Max to MotionBuilder

#1

Can I seamlessly have my rigs made in Max animated on MotionBuilder?
and…
Would that be a good idea?
(I am trying to decide if I should learn MB)

#2

In max you should only arrange bones, name and link them properly… maybe create slice mash of them (faster and safer approach)… or skin the model to them and transfer model and bones in MB for further “characterization” i.e. automatic rigging.
Should you learn MB? Definitely. It has many features, who in 3ds Max require large amount of scripting and BIG rigging knowledge (in case of custom rigging).
For example: ground detection for feet and hands, copying and mirroring poses, fantastic ragdoll… and most of all SPEED and real time viewport.

#3

Thanks Benzin! (reputation up):thumbsup:
If you don’t mind, I have a few questions:
1-Can I also make custom rigging and scripting in MB if I wish?
2-Sometimes I need to base my rigs on certain max modifiers, for example, FFD or PathDeform… still I have that chance by any mean?
3-Does it have breakdown keys :drool:? (like ma ya does…)

Again, Thanks!

#4
  1. Yes, you can, but there are very little almost none tutorials on the net HOW you do it, Help file is as always dry and pretty useless. I presume that you have to go in specialized school for that VFS for example. The “Area” page has some good MB tutorials, if you find some please let me know too. Python is a must.
  2. Nope, those modifiers or constraints are not supported i.e. only Morpher modifier is… and import of targets for it.
  3. I’m not familiar with Maya, breakdown keys? Try to describe them or find a similar thing in Max?
#5

Breakdown keys?
It comes from the breakdown pose concept on traditional drawn animation.
It is also called Passing position, middle position, or intermediate position, and is the folowing:
You have to key poses, one leading to the other, on for example, a hand movement. You usually use a middle position to rule how the hand will pass from pos to pos (will it tilt, twist, lean?). Normaly I do this in Max by dding new keys in the middle of the hand action to fine tune the transition. Sometimes we even like to tune so much the hand movement that we will end up inserting several keys between the two original keys.
In the end they are all the same: keys. So, if you wish to modify the duration of your hand’s movement between the two extreme poses you defined at first (the two poses I first mentioned), you will have to deal manually as well with any intermediate keys you have created to fine tune the movement.
Now, in maya you can define those intermediate keys as “breakdown” which will flag them as passing keys between those two in the extremes, so that if you move one of the “extreme” keys on the time segment (thus changing the duration of the whole movement), the intermediate keys, will reposition on time to stay where they should be in the movement segment, like if you scaled the the move.
I do not know if my explanation was quite right: I am not a maya user, I just saw that feature short ago and I loved it. I do not know if there is something similar in Max.
Could you understand? Sorry about my English.

#6

Now we are talking :), I know what are breakdowns, inbetween’s and extreme’s, i’m in this job for almost 7 years, so Maya has that feature? I would call it “proportional scaling of keys” btw Max ALWAYS scr**ws up keys when you do that. It scales them from the middle of time line “outwards” ie. toward the beginning and end of timeline… it thinks you are scaling a sphere or a box! I haven’t tried to scale keys in MB, because of fear it will destroy mine carefully placed keys. I’m leaving that to you ;). Does Maya “sticks” to “whole” frames when you do that? Or goes into “ticks” ie. time between frames?

#7

Oh, but in Max you could do a proper key scale if you deactivate Snap Frames so the keys do not stick to the exact frame, but to ticks.
Of course, it would be nice just to move an extreme key and having the others follow properly. Ah, never mind.

The important thing is that I should be giving a try to the MB trial, and see how it goes!
Thanks for everything, Benzin!

#8

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.