Questions about Motionbuilder, MoCap and lipsync

Christian Hjerpe

Hi everybody!

I have some questions about MotionBuilder. Whats your experience with the software and especial for use of mocap data to drive 3d characters? How good is the lipsync thingy in MotionBuilder.

Is this THE software for handling mocap data or would you recommend something else?

Thanks!

Rick Stirling

It is THE software for handling mocap, yes.

Christian Hjerpe

Thanks for your answer Rick!
Do you have any experience with animating faces in MotionBuilder?

Mark Dygert

I MotionBuilder and not just for the way it handles mo-cap clean up. I love the way two skeletons can interact with each other, I love the interface and how it has the tools you need and none of the clutter you don't.

Don't expect miracles from the facial animation, its as good as the animator you have running it. Personally its easier for me to do it all in 3dsmax, mostly because I have tools that help me do the same things in max. MotionBuilder is great and gives you a quick and easy workflow.

One of the main advantages of learning how to use it is that you can go to a max or maya studio and not be slowed down.

If you're looking for a way to automate lip sync there are a few options avaiable.

Image Metrics: You send them a model, they mo-cap facial acting onto it and send you back awesome results. But holy hell is it expensive.

Face Robot: included in XSI 2010, same thing but software not a service.

Voice O Matic: A plug-in for 3dsmax XSI and Maya (I think?), you use bones or blend shapes to make mouth shapes and it butchers a sound file to kind of mimic speech. It's pretty affordable, and can give good results but leaves the rest of the face up to you.

Christian Hjerpe

Yes the polycount guru Vig found my thread!
Thanks for your reply Vig, I´m currently running thru the tutorials and some training dvds and so far I found MotionBuilder wonderful!

Always good to hear from people with experience with the software, thanks a lot guys!