Category: Python

How to use functions with MotionBuilder Python

Using functions will save you from re-writing and maintaining many of the same lines of code over and over. What is a Python Function? “A function is a block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single, related action. Functions provide better modularity for your application...

MotionBuilder’s Constraint system and Python.

MotionBuilder’s Constraint system is a must for animators. Weather you are rigging, transferring data or animating – you will want to use a Constraint system to make your life easier. Let’s see how Python can access MotionBuilder’s Constraint system. Using Python to set up a Constraint system in MotionBuilder...

Using Python to import MotionBuilder Characters into story. 

  MotionBuilder comes with a great script that will place your selected character into a Character Track within the Story, I wanted to write one that would put all of the scene’s Characters into the story. Once again I will use the “Mia_Rigged.fbx” file to test my script. I...

Saving MotionBuilder Character Animation with Python

When I get Mocap it’s usually in a messy scene. Optics, Markets, strange NameSpace, etc. they all can bog down a scene. One of the first thing I do is save out the Character Animation and load it back into a clean scene. Using Python to save out Character...

Create a button

Python scripts are great, they are even better when we can click a button to run them. A small GUI like the image shown (“Do it!” Button) can be very easy to set up. Thanks to neil3d.com‘s UI Builder Tool, this was valuable in creating a setup script that...

Navigation Tool

            In this post I will show how I created a Navigation tool with Python in MotionBuilder. The Tool will use Python to do the following: Start and Pause the play back of the current take. Jump to the end of the current take’s...

Mirroring MotionBuilder Character Animation with Python

In a previous post I went over “Plotting and Plot Options” as well as “dir” where we exposed the “MirrorMode” of a Character. Now with all that information exposed I will show you how I created a simple script that will mirror a Character’s animation, first by setting the “MirrorMode”...

Getting information on MotionBuilder’s Python with dir

Trying to figure how things work in MotionBuilder’s Python editor is tough. Google and the SDK Help that comes along with MotionBuilder are great, but there is still more help out there – the “dir”! 🙂 What does “dir” do? The definition I was able to find is “It...

ShelveIt tool

Here is a tool that I whipped up: Shelve It. It’s a simple Python script that will duplicate your current MotionBuilder take, name it using the original take’s name but add the suffix “_Shelved”. It can come in hand when you want to explore some more changes on a take...

Lock and Plot selected properties using MotionBuilder’s Python.

  I ran into a bug in my previous post about Plotting Selected properties – a bug that occurs in MotionBuilder 2015. I got in touch with Discreet and they said it would be easy enough for them to fix the bug in an update/hot fix, but I really wanted to...