Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012

Increase your animation output per artist and create higher quality animation. Autodesk® MotionBuilder® real-time 3D character animation software can make film and game animation pipelines more efficient. You can create, edit, and play back complex character animation in a highly responsive, interactive environment. MotionBuilder is ideal for high-volume animation, virtual cinematography, previsualization, and performance animation. New stereoscopic toolsets enable you to capitalize on current entertainment trends.

• Real-time engine—A real-time 3D engine makes it one of the industry’s fastest animation tools.
• Productivity geared workflows—Workflow features enable you to take on demanding, high-volume projects:

          o Full-body inverse kinematics character technology with animation retargeting
          o Unified nondestructive, nonlinear editing environment
          o Live device support

• Motion capture editing and data cleanup—A world-class toolset enables manipulation of motion capture data.
• Seamless interoperability—With its software development kit, support for Autodesk® FBX® technology, and Python® scripting capabilities, MotionBuilder interoperates with other products in the Autodesk® Entertainment Creation Suites—Autodesk® Maya®, Autodesk® 3ds Max®, and Autodesk® Softimage® software—and with Autodesk® HumanIK® middleware.

The Freedom of Real Time.

Autodesk MotionBuilder 2012 software delivers new tools for virtual movie-making, performance animation, and stereoscopic productions, and enhanced interoperability with other products in the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites 2012.
Create higher-quality character animation in less time with MotionBuilder. With its real-time 3D engine, robust interoperability with leading 3D packages, and productivity-geared workflows, MotionBuilder helps make high-volume film and game animation pipelines more efficient. MotionBuilder is ideal for motion capture data clean-up and editing, virtual cinematography, pre-visualization, performance animation, and real-time character simulations.

Key Features:

Real-Time Engine
Work interactively with real-time animation and display tools that help maximize speed and efficiency:

• Get instant playback of multiple highly detailed, fully textured characters and their performances, so there’s no need to preview or render animations.
• Display advanced CgFX and CG hardwareaccelerated shaders in real time.
• Create and trigger animation clips in real time.
• Enjoy time-accurate playback.
• Take advantage of the power of your GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) to calculate skinning and blendshape deformations faster than before.

Advanced Character Tools
Take advantage of industry leading character animation technology to create, edit, and reuse performances:

• Pose and animate characters more easily and naturally, with full-body inverse kinematics (FBIK) technology.
• Automatically create FK/IK rigs based on the size and proportions of your character.
• Create and save custom, reusable rigs.
• Capture and reuse character-independent poses.
• Retarget animation data between characters, even those of different sizes and proportions.
• Define floor and other contact objects and animate feet, toes, hands, and fingers against them without interpenetration.

Unified Nonlinear Editing Environment
Use the MotionBuilder Story Tool to reorder and retime your shots on the fly, similar to traditional nonlinear video editing:

• Sequence and edit multiple media types in a true nonlinear environment.
• Create and edit real-time camera and audio cross-fades from multiple video and audio tracks.
• Create, edit, and blend together multiple animation tracks, and match animation clips.
• Build tracks for camera shots, storyboards, animatics, and final edits from track-based projects: time discontinuities, time warping, and camera shot looping.
• Enjoy frame-accurate audio playback during both job and shuttle.
• Import and work with video for real-time production pre-visualization.

Real-Time Simulation
Set up a real-time, rigid-body simulation using the 3D objects within your scene:

• Simulate complex interactions between a character and its environment.
• Take advantage of support for real-time collisions to help prevent interpenetration of characters, objects, and other scene elements.
• Mix simulation with existing animation data or poses.
• Guide ragdoll simulations between user-defined poses, to combine natural-looking movement with precisely positioned keyframes.
• Connect multiple objects together using joints, automatically solving secondary animation.
• Optionally calculate simulations using the Nvidia® PhysX® plug-in.

