[Making of the Demo Reel Project] #4 - Free MaxScript - Bone Name Switcheroo!

In my never ending pursuit of side-stepping the labor of skinning in 3DS Max, I’ve ultimately decided that BonesPro was the best option, but even that  required a mass amount of tweaking that distracted from the core work of general animation. I mean, that’s why they have people and departments that do that sort of stuff.

For the solo studio, that’s a bridge that needs to be crossed eventually. Until then, to get by, utilizing all you have to make it work is the best option and I’ve finally come up with a slick character creation, skinned and ready to animate pattern that works for me. In fact, i even developed my very first MaxScript to help facilitate the process because while developing this reel, I’ll need processes to speed things along from time to time.

I’ll give an overview now, but later, I’ll tighten it up with a solid ‘How to’.

The directional flow is:

DAZ 3D Studio to 3DS Max to MotionBuilder

DAZ for character creation … 3DS Max for final render/animation/effects/whatever … MotionBuilder for the core character animation

We can go back and forth over using MotionBuilder for character animation verses the 3DS native animation tools verses animating in Daz3D alone, but for this journal entry, just roll with me for a minute. If I can say anything about my choice of MotionBuilder … greater control of my characters and the ability to add mocap files, layer them with my own animation and mix and match.

If you know anything about MotionBuilder, you’ll need to Characterize your model and that requires specific Character Definition Names for the bones.

Example: LeftUpLeg, LeftHand, Spine, Hips, etc.

But most times, the names of your bones being brought into MotionBuilder have other names (i.e., lToe, rToe, spine, hip, etc)

Notice ‘Hips’ in MotionBuilder is different than ‘hip’ and so you’ll spend your time matching the right bone name to the right spot either by hand or allowing the system to auto configure and most times you’ll get a dialogue reporting there were a few unassigned bones.

Enter Bone Name Switcheroo! *(DAZ 3D Studio only thus far)

After a few weeks of assuring myself that the Daz 3D studio to Max workflow ports over excellently skinned mesh; weighted and ready to go, I was getting tired of CONSTANTLY renaming the same bones over and over again when bringing over to MotionBuilder.

With just a ‘RUN’ of the script, or dropping it into the Max interface, you’ll know it’s done when you get a dialog box that says ‘All Done!’. LOL

It will change the bone names from lShldr to LeftArm, lHand to LeftHand, lFoot to LeftFoot and so on. I even incorporated a few of the extra bones to the correct auxilary and other areas outside of the ‘required’ names in MotionBuilder.

What’s this mean to you? Simply put, when you FBX out your model to MotionBuilder with the new Bone names changed, all you have to do is Characterize ONCE and its done. Essentially, the script makes the DAZ 3D Bones a MotionBuilder Friendly model.

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

 

Right now, this is for people who follow the workflow I just mentioned (DAZ to Max To MotionBuilder). I’m working on an alternate that follows the Poser to Max to MotionBuilder chain and maybe any other software that leads to MotionBuilder out of Max. For instance, just in Max alone, the bones in CATrig need to be changed automatically as well. In fact, that will likely be my next version really soon.

Bone Name Switcheroo! (DAZ 3D to MotionBuilder) 1.0

 

UPDATE: 

Finished the Base Human for 3DS Max CATRig. Very simple, but helpful. It gave me the ideas to come up with a much more complex but efficient script to automate the process in a larger scale. Something to work on over the next week or so. I’m getting into MaxScript more than I thought, which of course leads back to other App design moving forward.

Bone Name Switcheroo! (Base CATRig to MotionBuilder) 1.0

Before with CATRig

 

AFTER with Script Applied

When you’re doing this kind of animation work, the process of changing bone names for MotionBuilder is the worst! I hope the script helps people as it’s helping me. It’ll get better with updates, too. Call these just a foundation.

 

Corey A. Burkes Author/CEO
DesktopEpics Entertainment
Stories You Can Feel! Continue Reading

Progressive and Rotating Facebook Covers

With the release of Butta‘:Worldwide rapidly approaching, marketing has begun at least on the Facebook fan pages with what I’m calling progressive covers. This is inspired by an old Back to The Future III poster campaign I saw years back where every few weeks they updated the poster with a little bit more of an image. First it was the horses being pulled into the scene. Then a little bit more of the horses pulling the Delorian until the title was revealed.

The Butta: Worldwide covers start with the tip of a motorcycle. Side note: the reason it’s doing a wheelie is primarily because the way Facebook covers are designed, I can’t remove the headshot profile box in the bottom left corner. LOL…so the wheelie is lifted above the box and turned out to be a nice image to continue with moving forward.

Each week, leading up to the release date, there will be a little bit more of the scene which is taken directly from the sequel.

Each cover will also have a quote from either the first book or the sequel. ‘finally’ is exactly how I feel about it. I came a long way from 2007. I can’t thank Ebony and Neil Phillips enough for starting this brake-less rocket and it’s been an adventure.

Also …

40 To Go stumbled but has a strong following that seems to be waiting. So, to clear the air and any confusion, 40 To Go will be a series of enhanced ebooks for the iPad. Armed with my Mac Mini, iPad and months of HTML5 experience, it’s on. Same rules apply, just different and all the actors you kow and love will still be portraying the characters that they were assigned … just different. Similar to the sample version I posted online, the novel will interject audio and video in sections with clips of animation.

Not motion comic animation.

Animation. Thus the need for slight character redesign, also. The cover for 40 To Go is not progressive, but rotating. Showcaseing every character in the series until the book releases.

Date? Don’t hold me to one, please. LOL … but you know it’s almost there when you hear me talking about recording schedule’s with the actors and we run through all 17 characters in the covers.

First up … Julissa:

 

 

Corey A. Burkes Author/CEO
DesktopEpics Entertainment
Stories You Can Feel! Continue Reading