H O P P E R P E D I A ©
-Brian Hammons
MotionBuilder
is a professional 3D character animation software. It is used for motion capture and traditional keyframe animation. It is used in the production of games, films, and other multimedia projects.
How to Videos for MotionBuilder
Example Capability Definitions:1. Inverse Kinematics: Inverse kinematics in 3D animation is a type of motion planning in which there is a process of determining the parameters of a jointed flexible object (a kinematic chain) in order to achieve a desired pose. A common use is making sure game characters connect physically to the world, such as feet landing firmly on top of terrain. It is often easier for an artist to express the desired spatial appearance rather than manipulate joint angles directly. For example, inverse kinematics allows an artist to move the hand of a 3D human model to a desired position and orientation and have an algorithm select the proper angles of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints.
2. Ragdoll Physics: In computer physics engines, ragdoll physics are a type of procedural animation that is often used as a replacement for traditional static death animations. Early video games used manually-created animations for characters' death sequences. A ragdoll is a collection of multiple rigid bodies (each of which is ordinarily tied to a bone in the graphics engine's skeletal animation system) tied together by a system of constraints that restrict how the bones may move relative to each other. When the character dies, his body begins to collapse to the ground, honoring these restrictions on each of the joints' motion, which often looks more realistic.
Ragdoll Implementation Approaches:
• Constrained-rigid-body
• Verlet integration
• Inverse kinematics
• Blended ragdoll
• Procedural animation
3. Motion Capture & Facial Rigging: Autodesk MotionBuilder can retarget animation information to and from imported motion capture data, live motion capture sources, and any other characters based on the Character Tool HumanIK technology. Motion capture (motion tracking, performance tracking or mocap) are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model. In filmmaking it refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital character models in 2D or 3D computer animation. MotionBuilder processes the data and displays the movements of the actor, providing the desired camera positions in terms of objects in the set. Camera movements can also be motion captured so that a virtual camera in the scene will pan, tilt, or dolly around the stage driven by a camera operator, while the actor is performing and the motion capture system can capture the camera and props as well as the actor's performance. This allows the computer generated characters, images and sets, to have the same perspective as the video images from the camera.
More on Motion Capture
Facial rigging allows the animator to quickly animate skin and muscle movement throughout the face. Whenever a facial muscle is manipulated, the rest of the face will be altered slightly. Effective facial animation is crucial for breathing life into digital characters. The advanced facial rigging features within MotionBuilder help tackle one of the most challenging aspects of creating believable digital characters.
Programming Language behind MotionBuilderProgrammers can expand MotionBuilder’s capabilities using an included software development kit (SDK or "devkit") which exposes functionality through Python and C++ .
A software development kit is typically a set of development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.
It may be something as simple as an application programming interface (API) in the form of some files to interface to a particular programming language or include sophisticated hardware to communicate with a certain embedded system. Common tools include debugging aids and other utilities often presented in an integrated development environment (IDE). SDKs also frequently include sample code and supporting technical notes or other supporting documentation to help clarify points from the primary reference material.
TechnologyMotionBuilder provides native FBX support which allows interoperability between it and, for example, Maya and 3dsMax . FBX is technology and a file format (.fbx) owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications.
Price for MotionBuilder: Ships with the Autodesk® Maya® Entertainment Creation Suite or purchase through a reseller.
