MB Tutorial Part 39: Character Controls Video Lecture | A Complete Course: Motion Builder - Professional Skills

alright in this lesson we're going to
have a look at some of the new features
of the character controls window now
you'll notice a few things whereas we
get started here one we've already
brought a character in this is the new
ninja character modeled by William
proton Vaughn so kudos to him on a great
model also you're going to notice that
we've customized the UI a little bit
we've just generally optimized it for
what we're going to demonstrate so we've
made a really nice big viewer the
character controls window is nice and
big with easy access we've got our asset
browser and seem browser right here
where we can see them so let's go ahead
and get started the first thing I'll do
is select our ninja from our character
controls window and will notice some new
things right off the bat firstly we've
got these three buttons here across the
top for body hands and feet some of our
effectors have some different colors in
them so maybe a little curious about
what that's all about we also have a new
slider here across the bottom we
originally had just reached T and are
now we have pull as well so let's go
over these and see what they all do I'll
start up here with the hands and feet
buttons let's come in here and have a
look at this we'll just zoom in here on
the hand in fact just to make things a
little cleaner I'll select this wrist
effector and press the F key in my view
port to focus on it so now we're just
focused right here on the hand itself
now if I click on the hands button look
at this we get a new character selection
window with effectors that are set only
for the hands so let's say maybe I
select the index finger and I get my
translation tool out look at this ah
very nice individual ik solving for the
fingers very natural looking too I can
grab all the fingers if I want to move
them all at one time scratch something
it's pretty cool you actually have the
same amount of control on fingers as you
do with the body absolutely so this is a
great new system may I mean the inside
of MotionBuilder for what you have to do
you had to go in and grab individual
knuckles and rotate them and animate
them using only FK or hand poses but
still that was a that could be a bit
tedious if you're having to do
everything by hand no
more now if you want to you have
individual ik control to make your
character grab an object maybe type on a
keyboard any kind of intricate animation
with the hands can be done very easily
with this new system fast and efficient
now there is one thing I do want to
demonstrate though that is really cool
doesn't really have anything to do with
this window but the first time you see
it it will freak you out so if you're
not sitting down and I imagine most of
you are you might want to get that way
kind of quick I highly recommend it I'm
going to grab this hand and pull it down
here close to the floor I'll press f
again just to focus up on the model or
the effector if you will and now watch
this let me rotate the hand up just a
little bit and as I pull this hand down
look oh wow individual finger solving
for floor contact that's insane even the
thumb look at this if I rotate around
here to a front like view watch the palm
rotates and the fingers actually splay
out that is too cool and it's all
automatic I don't even want to think
about the effort it would take to make
this rotation look perfect if you are
using FK and here it's all automatic I
mean a single motion boom everything's
all set it's just incredible so I had to
demonstrate that had to show that off so
let me go ahead and undo to stand our
character back upright again so there's
the hands control window now next to
that we also have feet and I'm not
really going to get much of a chance to
demonstrate that as you can see our
character doesn't really have individual
toes these is wearing shoes but if you
had a character with bare feet or maybe
a quadrupeds such as an animal and they
had individual toes on their rig this is
where you would access those toes and
the controls would be very similar to
what you just saw with the fingers you
have individual ik solution for each one
of them so very cool new control systems
for really getting in there and
controlling you know tiny aspects of
your character quickly and easily so
from here let's jump back to the body
controls let's have a look at these
various effector cells will notice that
some of these are colored in some are
greens some are half
ed what is this all about to explain
this I've got to actually jump down here
to our reach and pull sliders now reach
TNR are familiar those were available
inside of motionbuilder for all the way
up to this version but let me go ahead
and demonstrate them just kind of as a
quick recap let's zoom in here and we'll
show the FK and the ik rig and let me
set my keying mode to selection also let
me take my reach t and my pull and we'll
pull those out 20 for now now if i take
my FK effector and let's just rotate
that up we will notice the arm comes
completely with us but the ik effector
is left behind now if i grab this wrist
effector and i take its reach t and
