I have motion builder here; but I’d rather not have to bounce back and forth between a couple different programs to do something.
I’ve been beating my head against the wall with various things and I still can’t get this figured exactly right.
Is anyone still working on this or has everyone given up to “MB does it so why should I worry” ?
or has it all stopped in waiting for whatever izware has in store for siggraph?
Thoughts?
jason still alive out there?
I have no problem bouncing between more than one program for animation. My problem with Motion Builder is that it’s interface is needlessly convoluted. Animanium seems like it will have an easier learning curve. I’m just crossing my fingers for a demo at SIGGRAPH.
to me bouncing back and forth takes time away from what I’m doing. Or are we going back to the days of Power Animator to model and using Soft|3d to animate?
Seems to me adding more programs to do a job is taking a step backwards.
Originally posted by 1000101
Seems to me adding more programs to do a job is taking a step backwards.
yeah, totally. haven’t used motion builder, but it seems like you would trade the pinning thing for everything else i like in character animation software. does MB even have any scripting? how would you build a character interface window for your character?
the thing i like about maya is that everything is right there in the software. you can build anything you need in mel. someone will probably make a primitive version of this pinning thing in mel - maybe even a good version.
i.e. you have the tools and the interface you want for any job, and once you get everything set up, things go smooth and fast. if you start bouncing back and forth between apps, you lose that immediately.
the difference in the power and convenience you get from keeping everything in maya is subtle, but it’s enough to make maya as dominant as it is.
to have like a plug in or mel in mayayto fo this would be a god send. it would be nice if some one could make sucha thing.
Originally posted by 1000101
[B]to me bouncing back and forth takes time away from what I’m doing. Or are we going back to the days of Power Animator to model and using Soft|3d to animate?Seems to me adding more programs to do a job is taking a step backwards. [/B]
not really if you got great tools to speed things up.
i dont see how creating a good working rig in a weeks time is better than exporting to another app to do it automatically so you can just get down to animating is a bad thing…
if you can model place else to speed things up… then so be it.
same goes for animation…texturing…
but for now i REALLY doubt you can build anything remotely close to what you got in MB or Animanium out of mayas mel.
if you could then it would be REALLY slow.
you would most likely have to look to the C++ API, since most of the things that maya is missing right now are more dynamic tools. ( ie. smart IK bones, dont think this is even possible with just mel. )
I’m not even sure if the API can rescue it haha.
I’ve given up on finding a MEL solution. I’ve tried though.
Anyhoo motion builders got a great posing system; its just when I start wanting to tweak things that .fbx doesn’t support or that motion builder doesnt do that it becomes a problem.
Of course its a great solution in the mean time.
hi all…
i have some ideas to solve the PIN thing … using mel … i like to call it SMART IK … and soon i’ll post a simple chain of bones connected using normal IK, Constrains & small mel with interface.
the setup works … its simple … and i’ll leave the evaluation to u …
wow firas, but can you animate just like in motion builder? like your character is a puppet? or is it just pinning?
Levitateme, am not sure what does motion builder do… but am testing my setup … its not friendly … but when i write the script it will be very simple to use …
its based on deleting the old ik handels … then set prefeared angle , and building new ik setup automaticly when u Pin joint …
sorry … because i was late in reply … but i took 10 days off to c my family …
no am back
the first step now is write simple script for simple chain of joints.
Would it be possible to make a bone system that let you build your own IK and controls and then bake it all to a simple IK/FK control skeleton? It’d be similar in theory to building and decomposing trax mov clips.
Originally posted by Levitateme
motion builder is amazing, i have tried it out for about a week. it has so many great options,
Yup, have to agree… motionbuilder is good stuff. If only I could make customize the dolly/zoom/tumble keys… I would be one happy camper.
Hey Jason, long time no talk. How’s it going?
And Ambient-Whisper, do you have a place where I can download your video? The 2 links for it in this thread are both dead.
sorry:( i dont. the link went dead and i lost the video in a hard drive death a few months ago. but if someone else still has it, it would be nice if i could grab it off them so i could find a host for the video again.
ambient-whisper:
I have ‘Skelefun’… 
But how to upload 35 mbs to my site?
Advise please :shrug:
Atwooki