MB Tutorial Part 7: Characterizing Video Lecture | A Complete Course: Motion Builder - Professional Skills

okay in this lesson right here what
we're going to do is we're going to take
a look at how we can characterize the
alien that we just brought in from Maya
before we get started though the first
thing I'd like to do is share with you
what characterize means in its simplest
form basically once you characterize a
character it's no longer just a piece of
geometry with bones in it or joints in
it it is actually a character as far as
MotionBuilder is concerned
in other words MotionBuilder actually
recognizes this as a character so that
we can then use various sources for
controlling it such as a control rig or
an actor or even another character so
the bottom line is once you bring a
character into MotionBuilder to really
take advantage of all the cool features
of MotionBuilder as far as animation is
concerned you need to characterize your
character isn't that right Zach sounds
cool all right so let's take a look at
how we can characterize them first thing
let's look down here in our scene
browser and find characters you'll
notice right now that characters is not
able to be expanded meaning that we have
no characters in the scene I mean at
this point all we've done is we've just
brought in some geometry and some
skeleton join right there's no actual
character here exactly so to place the
character in the scene I'm simply going
to come over here to my asset browser
and locate well there we go asset
browser locate templates go ahead and
expand it and then come down to
characters okay from there if we look
over on the right-hand side you'll
locate character all you need to do
let's go ahead as a matter of fact let's
just kind of zoom in on this a little
bit let's click on character over here
hold the left mouse button down and then
drag as Zach said earlier it's a
drag-and-drop type system we'll just
simply drag it over our alien or over
our geometry and you'll see that it's
going to highlight green indicating that
we can make this into a character so
we'll simply go ahead and let go of the
mouse button and two things just happen
when we got a little pop-up menu right
here with the word character eyes on it
and also if you look down your scene
browser over here we already have a
character in the scene now so let's go
ahead and characterize this though at
this point we don't have to characterize
it but if you remember when we did the
lesson in Maya I made sure that I use
proper joints I use the proper names etc
so by hitting characterize right now
MotionBuilder should recognize
everything and automatically
characterize it for us
that's cool so I'll go ahead and click
characterize I'll pause for just a
second
as long as we don't have any troubles
everything should have worked fine and
we'll go ahead and verify this now by
coming down here to characters and I'll
just double click down here on character
now the first thing I'd like to do is
simply right-click on it and the menu
come down to rename and let's give this
guy a name other than character about
alien yeah that sounds pretty good to me
all right now by default generally you
come up to your character settings tab
right here all we need to do is come
over here to character definition okay
this is where this is basically where it
happens this is where we help
MotionBuilder identify your skeletal
setup or we can see that the characters
already been characterized in
MotionBuilder does indeed understand a
setup and in our case right here you see
the check box next to characterized and
you'll see everything over here up
underneath model is grayed out at the
moment basically what this means is we
did everything right
MotionBuilder did recognize what we had
so it took care of the characterization
for you and a control rig was even
created which is really cool you'll
notice the create button over here has
been great out now in a few minutes what
we'll do is we'll open up a character
that the naming has been a little flawed
on and we'll take a look at how we can
go in there and fix it all right that's
cool because this goes all the way back
to something you said earlier and that
is you could use your own naming if
you'd like right like if you already had
a character built and you want to
actually put it into motion builder from
you know from a prior prior project
exactly so how could you go about taking
those joints and applying them to the
right right then right well down here
let's go ahead and kind of extend the
size of this right here just so we can
see a little bit better basically this
is my mapping list and remember when in
the last lesson I was talking about all
of the different joints that are
required and then all of the optional
joints that are out there that you can
use well you can see right here we've
got base and these are required joints
and if I come over here and I expand
this then you'll see there's hips left
up leg left leg left foot does some of
these little some names we used in Maya
very good and you'll notice since I
happen to use the same names basically
motion builder when it characterized my
alien and just through these names in
there and after mole into place yes all
the way down and you'll see now that if
we were to come on down a little bit
