MB Tutorial Part 5: Basic Animation Video Lecture | A Complete Course: Motion Builder - Professional Skills

in this lesson we're going to be taking
a look at basic animation in
MotionBuilder specifically keyframe
animation now motionbuilder offers all
sorts of ways of animating we've got
motion capture we've got constraints
we've got expressions we've got keyframe
animation the list goes on and on but
this is vtm issue number one and in the
first issues we always try to provide
just a basic foundation of the
application itself just so that our
users can get up and running with it
just sound good sounds right so with
that obviously keyframe animation would
be the best place to start because after
all it is kind of the foundation of
animation inside of software packages
like this so before we get started I
think it would probably be a good idea
if I explain exactly what keyframe
animation is okay keyframe animation is
the recording of a parameters value at a
given point in time then we advance
through time we advance ahead we change
that value on that same parameter and
then we record it again now we've got
two keyframes 1 at an earlier point in
time and then one later as the computer
then plays back between these two points
and times the computer will interpolate
the value this means that the value is
going to be increasing or decreasing who
knows but basically what we get is
animation because the parameter value is
now changing over time ok this is make
sense act that's probably one of the
best explanations I've heard whew okay
good so all right so let's go ahead move
on now that we understand what keyframe
animation is let's go ahead first turn
our attention down here to transport
controls transport controls is a very
important area when working with
keyframe animation for the simple fact
that we need to be able to control where
we are in time if we can play rewind
stop things like that things like how
fast we're going to play things like
what format are we going to play it and
how many frames per second you got it
okay so with that very basic explanation
let's go ahead and just kind of take a
trip around the transport controls and
talk about the different things that it
does starting up here in the upper
left-hand corner we've got take 001 and
takes play a very important role in
MotionBuilder it's a way of us organize
organize an amazed if you will so let's
let's give an example as probably the
best way to explain takes I bring a
character in I got take 001
let's say I call that take walk and I
animate my character walking then I want
to do a separate take so I create a new
take and you can see it when i click on
the drop down here then I've got take
002 and it says new beside it so I can
go ahead and start a new tape and then
that take if I come down here and drag
my timeline indicator back and forth
I'll have no animation also it's like
the keyframes don't exist because I'm on
a new take I can now call this take
let's just say run and animate my
character running so now I have two
different takes with two completely
different animations in them they're
completely separate from one another and
those takes remain separate from each
other like completely absolutely
separate from one another now we do have
the ability to go into motion blend and
blend between takes so I could have my
character walking and then go into a run
very cool okay and we're going to be
taking a closer look it takes and motion
blend in VT m issue number two so no
that's coming real soon alright so let's
go ahead and move on from takes and
we'll go ahead and move over here into
our time code field basically what we've
got right here is the given frame that
we're on and then we have the subframes
alright so we can change these simply by
clicking and then dragging so I drag
left and right you can see my timeline
indicator down here move and what this
does is indicates exactly what frame we
are on at the moment so that if we were
to place a keyframe down that keyframe
would go on that frame that makes that
makes sense ok the subframes over here
allow us to kind of what's the word I'm
looking for dig our way down between
frames basically we can take between two
frames when we slice it up into 100
slices and those are subframes and you
can see these numbers change as I come
down here and I drag my timeline
indicator which by the way I'm just
going to start referring to as my time
slider a lot of people know that from
other applications it's you know right
right the idea so as I click and drag
down here you can see I'm going through
subframes okay so this could be good
sometimes this can be bad go uh let's
say I wanted to go to like a given frame
like I know I want to go to frame 30 do
I have to drag all the way to frame 30
oh no you can come in here and we can
double click on this type 30 n it's that
simple enough very nice how about we
could come down here and double click on
our timeline indicator and type 60 n
there's all sorts of ways that we can
get straight to a specific frame very
cool ok and of course
same does apply over here to the
subframes as well if we need to go to a
specific subframe we can do that okay
right now I've got snap on frames so
