What is MotionBuilder?

#1

I know motionBuilder is used for animation stuff and mocap stuff. Can be used for animation within games.

But what is it really?

#2

Hi, can U restate your question? Cause I don’t know what you are asking about, but MB is really using for such staff as mocap and animation. :slight_smile:

#3

Motionbuilder is an animation package, and is MUCH, much more capable than Maya, Max, XSI, etc. My studio is using Max right now and I can’t believe how pitiful the animation is in there. My old studio used mainly Maya, which was better than Max in this regard, but also paled in comparison to Motionbuilder. If you want to animate objects and characters in 3D, use Motionbuilder if at all possible.

#4

Motionbuilder is an animation app, but lately I’ve been looking at it simply as this:

1) A collection of rig building scripts that create a pretty dynamic rig for your that's very well integrated into the non-linear (one of the best around) editor + timeline, has excllent retargeting tools and comes with a gui/synoptic view complete with IK/FK switching that automatically matches position to each other. If you don't have the option to build your own rig or hire a seasoned character TD for your target app, it can be a really nice option to have.

2) A collection of pretty excellent mocap tools - marker cleaning, pretty robust marker to skeleton mapping, fcurve filters, animation timeline layers + constraints to lock effectors in place (or you can do the same thing in the Story tab). 

Really, the only major drawback I see with it is import/export issues and setups to replicate certain types of deformers like lattices and muscles. It feels like a waste of time to do your work on an aproximated 'animation ready' character and then still have to import and test it in your target app to see if it does anything weird to the high res/final  mesh once you import the skeleton. There always seems to be a bit of back and forth that I wish I didn't have to do.

I feel like I have to say that you CAN do almost all of this work in Maya or XSI, if you just take the time to see what the tools are doing and learn to write the tools to replicate the functionatility. Both apps have come a long way in including much of Motionbuilder’s toolsets. You can now map data in XSI (doesn’t seem to be to the same level of MoBuilder, just yet) and you have the exact same FBIK rig in Maya. I mean you can now do all of your marker cleaning and retargeting in something like VICON Blade and all the editing in any app with animation layers, a good constraint system and solid support for scripting.

#5

Hi there.
I have a couple of question, this thread seems like a good place to post them.

  • Can motionbuilder be used in a pipeline with modo as a modeler and a renderer.
    Any one with experience in that?

  • How is the learning curve in motionbuilder?

  • Can motionbuilder be used as more that a characteranimation program.
    What about making pages from a magazine turn, or a flag in the wind, things like that?

Thanks

#6

Yes, i have more questions too.

The biggest one is, if we import models into MB, how do we render it after?

And if… anyone can tell me, what do studios do in their pipeline to solve the export/import issue?

What is HumanIK, well more specifically, Is HumanIK viable for animators?

When you mean re-targeting, do you mean changing the pivot, having more than one parents?

Why is it so expensive?

#7

To use model in Motion Builder you must use FBX Plug to import/export file as FBX item then OPEN (not import) into MB. You can use this with Maya, Max, Blender, and XSI to my knowledge.

MB is very excellent- it enables greater animation capabilities with less work. Maya is fine but MB adds more features and user friendly environment and the reason I believe behind this is that its primary focus is on Animation whereas Maya is Modeling first with additional features. MOCAP in MB is awesome too- I’m really getting the hang of this lately with rigs made with Muscle/Caps.

I am interested in FaceRobot 1.9 because if I understand correctly you can import a Head mesh and FaceRobot will automatically create a Face Rig which can thus be saved for reimportion to Maya for further tweaking or animating which thus means you can use with MB. Not sure how accurate or efficient FaceRobot is but it is interesting to me.

If you can’t afford MB then I would go with Maya at least- I agree in that Max was weak in the animation area.

#8

Does MB do muscles, or handle muscles?

Is it also possible to re-create the tools and rigs in Maya or XSI thats already in MB?

Wat about if i have a sci-fi character that has six limbs, does MB have a UI for that or be able to create rigs for that too?

#9

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