further
there's auxilary
left toes right toes and you'll see some
of these are actually being used and
that in fact all of these right here are
being used and if we won't want to go
down a lil bit further let's say our
left hand since we didn't actually put
joints in the hand inside the Maya
lesson we can go and expand it and drop
on down a little bit further and you can
see all of the different joints that you
can use when actually it actually gives
us our list of available joint exactly
so if you've got the question of well
how do I know what joint names I can use
this is where you need to come you get a
full listing right here and you're ready
to go very cool okay now let's just go
ahead and go ahead and close that back
up so again this is my mapping list and
let's kind of move this down let me go
and point this out this is pretty
important to know if I need to make a
change to any of this right here I need
to uncheck character eyes then I can
make changes then I need to check
character eyes again to recharacterize
it all right okay so let's go ahead and
see how this kind of works to our
advantage right now let's go ahead and
come over here to character settings
okay now we have input type at this
point MotionBuilder understands this
character so I can use one of their
ultra cool control rigs it's just a
matter of simply coming over to input
type dragging this down and we can come
down here you can see that we have
several different input types and we'll
just come down here to control rig input
I'll go ahead and select it and then
we'll hit activate and look at this my
control rig is now activate if I come
over here to character controls at this
point I can simply come in oops and
start selecting things and we'll go
ahead and activate and move them around
okay sweet okay so anyways see how that
works I like it
alright simple enough now next thing I
want to do is go ahead and kind of pull
that on back out here is go ahead and
open up another file that's bad okay and
see how we can go about fixing it all
right so let's just come on up here to
file and maybe not necessarily bad just
name differently than motion builders
naming convention exactly that's what I
mean yeah okay so in other words that
the character eyes is not going to
happen automatically and how do you know
that it doesn't have it that it didn't
happen and how do you go about fixing it
very nice so here she comes here she
comes alright and coming coming coming
because just for the record I don't
think any of my characters have a skill
that's named quite that well yeah okay
so let's go ahead and just kind of zoom
back here just a little bit move them on
up joint 2526
yeah you don't ever let me catch you
doing that all right so right now you'll
see there's no characters in the scene
so what I want to do the same thing we
saw a few minutes ago
is again from up underneath templates
characters find my character icon over
here simply left-click drag it up and
over my geometry let go get
characterized let's go ahead and
characterize it boy that was quick that
time it was just it was quick hmm that's
probably because it didn't actually
characterize it let's go ahead and come
down over here I'll double click and
character in fact a good protocol to
follow let's go ahead and name it we'll
do alien again go ahead and hit enter
and now let's go and come over here to
the character definition tab again and
check it out this time character rise
has not been checked so our alien has
not been characterized we don't have a
control rig okay to work with all right
if we come back over here if we go to
input type take a look we don't even
have we can't even select an input we
can't change that because even though
we've got a character in the scene
MotionBuilder doesn't understand its
structure so that it can't apply other
things to it other types to actually
drive its drive its little skeletal
hierarchy I see so the automatic system
that should be going on wasn't because
the bones were not named properly
according to motion builders naming
committee well we've got some problem we
don't really know at the moment so let's
see how we find out all right I got you
okay so if I come back over here to
character definition very first place
I'm gonna come as straight over here and
to base required and take a look at this
well first of all everything is not
disabled okay we actually see stuff
there and I see a problem yeah left up
Lake currently says no model so this
would be like if you were naming maybe
you miss something so maybe I missed
something I mean I know the left up leg
is there but you know maybe I just
accidentally spelled something the wrong
way or who knows so let's see how we can
go about fixing that go ahead and drag
this one back down I'm gonna come up
here to my view or let's go ahead and
come into view and I'm going to come
down and switch this over to a schematic
view of course I could have used ctrl W
as well and then I'll go and hit a to
frame this thing up and then what I need
to do is find out what my problem is
and it was with which what which guy
again left up leg left up leg so where's
left up leg at doo doo just gonna kind
of come around and up a little bit
higher hmm left hip okay
there's right up leg but this is left
hip this is wrong I could go ahead and