when i typed in 55 it didn't go to it
we'll talk about snap on frames in just
a second alright so that's dealing with
frames it's just all about where we are
at this moment okay so let's go ahead
and move on over here to our play
controls and play controls are very
common in throughout all 3d applications
so this should be familiar to just about
everybody that's watching this vtm right
now the only thing that may be
interesting would be this record button
and the record button is used with
motion capture okay and we'll be talking
about this at a different point in time
okay with a different BTM actually right
so let's go ahead and move on into the
standard play controls of course we've
got play stop we can play backwards if
we need to stop we can rewind to the
beginning we can fast-forward to the
very end of the animation if we wanted
to we can step one frame at a time
backwards we can step one frame at a
time for words and you get the idea okay
regular bridge it's very basic let's
move over here you'll notice we've got
this little arrow that kind of wraps
around and right now it's got a slash
through it this is for looping right now
looping is turned off so if I hit play
you're going to see down here that my
timeline indicator is just going to move
through and when it gets the very end it
stops because looping is not on let's
just go ahead and back this up a little
bit turn looping on and hit play and now
what happens when we hit the end we
start all back over okay so with that
let's go ahead now and move over here
into our timing controls timing controls
play an important part in setting
animation up and how it plays back the
very first one right here is our play
speed right now it's set to 1x which
means we're going to play back at
basically the given speed and the given
at the given format in other words right
now we're looking at playing 30 frames
per second so that's what we're going to
get playing back to us inside our viewer
window right okay and of course I can
come in here and I can change this I
could say play it one half speed if I
wanted to so now my animations going to
be slowing down if I wanted to I could
go in here and say play at double speed
at 2x now I'm animation is going to be
playing a lot faster alright guys out
there be four warned though
MotionBuilder will drop frames to
maintain the play rate that you've
selected that's really important to
understand and of course this all
depends on the speed of your computer we
so let's go ahead and switch this back
over to one frame next thing we have
over here is our time format right now
we've got it set to 30 frames 30 frames
per second and you'll see that we have
time code and we also have frames to
work with we'll be coming back to this a
little bit later on right now that's all
I want to talk about so let's go ahead
and slide on over from there now we've
get into our little snapping section
where we can set it to know snap at the
moment I can drag through and you can
see I'm seeing frames and subframes
change and as I let go of my mouth you
can see that the sub sub frame stays
intact in other words i let it up let go
on 56 @ status suffering 56 okay so now
if I come over here I may not want that
to happen I may want to snap on frame so
I'll go ahead and set snap on frames and
look what just happened ah the subframe
zeroed out exactly now as I drag down
here let go the moment I let go with
zeros out so i'll move this all the way
up to here we go 32.8 e 1 i'll let it go
33 so it's rounding to the closest frame
you got it okay simple enough okay so
that snap on frame we can come down here
to play on frames what this will do is
basically let's just take a look at two
frames frame one frame too if I animate
an object at one position at frame one
and another position at frame two and
then I was to playback the animation
let's say in super slow motion that
object is actually interpolating between
frame one and frame too because of these
100 subframes does that make sense make
sense to me ok if we tell it to play on
frames it's simply going to play frame 1
and then frame too so the object would
look like it's snapped from point A to
point B okay and then of course we can
come down here and do snap and play on
frames and this is just a combination
there's a way to turn both of them all
exactly so let's go ahead and set this
back to snap on frames now the next
thing I want to do before we start
talking about the center section right
here is just quickly bring your
attention down here to this giant ruler
looking thing this is my global timeline
and I've already been talking about the
timeline indicator okay so it's just
it's a ruler for time if you will that's
good enough now with that let's go ahead
and move back up here to the center
section the center area right here is
known as the zoom bar but before I get
into that it's probably more important
to explain the start and the infields
over here this is where we control the
length of the animation so right now our
annum
starts at frame 0 ends at frame 150 so
if we want the animation to be shorter
let's say we want 60 frames I could
simply left-click and drag right here or
i could come in here double click and
