Autodesk MotionBuilder Software

Autodesk MotionBuilder Software

History

Developers :- Autodesk Inc.

Stable release :- 2016

Operating system :- Windows, Linux.

Type :- 3D computer graphics.

     MotionBuilder is a professional 3D character animation software produced by Autodesk. It is used for virtual production, motion capture, and traditional keyframe animation. It was originally named Filmbox when it was first created by Canadian company Kaydara, later acquired by Alias and renamed to MotionBuilder. Alias in turn was acquired by Autodesk.

      It is primarily used in film, games, television production, as well as other multimedia projects. Mainstream examples include Assassin's Creed, Killzone 2, and Avatar.

     At SIGGRAPH 2012, Autodesk announced a partnership with Weta Digital and Lightstorm Entertainment to develop the next generation of the technology.

Story tracks:

     In the Story window, a track is a path along which you can move and edit clips along a timeline. There are six different track types, based on what the track contains:

    The type of track you create depends on what asset you drop into the Action Track list from the Viewer window, Asset or Scene browser. You can also create tracks using the Insert option in the Story context menu. See Story context menu.

  There can be many clips on a single track, and each track has various settings that affect the clips it contains. See Action Track controls for detailed information on track settings. Each of these tracks can also have subtracks.

Animation tracks:

    An animation track appears when you drag an .fbx file containing animation or motion data from the Asset Browser to the Asset Track list.

Character Animation tracks:

     A Character Animation track appears whenever you drag an .fbx file from the Asset browser to the Asset Track list. The .fbx file must contain motion data or keyframe animation plotted to any characterized skeleton.

Unlike other tracks, a Character Animation track also has a Track Contents menu, which lets you use props with characters.

Note: Story Character Animation tracks cannot use data mapped to a Character Reference Node as part of its characterization. The Travelling Node in the Character Animation track prevents access to this data.

Camera Animation tracks:

    A Camera Animation track appears when you drag a camera from the Viewer window into the Action Track list. You could also add a Camera Animation track to the Action Track list and select a custom camera from the Track Content menu.

Constraint tracks:

     A Constraint track appears when you drag a constraint from the Asset browser or Scene browser into the Action Track list. See Create constraints clips.

Note: A Constraint track must be placed below the track containing the animation that the constraint is meant to affect. To move a track, click on its name and drag it up or down to the desired location.

Command tracks:

      A Command track appears when you drag one of the Command assets from the Asset browser into the Action Track list. There three types of commands. See About Story clips.

Shot tracks:

   A Shot track appears whenever you drag a camera from the Viewer window or Scene browser into the Shot Track list. Shot tracks are unique to the Edit Timeline. See Editing with shot clips and Edit Track list for more information.

Track priority:

    Clips placed on the same track blend horizontally. In cases where there are multiple tracks of the same type, the top tracks have priority. These tracks are read vertically, blending from top to bottom. The top-most “track” is in fact the Transport Controls window.

   You can change how multiple animation tracks are read by using track options like Additive, Override, and Passthrough.

Note: A Constraint track must be placed below the track containing the animation that the constraint is meant to affect. To move a track, click on its name and drag it up or down to the desired location.

     When you have many clips on one track, you can merge or “flatten” them into a clip by processing the track. You can also do this to multiple tracks and subtracks, provided they are all the same track type.

      You can merge clips of tracks and subtracks into a clip to save the result of the animation clips in your scene without altering the original animation clips.

Animating on Layers:

    Create and blend multiple layers of animation in a scene. You can create layers to organize keyframe animation, or to keyframe on top of animation without overwriting the original curves.

    Animation layers hold animation in your scene, with each layer containing the keyframes you set. The animation layers appear stacked in the Animation Layer editor, and depending on various settings, blend to create the result animation that plays in your scene.

  For example, you might load an animation sequence with a character running and jumping, then create an animation layer on top to experiment with modifications to the jumping action. You can watch the original animation to identify a point where you want to exaggerate the character’s movements on the Y-axis, then set keys on the new layer to see how changing the translation along the Y-axis affect the jump. If you like the modified jump motion, you can choose to merge the animation layers. If you decide to leave your original animation unchanged, you can discard the layer.

MotionBuilder animation layers let you:

1.     Modify animation without overwriting original keyframes
2.     Set whether layers override those that are lower in the stack
3.     Make incremental changes, and compare and preview the results on different layers

The Animation Layer editor lets you do the following:

1.     Change the order of layers
2.     Parent layers to one another
3.     Mute, solo, and weight the effect of each layer
4.     Compare animation using a combination of layer parenting, Override layers, and muting features
5.     Merge layers.

Features

1.     Realtime display and animation tools
2.     Facial and skeletal animation
3.     Best-of-class support for motion capture devices; ability to derive skeletal animation from trajectories of markers of optical motion capture systems (restricted to human moves, built-in actor tool)
4.     A SDK that exposes functionality through Python and C++ via Qt and PySide.
5.     Ragdoll physics
6.     Inverse kinematics
7.     3D non-linear editing system (the Story tool)
8.     Professional video broadcast output and input (input video may be mapped to any 3D object in the scene as the texture)
9.     Direct connection to other Autodesk digital content creation tools
10.     The FBX (.fbx) file format for 3D software interoperability has grown out of this package