come in here and rename it I just
double-click to select it right or I
could use this name all I need to do is
simply hold alt down and while holding
alt I can left click and drag this guy
down here to the area that's bad place
my mouse over where it says no model
right across from left up leg and simply
let go and you see now it says left hip
okay so now it designates left up leg
with in MotionBuilder to left hip on
your actual exactly it now knows that
that should be used as the left up well
that'd save you a lot of time over
having to rename every single bone in
your character exactly so at this point
all I need to do now since I know
everything else is good you could kind
of dig down here and make sure there's
no other no models found I just click
characterize I'm now going to get a
pop-up dialog that's going to tell me
the same thing I told you guys back in
the last lesson and that is the
character must be in a stance pose
facing the positive z axes and it is
that's how we modelled it and set it up
over in Maya so I'll go ahead and click
OK and check it out it characterized if
now let me go ahead and say this real
quick if something else was wrong it
would tell us it would tell still tell
us that all of our models have not been
set up properly and that it was unable
to characterize it and then we would
need to continue digging down and find
out what I kept finding each problem in
the list exactly so let's go and come up
here to views and let's go and switch
back over to a perspective view now that
he's characterized at this point we did
not get a control rig auto generator and
even though this particular lesson isn't
a big lesson on control rigs I just want
you to see how we can quickly generate
one by simply coming over here to the
right to the control rig section hitting
create and now it's going to ask okay
what kind of control rig do you want to
create an f ki K rig and I can only rig
or a cancel if you want to cancel out
the operation I'll go ahead and say f ki
K rig so we'll create it give it just a
second and we're done at this point
we've basically done the same thing as
if MotionBuilder had automatically
characterized the hole
thing from the beginning we just had to
kind of take a couple extra steps
ourself because the naming was a little
you know the first couple of times I saw
you do this you know I remember doing
this kind of thing in Maya actually
setting up the I K and the rigging and
getting everything going right it's
scary how easy this is I know I know I
love it so let's go ahead and come over
here let's have some fun real quick and
we can come back to our input type let's
go ahead and switch this back over let's
come down to a control rig input we can
go ahead and activate it and there you
go we've got our control rig and our
color coding and we can start
manipulating them but let's go ahead and
do a couple of other things now if we
come over here back to our scene browser
and we expand scene there's reference
remember reference from the lesson
before Maya yeah we group together the
skeleton and the geometry we have a node
reference exactly well here's where it's
gonna work in our advantage if I expand
right now reference you'll see up
underneath it there's my high res alien
and then there's hips that's that that
was the root of the joint so I can just
come in here and double click on
reference and check this out
oh that's cool so now I can reposition
them so let me go ahead and just kind of
move this down I'm going to simply
rotate around make sure I've kind of got
them above the ground cuz I want to go
ahead and spin just a minute and talk
about something else that's kind of cool
let's come back down here real quick two
characters double click on alien again
now if I slide down over here floor
contact
oh wow turn this on okay now if I come
back up and double click on reference
now if I move this guy down oh wow that
is what do you need huh and we've got
these little foot markers that allow us
to basically specify where the bottom of
the foot is okay so if I want to I could
just quickly come in here and save you
let's go to an orthographic view and how
about let's go to producer right and
then we can just go ahead and spend just
a second and zoom on in right here just
so that you can see how we can go about
doing this is real simple there's my
foot markers all I need to do is just
left-click on it and this selects all
the way across so that basically it's
not just this one foot there's basically
one for each side of the heel and then
the other foots got one for each side of
it because you're selecting four so I
just selected four now I can just come
in here and repossess
and this guy around hang on one second
let's just go ahead and come back over
here and let's put this on drag and go
ahead and move this down to the bottom
corner right about there and then I can
come over here and grab this one right
here kind of push him back to about the
ball of the foot right there
and then come over here and grab the
front one and move it let's say right
about there for the the toe pivot area
and by doing that now let's go ahead and
spend just a second and switch over to
another or orthographic this time let's
go ahead and do a front view and we'll
go ahead and again zoom on back in and