type 60 frames 7 like that very simple
okay so now you can see that my ruler
has changed to indicate going from frame
0 2 frames 60 so I'm happy with that
that allows us now to move over here and
talk about the zoom bar we know our
animations going from 0 to 60 but I may
have a specific piece of animation that
I'm willing to keep an eye on or kind of
study as I'm fine tuning it up or
something like that right right that's
the between let's say frame 20 and frame
50 I can use the zoom bar to come in
here and zoom in between frame 20 and
frame 60 so right there i'm at 20 well
actually went to 21 and then let's go
ahead and come over here not 60 min 50
let's go ahead and drag this back to say
50 and now if you look down here on the
global timeline it goes from 20 to 50
very nice okay I can also click and drag
this around to adjust that entire range
if I wanted to for those of you guys out
there that are used to working with my
it's the same thing as the range slider
right I can also just wanted to point
out a couple more things I can simply
put my mouse over the number of course
click and drag there click and drag over
here and i'm also free to double click
and I can type a specific number in if I
want to type 0 and over here I want to
go ahead and type I don't know 60 okay
so now we're looking at the entire thing
so I think that you know that's pretty
thorough that kind of goes through just
about everything we have available
inside the transport controls window so
now let's go ahead and move on let's go
let's do some animation let's do it all
right let's start out by taking a cube
I'm just going to drag and drop it over
here in the scene and I'm going to hit s
for a scale translation mode or excuse
me scale transformation mode let's go
ahead and scale this guy up and I'll go
ahead hit T and that's just let's move
it right there good enough what I'm
interested in doing is animating this
guy moving from one point to the other
from one side to the other side over 60
frames so this is going to bring us into
a discussion about key controls Zach you
want to talk about key controls a little
bit well the key controls are going to
allow you to place frames and your scene
move back and forth between keyframes
okay work with layers work with layers
layers are kind of interesting in
MotionBuilder they allow you to place a
different it's hard to say
let me see by basically layers like
working in photoshop right okay for
those you guys are familiar with
Photoshop it allows us to go in and play
basically we can have different layers
and we can place different animation on
the different layers and MotionBuilder
is going to basically add all that stuff
up and play it back for you in real time
that's exactly what I was going to say
so that we can if we wanted to put an
animation track down or an animation on
a specific layer and then move on to
another layer so we don't accidentally
mess up the animation on that layer
exactly okay good enough and of course
we start out at the base layer we do
have layer 1 already available and we
can create new layers and will actually
come back to this in a minute but you
know what by default with the exception
of control rigs everything that we put
in there can only be keyframed on the
base layer by default okay it does that
make sense it makes perfect sense now we
can put animation on other layers but if
we choose to but if we choose to we have
to do something oh okay does that ring a
bell I'm just sweat to set the thing to
multi take okay we'll get to that in a
minute gutsy layer okay now you're
really starting to talk good multiplayer
sounds new layer sounds good don't worry
guys we're about to cover this in a
minute so this is dealing with right now
we're on the base layer all right next
thing that's really important is we need
to specify to motionbuilder what exactly
we want to put a keyframe on so if I
drop this guy down right here you'll see
I've got trtr STRs and selected
properties excuse me what this allows me
to do is if I let's say oh right now I
only want to drop key frames on
translation okay because I want to I
want to move this guy moving from one
side to the other where I can simply
come in here and select t look at this
all these guys just came to life now if
i was to press the key button which will
do but let's first go ahead and move our
time slider back here we'll press key we
have just recorded a keyframe on the
base layer for the translate x y&z of
this cube right here there's the key
frame right there and since our timeline
indicator is on the same frame that the
keyframe exists on there is an asterisk
beside key right here if I was to move
my little time slider over look at that
the asterisk is gone because if we hit
the key button
according a new keyframe not updating
the value that's in that keyframe this
make sense yeah makes sense i'll sit
like a handy way to keep track of where
you are okay yeah we can look at it that
way so let's go ahead and move all the
way over here to frame 60 because for
those of you that are not used to
working with keyframe animation it's
very important that you first always
move your time slider then you can go
make value changes and record it okay if
