Deborah R. Fowler
Motion Builder
click here for Motion Capture Resources
Updated on Oct 12 2017
Motion Builder 2017 is available as
well as an educational license for at home use.
We will start using Motion Builder
in class week 3 onward.
Motion Builder 2017 has been tested
at Monty as well as the "at home" version. The streaming plug-in is
now available for 2017 (as of Fall 2017) and is on the image.
Documentation: 2017 documentation ( previous 2016 documentation, 2015 documentation, 2014 documentation )
New documentation is ongoing! Some documents were created in Motion Builder 2012/2013 and will be updated when necessary. For example Basic workflow and Story Mode have been updated to 2014/2015. There have been few changes to Motion Builder and the information below is still valid.Guide to MB2015-Basic Workflow (V1). With the new vss solving skeleton in blade, fbx is now more popular than c3d. This pipeline is similar to the one we use for streaming.
For historic purpose if you are interested, a c3d method is documented here. We no longer use this method in class.
Guide to a Basic Rigging Pipeline (V1).
Guide to Basic Constraints Rigging (V1).
Guide to using MB2015-Story Mode (V1) to blend takes.
In the dropbox: Most of the above documents have corresponding videos. In addition there are sample rigs using motion builder naming conventions as well as additional videos and documentation.
In addition, the following are available on vimeo:
Tip: Make sure your character has been characterized (just like you do for streaming). The tutorial characters are stream-ready.
Tip: For story mode make sure you have added a control rig to your character AND your capture data (save as nameOfTakeCR.fbx)
Tip: Use layered animation as you would with a photoshop file for more flexibility
Tip: In addition to layered animation and story mode, you can manipulate f-curves and there are also constraint such as floor/feet and hand.
Tutorial Characters:
For Monty use the characters located in the dropbox or on the D drive on the stream machine.
If you have Motion Builder at home you will find them in the following places - simply "add favorite path" in your motion builder session:
Motion Builder 2017 they are located in: C:\Autodesk\WI\Autodesk MotionBuilder 2017\Content\ClipArt\Characters or C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MotionBuilder 2017\Tutorials
Rigged Characters:
Can also be created and autorigged at Mixamo.com