slide it up to one hundred percent I'm
blending the arm in between FK and ik I
can also blend rotation as well with
reach are so as I blend all the way up
to reach T so now I'm sorry 04 reef
tease I'm all the way up to FK I can now
reach back to the rotation of my ik is a
great way to get customized control over
how your character is moving because not
only can you animate these rigs but you
can animate these sliders to and really
get nice clean smooth blending in
between the two so what's pull all about
well the demonstrate pull let me set my
reach t all the way up to one hundred
percent we don't really need reach all
right now i'll set my keying mode back
to full body and let me just move this
affect her and that'll snap down my my
FK rig back into place let's have a look
at exactly what pool could do before i
do that let's set reach down to zero on
this effector and then reach and pull 20
over here on the right arm as well also
let me go ahead and hide the rigs we
don't necessarily need to see them right
this minute
let's select our hips and I'm just going
to slide these back and forth and you'll
notice the wrists are just kind of
coming along with us now I want to make
edits to the reach and pull for each one
of the two wrist effectors but before I
can do that I've got to switch off the
reach and stiffness overrides these are
on by default and it can be a little bit
confusing if if you leave them on
because you won't notice much of a
difference as you change your reach in
your pull as long as you're in full body
mode so just once again if you are in
full body mode make sure you deactivate
reach override and stiffness override
before you try to play with this now I'm
going to come in here and select my
wrist effector and I'll take reach t and
set it all the way up to a hundred
percent now if I take my hips and
translate them again you'll notice the
arm is trying to stay behind so kind of
like effector pinning in version four
exactly in fact this is behaving almost
identical to affect are pinning back in
version for now pinning has been changed
in version five and i'll get to that
here in a minute don't jump ahead I'm
trying not to now that's okay per floor
it's a very good example with reset to a
hundred percent it is a lot like
effector pinning back and for the arm
itself the specific body part is trying
to maintain its original location but
the rest of the body is moving just the
same it's not having any influence
whatsoever this is where pole comes into
play pool is going to control the amount
of influence that a specific effector
has over the rest of the rig that's a
mouthful all that to say this if I set
pull up to a hundred percent and I try
to move the hips like this the whole
body tries to rotate towards it exactly
well essentially the entire rig itself
is moving to try to help maintain that
reach so let me go ahead maybe to make
it a little bit clearer let's try a
slightly different example really what
we just saw is this with a pool set to a
hundred percent we're having this
effector is having a great deal of
influence
over the rest of the rig and we can see
that because the rest of the rig is
rotating try to accommodate that motion
but let's make a slightly different
example to really drive the point home
let me switch off pull and i'm going to
set reach to something close to fifty
percent and from a top view or something
close to a top view I will drag the hips
forward and back and you'll notice that
the left arm is kind of trying to stay
behind sort of a damping effect if you
will it's not exactly coming along with
us for the ride nor is it really trying
to stay in its original location it's
getting fifty percent of its reach back
toward its original position so now with
that done let me take my pull and set
that to fifty percent as well you'll
notice something kind of interesting
here our little red bar is only filling
up to half of what the reach is so we're
only getting fifty percent of the reach
now watch the rigs behavior as I move
the hips originally just I keep jumping
back and forth originally this is what
we had I'll show it in this view as well
the arm is reaching but the hips and the
chest are not really changing their
their motion at all they're not
accommodating to this motion at all now
if I come over here and I bring up my
pull watch what happens and when I drag
the hips around
our entire rig is rotating because of
the effect that this one effector has
over the rig so this this one effector
has a great deal of influence over the
rig itself so just real quick watch this
he rotates back as I keep dragging watch
his right hand actually breaks his fall
it actually breaks his fall there's kind
of an incidental thing we noticed that
by accident but kind of a neat thing all
the same time so there's what pole is
doing its going to control the influence
that an effector can have over your rig
so with that out of the way let's have a
quick look at pinning because I said I
would but in order to access pinning
you'll notice it's grayed out right now
we have to reactivate reach and
stiffness overrides because essentially
that's what effector pennings going to
be doing now let me set these back to