you make value changes and record it
first and then move your timeline
indicator you're going to end up with
problems things may snap back your
values are going to snap back that's
just not good all right so now here we
are over at frame 60 so let's go ahead
and make a change so we'll just grab
this guy here and move them all the way
over to the other side and we'll come
over here and hit key now you see we got
an asterisk because right now there is a
key frame that exists where my timeline
indicator is and guess what i have now
set up the little explanation that i
gave at the very beginning about what
keyframe animation is we recorded this
object parameters translate X Y and Z's
values at a given time in this case it
happens to be at frame 0 and then we
advanced forward through time like I
said earlier and we were and we made a
value change to those parameters and we
did we moved it in X and then we
recorded those values at this new time
there's our new keyframe and now as we
move through time MotionBuilder is going
to interpolate between the keyframes huh
very nice i like it okay so that's
what's going on there alright so we're
done now just hundred I'm just kidding
let's go ahead and let's go and talk
about just a few more things alright so
right now you can see that I can come in
here and basically select you know if I
want to do let's say translate and
rotation at the same time this will drop
keys on my translate x y&z and my rotate
x y&z if I wanted to come in here and
specify just one of them specifically I
could do it if I wanted to do all three
I could do it as well or I could even do
selected properties and what this will
allow me to do is go in over here to
properties and actually specify who I
want to put animation on so right now
I'm putting animation on rotation
putting animation on translation and you
may be thinking well that's no big deal
you just showed it to me in this
drop-down right here well it is kind of
a big deal because that drop-down didn't
contain
ability if I wanted to put a key on
visibility nice or let's say that I was
working with a light it's going to come
back over to the asset browser real
quick click and drag a light into the
scene okay so now we've got a light and
let's go ahead and we can just work with
it right here intensity I can select
intensity and now that's what I'm going
to be dropping a keyframe on very cool
so you can like animate the intensity
like all these attributes of the light
yes very nice if I wanted to animate its
cone getting larger or smaller it
getting brighter changing colors all
sorts of stuff that's awesome okay but
it's very important that you go in there
and actually mark which property it is
that you want to animate because all
that you're going to find available
inside here is just going to be your
standard transformation type properties
all right okay so let's go ahead real
quick this does bring up another point
right now I've been hitting this key
button another thing i'd like to go
ahead and point out is that you could
have been hitting the k key on your
keyboard as well but you'll notice by
these properties down here I've got a
little k button this is a key button all
i need to do if i want to do any key
framing is simply mark the attribute or
mark the parameter by clicking on it and
then hit k and that just recorded myself
a keyframe now i can move ahead in time
and let's change the intensity now go
with something brighter in fact I'm
going to go ahead and switch up here
over into a perspective view it'll make
it easier to see so I've made my
intensity brighter I'll go ahead and hit
k again now watch what happens as i
slide through time okay you see it
actually may be kind of hard to see
let's go ahead and record over this
animation right there so we'll go ahead
and rekey that well didn't mean to do
that there let's go ahead and just rekey
that okay now watch what happens is
we're moving from this point right there
up look at the intensity it's getting
brighter Wow very nice alright so the
little k right here can be really handy
also we have a button over here labeled
a this is our anime button this is a way
of quickly killing animation on a given
a property I can just come in here
uncheck this a or unclick the a and it
says remove all animation and
constraints on this property I'll tell
it ok and now you'll notice as I drag
back and forth that my intensity is not
changing okay all right temple enough so
let's see what else can we talk about
real quick these two buttons right here
all
now is to move forwards and backwards
through a key so let's just go ahead and
set this back over here to translate and
let's go ahead and come back in here and
select our cube so now if we drop any
keys down like let's move over here to
about I don't know about three frame 30
and switch this over to a front view
again and let's translate this up let's
go ahead and drop down one more key so
now I've got a bit of an arcing motion
here this will make demonstrating this
next spot easy I can now just simply
move forward through keyframes so this
will allow me to advance to the next
keyframe this will allow me to back up
to the previous keyframe in case you
just want to update the data within the
