What's New in Character Controls
 
 
 

New Character setup tools

The new Character Controls window and Characterization Tool improve your character workflow.

 

Character Controls window

The new Character Controls window gives you a visual interface for interacting with the FK and IK effectors on your Control rigs.

The Character Controls let you activate different manipulation and keying modes depending on whether you want to work on the entire body, specific body parts, or only the current selection. The Figure representation gives you constant visual feedback on which parts of the character are active for keying, reach and pull values.

Other controls let you quickly pin and unpin Control rig effectors, create auxiliary effectors and pivots, and adjust the reach and pull properties between a Control rig and its retargeting source.

 

Characterization Tool

The new Characterization Tool provides character animators with an improved, more visual tool for mapping and defining the structure of characters. Designed to be consistent with other Autodesk applications, the Characterization Tool helps to enhance your character animation pipeline, with improved error reporting and an intuitive, visual interface.

New Actor Controls window

 

With its improved visual interface, the new Actor Controls window echoes the look and feel of the new Character Controls window.

New Character solver

Now, the default character solver in MotionBuilder is HIK 4.5.

Maya interoperability

You can now use Send to commands to transfer character data between MotionBuilder and Maya. This means you no longer need to export your characters from Maya to FBX to import them into MotionBuilder. To see the Send to Maya commands in the MotionBuilder File menu, you must have the latest version of Maya installed on your computer.

3ds Max interoperability

You can now use Send to commands to transfer character data between MotionBuilder and 3ds Max. This means you no longer need to export your biped, skeleton, or character from 3ds Max to FBX to import them into MotionBuilder. To see the Send to 3ds Max commands in the MotionBuilder File menu, you must have the latest version of 3ds Max installed on your computer.

Dynamic Baking

Now, dynamic baking automatically detects what constraints need to be baked before sending objects to remote applications using the new single-step interoperability commands.

Marker types

Additional types have been added to the properties list for markers. You can choose to display a marker as any of the following marker types: cube, sphere, square, circle, hard cross, light cross, box, bone, or stick.