these guys can be scaled as well if you
wanted to simply come over here and this
is pretty neat if I just hit s and then
scale you can see that all of them are
scaling okay
so now let's go ahead and hit T and
watch this this is so neat I'm gonna
move this one right here to position it
over here to define where the outer part
of my foot is and watch what happens to
my other foot marker so just move this
on oh I see isn't that great mirrors the
translates so we'll go ahead and grab
the inside right here and define where
the inside of the foot is so now we've
got our foot marked well all the way
around okay
so I'll go ahead and control V we're
back over into a perspective view our
foots now set up properly and if I want
I can come back up here to reference and
since I happen to be using Dede
oh that is nice very good now you can
also use geometry as well so that you
can have your your character's feet
respond properly to geometry but that's
not the idea of this lesson is all about
Cathy was climbing up there's his feet
would actually go on the staircase
there's yeah there's exactly there's
some really neat things we can do but
absolutely now let's go ahead and real
quick let's have two seconds worth of
fun one of the tutorial files that you
can download from the Coderre web site
for motion builder has to deal with
actually mapping character to a
character so I just want to just real
quickly for a little bit of fun let's go
ahead and drag this BVH file in and
let's go ahead and come over here to
import and let's just import all takes
we're just going to be real quick about
this just to show the power of working
with motion builder I mean you guys have
now seen from the very beginning from
the last lesson I took my geometry I
applied joints in them it didn't take
long
all I did my skinning I didn't brought
him over here into MotionBuilder which
was a snap
then inside a MotionBuilder I
characterized him which happened
instantaneously because I did all of my
naming properly now you saw that with
the click of a button I've got a control
rig that I can use to drive him or I can
map him to another character as well and
this is just just just a load of fun so
let's go ahead and come back down here
real quick to our character as you see
we've got two characters now and
basically what we want a lien to be
driven by another character type so what
I'm going to do is come over here to
input type and I'm going to want
basically what I want is the input type
to be from another character so I'll
select character input now my characters
that are available down here is just a
lien and BVH and so since this is the
alien the only input source that I'll
have available is going to be BVH so
I'll go ahead and select it as soon as I
activate it he's gonna snap into the
same pose but it's really nice about
this reference though is I can simply
select my reference move him on down I
can't go below the floor check it out
here comes oh he's still responds to the
floor he still responds and now with
this very little amount of effort here
he goes very smooth that looked great
and let's go and turn on looping over
here so we could loop around let's go
ahead and rewind that real quick and
let's play all right so now some of the
other things we can do of course this is
going to be a little sluggish for those
of you guys watching that what you guys
need to do this in the real viewport but
with with reference selected down here
I'm just gonna go ahead and tap are
let's go ahead and rotate him in another
direction all together and we'll just
rewind this back at the beginning and
play again check this out it still moves
properly it still moves properly now
walking in the direction we've now
pointed at that's amazing and I mean not
only that there's a lot of things we can
do and again we're now kind of getting
above and beyond things that we wanted
to cover in this lesson but I could even
go as far right now
as let's just come up here and scale
them up if I wanted to so I could scale
them no let's not get too giant and go
ahead and move them back down let's see
right about there
and let's go ahead again we'll just
simply rotate them and now we've got
somewhat of a giant let's go ahead and
move this down
a little bit and let's go ahead and zoom
back rewind and look at that though the
animations still map properly that's the
beauty of characterizing once it's
characterized it just understands me
he's larger of things that's awesome and
now that he's larger he's actually
taking bigger steps yeah exactly it's
the animations basically been scaled so
it works just saying raisi okay so you
know basically this is all I wanted to
talk about in this lesson it's like now
that I have actually brought in a
character from another package and he
set up right how do I make MotionBuilder
recognize him by characterizing him and
then once he's characterized and
redshirt as a character over here what
can I do with him how can I come over
here and simply have different input
types Drive him and we also took an
extra step to show how to go about
dealing with joints being named the
wrong thing and correcting that and
recharacterizing it and creating a
control rig okay all right so that's
going to conclude this lesson right here
hope you guys got a lot out of it thanks