keys exactly okay this can be handy also
because if you're dealing with subframes
and it can be kind of hard to match up
exactly on the frame / subframe where
you recorded that information right okay
so finally down here delete we can
actually delete out a key frame 0 and
flat these are pretty important as far
as the type of information that I mean
when we actually record the key frame
it's this is in reference to one is in
reference to the actual tangent type
which we'll talk more about in a second
and the other one is about both tangent
and value okay every time we hit key
what we're doing is replacing hey do you
remember what it is that a keyframe I
know but what's happened k I'm sorry
didn't mean oh we're putting down an
auto an engine and auto type which is
cubic okay so for those you guys out
there with other applications it's
basically like spline interpolation or
smooth interpolation depending on which
application you're coming from so this
allows us to do a nice smooth
interpolation but it can also lead to
overshoot okay depending on certain
scenarios that you may be in that's what
we can use flat for flat we'll
automatically place a keyframe down with
tangents that are flat that are
horizontal across and this prevents
overshoot it also gives us a nice ease
in and ease out which is really cool 0
will give us also flat tangent but it
will set the value that we're keying at
0 okay so it'll automatically throw a
keyframe in with its value at 0 not at
whatever you may have set it over here
on your actual in your viewer or every
one of your property settings okay so
those are good to know now we can go
ahead let's come up under animation
let's see plot and clear all properties
clear all properties you want to talk
about that real quick
we'll go ahead come on come down here to
clear all properties clear animation on
the selected objects yes or no it's just
gonna kill the animation specific
objects like hitting that a button
earlier yeah exactly okay yes accent to
kill me I've done caught them off track
twice it's getting late at night I
understand it's all good so no we don't
want to clear that out and the other one
we always used to hitting the a button
never been down here we've got is plot
all properties and we'll talk about
plotting a little bit later on we'll
actually do it in this vtm all right
over here on options we've got take
options and we've got layer options
right now will right now I'm just
putting it on take just to say we'll
focus on normal and multi take a little
later let's go ahead and come down here
to layer options let's talk about this
for a second right now all objects that
we place in the scene other than things
that are related to a control rig are
set to mono layer what this means is
that everything that a keyframe is going
to go on the base layer I can't place
keyframe animation on layer 1 layer 2
etc if I want to place it on multiple
layers then I just need to come down
here and simply turn on multi layer and
now I could freely keyframe it on a
different layer let me go ahead real
quickly and drag out another cube and
let me scale that up for you and good
enough now take a look at this with this
cube selected right now it's going to
come back over here two options come
back up under layer options notice he is
on mono layer while if I come over here
and select this guy come back down he is
still a multi-layer so this is object
centric in other words as we set this
it's for that given object okay so we
could have some objects that require
their animation to only go on the base
layer while we've got other objects that
animation is allowed to go on multiple
layers okay cool okay now we're about to
wrap this up I think this is a pretty
decent introduction but I think there's
one last thing that I would want to see
if I was familiar with animation but
starting to animate in MotionBuilder for
the first time I would want to know what
a lot of people may call the graph
editor or the track view I wouldn't I
would want to know where i can actually
manipulate my function curves or my
animation curves all right this is done
through the F curves window okay all
right here we've got it docked at the
moment and so it's available in a tab
with this particular layout in fact
let's go ahead real quick and come up
here to window
excuse me to lay out let's change this
over to animation let's just do
something interesting now that we're
starting to actually talk about okay the
F curves window I'm going to move this
up right here to about right there and
now let's come up here you'll notice
that F curves window is not available so
where would you find it well you can
simply come up here to animation grab F
curves there it is and then I can just
kind of resize this up let's move it
down into place I don't know somewhere
about right there and let's go ahead and
kind of size this down to about right
there okay now if we wanted to we could
save this out this is a really cool
animation set up right here don't I like
it that's very nice okay awesome
customizing layouts okay so right now if
we drag our our timeline indicator back
and forth we've got animation on this
guy let's go ahead and pan on over now
I'm not seeing anything in in here right
now what it is i need to actually tell
the f curves window what parameter i
want to or what property i want to look
at its function curves on so let's go
ahead i could select x y and z as far as
translation is concerned or i could
simply click on translation to show all
three of these very nice very cool
manipulating these is very easy it's a
matter of simply coming in here clicking
and dragging it around what you may find
to be really nice when compared to other
applications is that when you select the
keyframe over on the left hand side you
have the value and down at the bottom
you've got the actual frame that is that
is very hand absolutely for those you
guys that are completely new to working
with function curves themself this is
where we actually see the way that the
computer is interpolating between two
keyframes that's what's going on right
here so we can see how we're easing out
and easing in okay good very cool we can
also see those tangents that I was
talking about and we can change tangents
between different types we got the auto
that we talked about earlier you'll
notice that as I come down here and
manipulate them myself we get user we
can break them if we'd like so that we
can control them individually let's go
ahead and flatten them back out now
they're hooked back together where I can
control them like this we can zero them
out i talked about 0 remember 0 over
here automatically sets that value at 0
okay let's go ahead and pull it back up
we can go constant so in other words if
I want this value to stay constant until
the next keyframe in it to be an
instantaneous change we can have linear
and we can also have TCB for those of
you out there that are familiar with t
CB type controllers where you have
tension continuity and biased for
adjusting the the easing in and the
easing out of the keyframe very
impressive okay kind of making sense to
you yeah everything's at the TCB bit
okay okay all right so I have any
experience with that all right well
we're not going to get into that real
deep right now I do want to go and point
out a few more things I wanted to with
this key frame selected I could come
over here to my value side simply double
click and type a new value in I could
also come down here and do the same as
well oops accidentally select it off
that you got to make sure you're on the
number when you may write other things
that are very handy and some of you guys
may be familiar with this from other
applications it's not in all
applications though but I can come down
here if I want to I can just say keep
and what keep is going to do is
basically keep a ghost of the old
animation curve you see it you see it
and you see it so I can come in here and
start making changes manipulating things
and let's say well I don't really like
that or I want to compare with the
original animation I can then swap back
over to the original animation so right
now I move my time slider forward I've
got that let's swap it back to this new
wacky stuff I've got and now I have this
something totally different now I really
like that okay once I find what I like I
can simply clear and it'll clear the
ghosts out okay so let's go ahead and
swap this back over and we'll clear to
get rid of the ghost okay excellent
alright let's see a few more things by
the way you notice how I'm making a
ghost i actually did everything that was
selected over here all of my properties
if i wanted to do just one of course
just come over here select just one it's
no big deal and of course you can come
in and select control and our by using
control you can select properties from
anywhere that's available over there in
case you're dealing with a lot of
properties that may be visible here in
the property pain you can come up here
and use compact to close all these guys
up or without compact it expands them
and you can also collapse them like this
if you'd like just some really quick
things Wow all right let's see what else
going to talk about real fast layers
over here the different layers that we
have available if we want to come into a
particular layer and create new layers
remove layers and merge layers when we
merge layers what will happen is the
animation from the layer that you're on
down we'll all merge into the base layer
okay so I think that's pretty good and
while we're not going to spend a lot of
time because we're pretty much at a time
for this lesson let's just spend just
one second and I do want
show one more thing that we have
available I come up here to animation I
know a lot of animators out there like
to use the dope sheet and of course
MotionBuilder does have a dope sheet as
well that you can use to go through and
work with its animation okay so that's
pretty much everything that I wanted to
talk about in this lesson right here I
think this covers a pretty good look at
basic animation inside of MotionBuilder
there is going to be another lesson
coming up in the near future where I am
probably going to get Zack over here and
let him operate the controls for a
little while and do some actual
animation using a control rig with our
character sounds like fun okay so that
concludes this section right here thanks
a lot guys