Spring has sprung here in Montreal, which if you have never experienced yourself is where the term “spring fever” was coined. The snow is (almost) gone, terraces across the city are packed with people and large wool sweaters are replaced with colourful t-shirts. And I’m loving every moment of it.

Down to business: two items for you this post. First off, I just got word that Chad Moore and Brad Clark’s MasterClass, “The Animator Toolkit for MotionBuilder” is now available for sale online @ lulu.com:

http://stores.lulu.com/animatortoolkit

So for those of you who aren’t on support, you can purchase the class here.

Second item to announce: We have issued a hotfix release of MotionBuilder 7.5 Ext2 & Ext1, which is titled respectively, “Ext2a” & “Ext1a”. This hotfix addresses an issue with FBX compatibility that has arisen with the latest version of the FBX plug-ins (2009.1), which caused MB to crash when importing an FBX file. This hotfix release should replace existing installs of Ext2 and Ext1.

Below is a snippet of the release notes for Ext2a, which includes some critical fixes to Python and the OR SDK. This release is available to all subscription users from the subscription site.

Resolved Issues
The following describes the issues addressed by this release.

FBX SDK Compatibility
• Compatibility issues have now been addressed for the upcoming Autodesk FBX® SDK 2009.1.
Change Media File in Story Window
• You can now update an .fbx file that a current MotionBuilder session is referencing by right-clicking the track in the Story Window and choosing Change Media File from the contextual menu.
Character Clip First Loop Settings
• The “First Loop” field values of character clips are now preserved after saving and reloading the scenes.
Character Clip Mark In Settings
• You can now continue working in MotionBuilder after changing the Mark In field values of a clip.
Character Controls Reach Properties
• The Character Controls window Reach properties are no longer permanently disabled when you assign a character to a Story window Character Animation track.
Character Hip/Chest Offset Settings
• The character hip/chest offset settings now behave as expected.
Characterizing, Creating and Setting New Control Rigs
• You can now use Python scripting to characterize, create control-rigs, and set new control-rigs as Character inputs.
Loading and Merging Characters into Scenes
• You can now use Python scripting to load/merge characters into scenes.
Loading Files with the FBX Plug-In
• The scaling issue when loading files via the FBX plug-in is now resolved.
Mapping Character Skeletons to Character Templates
• You can now use Python scripting to map characters’ skeletons to new Character templates.
Muting Track in Story Window and Animating Reach
• You can now continue working in MotionBuilder when you animate the Reach properties in the Character Controls window after muting a track in the Story window.
Reading Point Cache
• MotionBuilder can now read multiple point cache in the same scene.
Rendering AVI files at 48 KHz
• You can now render AVI files at 48 KHz with an End frame set at 1073741 or greater at a frame rate of 24fps.
• You can now render AVI files at 44.1 KHz with an End frame set at 1400100 or greater at a frame rate of 24fps.
CgFx Shader Semantic Parameters
• When you use semantic parameters such as “cameraposition” in your CgFx shader, MotionBuilder no longer creates a property in your CgFx UI which causes your property to override the actual property.
Duplicating a KBoxFCurveRelativeNumber or a KBoxFCurveNumber
• You can now continue working in MotionBuilder after duplicating a KBoxFCurveRelativeNumber or a KBoxFCurveNumber.
Duplicating OR SDK Constraint Plug-Ins
• You can now continue working in MotionBuilder after duplicating an OR SDK constraint plug-in.
FBCharacterPose Exposed to Python Scripting
• The FBCharacterPose is now properly exposed to Python scripting with the addition of the FBCharacterPoseOptions and FBCharacterPoseFlags.
FBModelPath3D Class Method
• The FBModelPath3D class now has a method to set each point, and the left and right tangents simultaneously.
FCurve Exposed to OR SDK
• The FCurve from an FCurve % box is now exposed to OR SDK enabling you to get and set keyframes.
Setting Constant Input for a Relation’s Box Through Python Scripting
• You can now set a constant input for a relation’s box through Python scripting as the SetCandidate and WriteData for boxes is now exposed to Python scripting.


Enjoy the hotfix!

Cheers,

Curtis Garton