Productivity Tools and Workflows
Streamline the animation process with productivityenhancing tools and workflows:

• Customize layouts, keyboard shortcuts and in-context menus to help match your workflow and personal preference.
• Create quality animatics with OpenGL® hardware rendering.
• Save character animation (and extensions) directly to an Autodesk® FBX® file, and re-load them onto target characters with a choice of methods.
• Organize scene objects into groups and sets.
• Import and export multiple files: motion capture data, for batch processing.
• Use unlimited animation takes to iterate and compare multiple animation versions in a single scene.
• Clean up, edit and process motion capture data, with the powerful MotionBuilder toolset.

Seamless Pipeline Integration
MotionBuilder integrates seamlessly into your pipeline, enabling you to use it in tandem with certain other industry-leading 3D applications, proprietary software, and animation input devices:

• Customize and extend MotionBuilder via the C++ Open Reality® SDK (Software Developer Kit), and automate repetitive tasks with the powerful Python® scripting environment.
• Use the industry-standard Qt UI toolkit to help build your Open Reality SDK plug-ins.
• Exchange data with Autodesk® Maya® 2012, Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2012, Autodesk® Mudbox™ 2012, and Autodesk® Softimage® 2012 and certain other 3D authoring packages via the Autodesk® FBX® 2012 asset technology format.
• Take advantage of direct support for asset management systems.
• Stream in live, device-captured data and apply it to a full-resolution character or record it in real-time, with support for multiple built-in, third-party, or custom devices simultaneously in a scene.
• Import and export Biovision (.BVH), Acclaim (.ASF/.AMC), Motion Analysis (.HTR/.TRC) or Vicon (.C3D) motion capture data formats.

New in MotionBuilder 2012
MotionBuilder 2012 software delivers new tools to better facilitate virtual movie-making and performance animation productions:

• Author and view stereoscopic content in MotionBuilder, with the new in-viewport stereoscopic display and camera rig. Camera data can be exchanged with Maya, Autodesk® Flame® 2012, and Autodesk® Smoke® 2012 software via FBX 2012.
• Enjoy a more seamless workflow that leverages multiple Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite products, with new single-step interoperability between MotionBuilder 2012, Maya 2012 or 3ds Max 2012; and greater consistency, thanks to the enhanced UI scheme of MotionBuilder 2012.
• Enjoy some of the best features from the f-curve editors within each of the products in the Autodesk® Entertainment Creation Suites 2012, combined into a toolset that offers more consistent functionality and terminology—so you can switch more easily between products.
• Working with characters in both MotionBuilder 2012 and Maya 2012 is now easier, with an enhanced interface, unified solver and more consistent workflows for HumanIK® technology.
• Stream reference video from a motion capture session directly into MotionBuilder and record simultaneously with the motion capture data on a per-take basis.
• More easily deal with multiple animation variations that each have associated audio, with the ability to handle separate audio files per take.

Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites 2012
The Entertainment Creation Suites 2012 deliver powerful 3D modeling and animation technology in a choice of software suites at a significant cost saving*. The Standard suite includes 3ds Max 2012 or Maya 2012 together with MotionBuilder 2012, and Mudbox 2012 digital sculpting and 3D painting software. With the Premium option, get additional access to the innovative creative toolsets in Softimage. Learn more at autodesk.com/entertainment-creation-suites.

Top Reasons to Buy Autodesk MotionBuilder

Increased Productivity Through Real-Time Performance
Whenever characters need to be animated, Autodesk® MotionBuilder® software can help you to increase your productivity and achieve higher-quality results. In fact, many facilities have achieved up to a 250 percent gain in animation output per artist using MotionBuilder. Built on a real-time 3D architecture, MotionBuilder provides a highly responsive, interactive environment to help create, edit, and play back complex character animation.

Motion Capture Editing and Data Cleanup
When the motion capture studio session stops, animators know their job is just beginning. With MotionBuilder, you can import or capture live files from many industry-standard motion capture systems and use the powerful cleanup, filtering, blending, and editing features to manipulate and massage dense data on the fly. Once the data is prepared, the Function Curve layering system enables you to refine, edit, and iterate your animations nondestructively, all in real-time.

Previsualization
Planning upfront can save time, budget, and frustration later in the production process. Using MotionBuilder to previsualize their scenes, directors can experiment with camera angles and framing, and visual effects supervisors can more effectively plan visual effects and stunts, all within a high-quality display that closely mimics the final output. Since everything is in real-time, shots can be changed and refined as quickly as the new ideas flow.

Virtual Cinematography
Blockbuster directors are setting a new trend for virtual cinematography—a process that enables computer graphic (CG)–generated characters driven by motion capture data to be directed alongside live actors, while viewed in the context of their final setting. MotionBuilder is well suited to this task, with its real-time engine, elegant handling of motion capture data, and high-quality interactive display.

Real-Time Character Simulation
With MotionBuilder, you can perform real-time rigid-body dynamic simulations as part of, or alongside, your character animation; simulations can be blended with keyframed or motion captured data—or even guided from pose to pose —to help direct and control the final result. The MotionBuilder real-time dynamic toolset features a Rag Doll solver for realistic character simulation (for example, a character falling down stairs); the ability to use joints to connect multiple objects together in order to simulate secondary animation; and support for collisions.

Nonlinear 3D Editorial
The MotionBuilder Story tool is a nonlinear environment that enables you to combine multiple media types in a timeline editor. Use the Story tool for previsualization and layout, or for cinematics; you can more easily blend, edit, and sequence tracks composed of animations, cameras, digital video, and audio. This toolset also enables you to make camera shot decisions that help you to reorder and retime your shots on the fly, similar to traditional nonlinear video editing.

Single-Step Interoperability
Enjoy a more seamless workflow that leverages multiple Autodesk® Entertainment Creation Suite products, with single-step interoperability between MotionBuilder 2012 and Autodesk® Maya® 2012 or Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2012 software. Import Maya or 3ds Max scenes into MotionBuilder in one simple step, and then take the changes back to the content creation package with equal ease, without having to think about file format details. With single-step interoperability, you can enjoy easier access to the best Autodesk tools for the task at hand.

Pipeline Integration and Customization
Support for the popular Python® scripting language enables you to more easily integrate MotionBuilder into production pipelines, automate repetitive tasks, and extend features. Use the intelligent, fully integrated Python editor to help develop, test, and refine your scripts without leaving the MotionBuilder environment. Take advantage of the Open Reality® software development kit (SDK) to help create custom tools and features that plug directly into MotionBuilder and extend its functionality. You can use many industry standard UI toolkits to help build Open Reality SDK plug-ins.

Autodesk Subscription with Gold Support
For an affordable annual fee that lets you plan your budget ahead, Autodesk® Subscription with Gold Support for MotionBuilder entitles you to the latest releases made available during the term of your contract; this includes major releases and Autodesk Subscription Advantage Packs (previously known as product extensions), telephone support, learning resources, and the entitlement to use certain previous versions of MotionBuilder.

Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites 2012
The Entertainment Creation Suites 2012 deliver powerful 3D modeling and animation technology in a choice of software suites at a significant cost saving*. The Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 Standard includes 3ds Max 2012 or Maya 2012 together with MotionBuilder 2012 real-time character animation software, and Autodesk® Mudbox™ 2012 digital sculpting and 3D painting software. With the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 Premium, get additional access to the innovative creative toolsets in Autodesk® Softimage® 2012 software. Learn more at www.autodesk.com/entertainment-creation-suites.

System Requirements:

•  Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system (SP3)
•  The 64-bit version of MotionBuilder 2012 software is supported on any of the following operating systems:
•  Microsoft Windows 7 Professional operating system
•  Microsoft Windows Vista Business x64 Edition operating system (SP2)
•  Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2)
•  The following web browsers are supported for MotionBuilder 2012:
•  Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 internet browser or higher
•  Mozilla Firefox web browser
•  Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon processor with SSE3 instruction set support (or higher)
•  Qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL 2.1 (or higher) graphics card
•  2 GB free hard drive space. Setup requires additional temporary disk space for your system’s temporary folder when decompressing files during installation.
•  2 GB of RAM USB Cam for Live Video Input.
•  Network adaptor with internet connection for licensing (non-internet connected licensing is also supported)
•  DVD-ROM drive