding-job-motionbuilder-python
This script will be used to automate the conversion of the full Carnegie-Mellon free BVH library to a Daz-friendly format which people can then use to animate the Daz generation-3 and generation-4 characters within Daz Studio, probably within Cararra, and possibly within Poser. I'll be releasing the converted BVH files for free on cgspeed.com once the full conversion is done, where they'll join the Motionbuilder-friendly and Max-biped-friendly BVH releases of 2008 and 2009 (also on cgspeed.com).
In other words, although I'm willing to pay for the Python script, the purpose of this project is to release quite a lot of retargeted animation for free so that people can use it.
Guidelines:
- The script must work in Motionbuilder 2009 (64-bit version, if that makes a difference). If I must buy Motionbuilder 2010/2011 to make this project work, I probably will, but I'd really prefer not to.
- I'll provide you with the needed assets, including an .fbx of the target Daz asset (only for your use on this project), and as many source BVH files as you want.
- I can create a visual (screengrab) recording of my walkthrough of the GUI process, if that would be helpful. However it might just be easier to do a phone call where we both have Motionbuilder open on our computers, and I talk through the process as needed.
- I'm not asking for somebody to convert the full Carnegie-Mellon BVH dataset (>2500 files) - all I need is a script that converts one file. I can put a loop wrapper around the script to automate the rest.
- I want to pay for the job rather than pay on a per-hour basis.
- This will be a work-for-hire, which means that I own the work product (the Python script).
- I need somebody with strong written English skills who responds promptly to email. I'm based in California, however we should be able to use email for this project.
If you can do this programming job and want to take it on, please email me directly (hahne@io.com) with any questions, and/or with your price estimate and a copy of any standard work-for-hire contract that you use with your customers. If you don't have contractual language, I'm sure we can dig up some standard legalese to use for software work-for-hire.
Thanks,
Bruce Hahne
hahne at io dot com / hahne@io.com (http://forums.cgsociety.org/hahne@io.com)
Maintainer/editor, cgspeed.com
The free CMU BVH releases are at my sister Sites page: http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture