Motion Builder - How to mirror an animated FBX clip for story mode

1.Open your main character with NO animation JUST the character in t-pose, now open characterized FBX animation you are trying to mirror. In my case i'm going to mirror one of run right 90turn animations from the previs clips that come with mobtion builder 2014. I'm going mirror it into a left 90 degree turn. Drag and drop the FBX into the viewport ( or file open)

2. Select merge>(name of the animation you want top bring in)

3.Now this FBX has a character assigned to it as well as the motion. and we can see them both here.

4. Up in the character controls window your main character should be selected for the character. then select the FBX animated character clip as the source.

Immediately your character matches the movement of the animated character.

5. Now in the navigator select character>your character name and double click it to bring up character settings.

6. Now expand the characters settings and scroll down till you see "mirror animation". Select the check box.

Your character should immediately mirror the animated character we imported.

7. Now in the character settings panel  for your main character select plot character>  then bake animation from input character to "control rig".

8.Now select the FBX animated character in the navigator  that you imported for animation. Right click and select "select all branches" and delete that character. It will say it is being used choose delete anyway. We want to get rid of anything related to that previous character.

9. Then in navigator under "scene select" anything related to the animation FBX model we imported> select all branches. And delete them as well. Confirm any questions about deletion.

10. In the navigator probably a good idea to name the take to "Run_Left_90Turn" before saving your file out.

You should now have a clean version of your main character with the new mirrored animation with it.

11. Now go to file save as and save your new FBX as Run_Left_90Turn. and that's it! This clip will now drop into story mode.

Motion Builder - Applying a bone template to a t-posed BVH for characterization.

This tutorial builds on a previous one so you if you don't already have a T-posed BVH and bone template created you better go check out that tutorial first.

1.Make sure your t-posed starting BVH file is open.

2. Drag and drop the bone template you created into viewport then select merge> noanimation. Or go to file>merge and select your file to bring the template into MB. When it tries to open uncheck any takes of animation if it tries to bring them in.


3. Now in the navigator window select character>character and then choose the "Character Definition" tab directly to the right next to the "character settings" tab.

In the character Definition tab below you should see two sections "mapping list" and naming template"
the naming templates in the required base section should be filled with bone names while the Mapping list sections should say "drop Object here" Waiting for the mapping from your template.

4. Open shematic view in the viewer, >View menu> schematic. Then you may need to hit F to find the nodes, or zoom out to see them. Once you see them select all bones you want to map from the bone template to the skeleton by dragging a box around them all.

5. Hold x (if in maya interaction mode in MotionBuilder if you aren't in maya interaction mode then it's ALT i think) hold x and drag and drop all bones down the mapping area. release and now they should be mapped.

6. If all went as it should and the template does indeed match then the skeleton definition representation should be all green with no errors. Mapping list and naming template lists should match.

7. Now press the little characterize checkbox in that character definition window.

8. It will give you
a message saying character must be in stance pose facing Z. Select bi-ped

9. Now that your character is characterized properly the last thing you need to do before saving it out is push the keyframes over so that the t-pose is on "-1" instead of "0". This will help aviod problems later when you try and use the clip in story mode.

10. Select one bone in the viewer then in the navigator right click the hip bone and select all branches to select all bones.

11. Now in the timeline Keyframe edtior you should see all the keys across the timeline. In the little box to the right double click and type -3 to bring the timeline into the negative values.

12. Now click  drag around ALL the keyframes (MAKE SURE YOU GET THEM ALL AND THAT YOU ARE VIEWING ALL OF THEM TO BEGIN WITH) to select them. Drag them over one frame.

13. Now the t-pose should reside on keyframe "-1" and the animation starts at "0"

14. Then go to file>save as  in the menu. It will save your FBX clip. Make sure that your animations take is checked ON so that it will include the animation in the FBX.

NOW this FBX clip can be dropped into story mode!

Sub window off screen when using dual monitors - no task bar icon.

Just a tip I had to share. Ok so you are taking your computer somewhere else and you unplug one of your dual monitors. When you arrive you set up your computer with only one monitor and start using programs only to find that a SUB Window is open ON the monitor that is no longer attached. NOT only that but a sub window doesn't have a task bar icon so you can't select it.

This should fix it. Do your action to make the window active. In my case pressing the "render settings" button in Maya pulled up a sub window.

Now hold shift/windows key and then the numeric arrow left and right keys on your keyboard. It will instantly jump to your screen. Worked for me with a Maya sub window that didn't have a task bar icon.

Hope it helps you out!

Creating a Chromatic Aberration Effect in After Effects

To create this effect simply duplicate your video clip (or image) 3 times in your composition. Set them to the "Add" blending method. Add a "Levels - individual controls" effect to each of these layers.

1. Rename each duplicate. 'Blue', 'Red', and one 'Green'

2. Now for the layer named 'Green' open the Effects Controls for the 'Levels - individual controls' on the effect you just added. Open the Blue and Red drop down settings and put '0' in the Blue and Red 'Output white" settings.

3. Now for you layer named 'Blue' Open the Green and Red drop down settings and put '0' in the Green and Red 'Output white" settings.

4. Now for you layer named 'Red' Open the Green and Blue drop down settings and put '0' in the Green and Blue 'Output white" settings.

This should give you three layers with different hues, one Red, Blue and Green. Now just shift the top layer and you will begin to get the fringing effect. You can blur these layers or move them in any way you wish. Have fun!