zero right now and just as a quick recap
here's what we get if our effect are
pinning is zero our wrists are just
coming right along with us as we move
back and forth that's a neat maneuver I
wish I could do that anyway let me go
ahead and take excuse me need to select
the wrist effector here and i'm going to
set it spinning are we going to pin its
translation so i'm clicking t we have T
and R T for translation or rotation now
watch the difference here if I take this
the hips again and move them
the wrist is staying locked in place now
this is unlike version 4 where
originally you would get to the extent
of the arm and the wrist would start to
slide with you that is no more as you
move this that wrist stays pinned in
place it's long it's as if it were
nailed into that spot in space so a very
cool new ones they've cleaned up the the
pinning also we can pin rotation as well
so if I click on our here you'll notice
TNR visible here inside of our cell as I
move my hips okay the hand is not
rotating at all now just a as a way to
show you the difference between the two
let me come in here and I'll only set up
translation pinning on the right hand
and then as I slide this around look at
this the right hand is rotating the left
hand is not so you can see how pinning
is really it's a nice powerful way if
you need to lock your character any part
of your characters body into a single
position maybe if he were doing push-ups
on the floor something like that right
we could just put his hands on the floor
we've already seen how we can just pull
him down on the floor they'll
automatically splay out for us set up
some quick translation rotation pitting
and then just translate his hips up and
down and he's automatically doing push
up quick and easy so it's just amazing
how much simpler the control has become
now there is one more thing I want to
demonstrate before I draw this lesson to
a close and it's something that a lot of
folks have been anticipating inside of
MotionBuilder five and that well it's in
order to bring it up I'm going to start
a new scene rather than try to delete
out this character let's go to file new
that is the new quadra ped so here under
characters I've got the cat skeleton and
for an example I'm going to bring in its
stance to rest pose animation and here
comes is thinking so quad repent
four-legged animals nice no longer do
you have to worry about how to rig up a
what horses cats dogs or any other kind
of four-legged creature that your brain
can come up with and i know mine can
come up with a lot right on the fly
including been going up just kidding
sorry folks I call Joel bingo from time
to time those you who pay attention to
the VT emser have heard him before
you're probably aware of that I will
call him bingo throughout this lesson at
some point or another so get used to it
now we won't really go into why not on
this video thank you anyway you can hear
all about that in other videos so just
getting back on topic here we've got our
quadra ped and you see it so it's a
four-legged creature let's go ahead and
select it inside of our character
controls now the character controls is
identical to what we've already seen as
a matter of fact the only royal maybe
not the only difference but the biggest
difference in between a Quadra ped
versus a biped is their stance pose and
I brought in the animation for this
character that takes it over into its
stance pose this is a quadrupeds natural
stance now with a standard character we
remember they come in in there T stands
this essentially is a quadrupeds T
stands so and we'll come back here to
where this is a been updated a little
bit but the front paws if you will are
going to be the hands so we can move
those around it is about to use the
litter box maybe we can move the hips
around so maybe he's about to pounce so
some you know some cool looking stuff
here definitely and take the head pull
around Oh looking around like hey how's
it going so we can yeah we have a lot of
easy control just as easy as moving a
biped around I mean there's no problem
here in animating this to do whatever we
need to do so really that's everything I
wanted to cover in this lesson we saw a
bunch of great new things with the
character controls window so just as a
quick recap we saw the body the hands
and feet buttons which you'll notice
here inside of this for this post
specific character he has individual toe
controls so we can select individual
toes just to kind of show that because
we didn't really get to see it on the
last character who was wearing shoes
we've seen the new pinning system we're
pinning actually now locks our
characters body parts in space we don't
have to worry about them coming along
this by accident and we saw the new pull
feature which controls the amount of
influence that an effector will have
over the rest of the rig finally we took
a look at the quadra ped which is a
fabulous new addition I mean up
personally I can't wait to start
modeling out some of these these great
four-legged creatures that I've been
sketching out things like that just so I
can get them in here start animating
them definitely so with that I guess
we'll go ahead and say goodbye to
everybody so thanks a lot everyone