motion builder

# 1 26-07-2008 , 12:02 PM

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Ok I am using motion builder a fair bit now but am still troubled by a couple of things. I am sure I saw a tutorial that showed how you can make the mocap for a walk cycle repeat itself so if it is for 4 steps it will become 8. I am also sure I saw a way that you could mix two different walk cycles together to get the result you are after. Can anyone let me know how to do this or point me in the direction of a tutorial.

Many thanks,

Leon

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# 2 26-07-2008 , 11:28 PM

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You need to blend two takes together, so that you get both animations in noe so to speak.

Ive not seen any tutorials on it but he help files wuld be a good place to start.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 3 27-07-2008 , 12:06 AM

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Yeah been using the help files although I seem to be going wrong somewhere and don't understand why. I will keep trying since I know this is real easy like everything else once you know how to do it. I cannot help but think teaching myself all this has made life very hard and that UNI would of probably been a real good idea. Guess I will find out when I finally get this done and see if all that I have managed to learn is enough to get me a job in the industry.

Thanks for your help Gster and will hopefully suss this real soon.

Thanks,

Leon Labyk

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# 4 29-07-2008 , 12:28 AM

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I have worked on some walk cycles and managed to get them looking right using the motion blending. I process and save the file so it is one take and it plays back perfect in motion builder. The problem is when I save it and import it into maya at the points where the motion blending was the skeleton goes nuts before returning to its proper shape.

Any help is mush appreciated.

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# 5 29-07-2008 , 12:35 AM

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How did u export it? did u use the FBX format?

Remeber that you will still need to tidy it up when it gets into Maya. Steve will be better at answer this rather than me.

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# 6 29-07-2008 , 01:24 AM

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I realized this is not to much of a problem because I have to transfer the animation from the mocap onto my other characters skeleton. I now have a new problem though since when I do this all the animation is going over fine except for the arms which are staying in a t-pose. Does anyone know what may be the cause of this. I plotted the animation onto the skeleton anyway and then brought it back into maya and it is working perfectly but need to get this arm problem sorted asap.

I have attached the characters skeleton and will attach the mocap separate in case any one has the time to take a look. It is all set up for motion builder and ready to be characterized so I cannot work out the problem.

Many thanks,

Leon

Attached Files

djmonskeleton.zip (19.2 KB, 293 views)

Last edited by leonlabyk; 29-07-2008 at 01:26 AM.

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# 7 29-07-2008 , 01:25 AM

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the mocap

Attached Files

walking.zip (240.9 KB, 382 views)

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# 8 30-07-2008 , 08:56 PM

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This problem is coming up with most of what I am doing and am now totally lost. The characters are not following the mocap properly at all even though they are all characterized and set up.
If anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Leon Labyk

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# 9 16-08-2008 , 02:29 AM

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tried to open your zips but they are corrupted. i can see the fbx inside but it doesn´t let me extract the file.

anyway. make sure before your feed your mocap skeleton into your own skeleton that you have an idential T-pose on your very first frame in MB with both skeletons. maybe that´s what went wrong in the beginning. I had the same prob once. ever after I use the same mocap skeleton as start for my skinned skeleton.

what I else want to tell you is - I am working with MB for a month now and like you I keep jumping from the hot pan into the fire each time a problem is solved. I also didn´t find any apparently experienced community for MB yet like we have it here at simplymaya. simplymaya rocks! I know now more than ever before.

if you have any good ressources on how to handle mocapData with layered animation, please m8! let me know! I have a feeling like we are in kind of a same situation.

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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# 10 16-08-2008 , 02:37 AM

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ah something else, right now I go back to maya and try find a way to animate in layers like with motionBuilder, because in my opinion - layered anim in MB is nice but it doesn´t work consitently. also this powerfull feature of creating poses, copy and pasting them is all just crap because it doesn´t interpolate the anims as you would expect it when applied to different layers on the same take. obviously everyone is using this feature just on the same layer, which doesn´t make sense for mocap.

as soon as you have the feeling MB is worth working with and can do stuff CORRECTLY what maya can´t do, drop me a note.

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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# 11 17-08-2008 , 12:21 AM

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ok, I thought this might be interesting for you. since I conceded victory to MB yesterday and went all back to the basics of maya I can just tell you:

have a look at FBIK (Full Body Inverse Kinematic)

the docs pretty well cover everything you need to know. you can also import an FBIK Example to have a closer look at the setup. all goes easy and fast in maya and I must tell - besides the fact, that maya´s Character naming convention and also the Character´s behaviour is exactly the same as in MB - really nobody needs motionBuilder ever in his life with FBIK in my opinion.. which might change when I have some more practice with the matter. but as far as I can see maya has allmost the complete MotionBuilder Package integrated within a small menu (Skeleton -> Full Body IK). you even have animation retargeting functionality within mouse clicks like in MB where you feed one Character into another Control Rigg. honestly the really only thing that maya doesn´t come up with is animating in layers which would be the icing on the cake, but besides you can make use of the trax editor I allready found a plugin which adds animation layers to your GUI, which you can find there

https://www.highend3d.com/boards/inde...owtopic=237315

well as far as I understand things now it would be completely ridicoulous in case you allready work with maya and have a good understanding of it (not being an animation artist only) to pay about 4500 Euros for an additional menuItem in maya called MotionBuilder or in maya terms - FullBodyIK. (which is btw twice expensive then maya complete itself)

I hope I could give you some usefull input on all of this. and in case you are obleged by any company or university to use motionBuilder I still would advice to have a look at FBIK in maya and read the docs on it, because it really made clear how things work together within this not-easy-character-setup.

all the best!

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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# 12 17-08-2008 , 12:29 AM

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one last thing before I keep my mouth shut.

since you and me spent some time on MB it would be funny to have a little MB interface integrated in maya to have easier access on all important things. try this one

https://www.highend3d.com/maya/downlo...tion/3811.html

awesomely usefull script

user added image

have fun!

everything starts and ends in the right place at the right time.

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motion builder

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