Around the Corner

Integrate p4 Version Control in Motionbuilder

Version Control is an important feature for a team to work together, and Motionbuilder has its own version control manager that uses simplified versions of the Perforce and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe version control software products. But, how to set it up? How to use the provided API to operate with version control? There are very few information about this, but recently, I spent some time on this, and in what follows I will talk about how to set it up... Read more →

All about modifying reference file in Motionbuilder

I believe most of you are familiar with File Reference System, it’s commonly used in different Autodesk products, including Motionbuilder. Recently, some partners are working with file reference in Motionbuilder, they have some confusion and also find some issues. I reviewed this feature on Mobu SDK help again, and I think it worth a post to mention some important point about modifying referenced file within Motionbuilder, we will start with some questions. First of all, there are following 2 terms... Read more →

How to get correct camera within multiple panes

To get the current camera of the view pane, usually, we can use the API FBRenderer::CurrentCamera to get the camera. But when there are multiple view panes, the API does not work as you expected, it always return back the camera of the 1st view pane, this is a known issue of Motionbuilder. So how to get the correct camera for the specified view pane? There are 2 different situations. First, let’s take a look at this example, if you... Read more →

New API changes for Maya 2017 & MotionBuilder 2017

A couple of months ago, we released Maya 2016 Extension 2 and some people have asked us about Maya 2017 & MotionBuilder 2017. Now, they are here! Maya 2017 & MotionBuilder 2017 have been announced on July 26, 2016, during SIGGRAPH event. As usual, I’d like to highlight some changes/improvements on the API side. Maya API Changes: There are many API improvements in Maya 2017, especially for the Rendering feature. For all the details about API changes/improvements between Maya 2016... Read more →

Don't perform heavy tasks in the MoBu Real-time engine thread, even if it worked before

Recently we received a question about crashing while calling FBPlayerControl::GotoStart() from within a real-time device engine thread. It seems working fine up to MoBu 2014, but crashes in MoBu 2015. Actually, it seems working fine in previous MoBu releases, but as the best practice, it’s not recommended because the SDK documentation clearly mentions that some methods like DeviceIONotify() and DeviceEvaluationNotify() are called by the Real-time engine thread, and they should consume as little CPU time as possible and return as... Read more →

New Api changes for Maya 2016 & MotionBuilder 2016

I just came back from Montreal for our team meeting there, this is my 1st time to be there, very nice city. It’s a great opportunity to meet with my team members again who are located in different countries, and I also met many engineers in the Maya, FBX and 3ds Max team. It has been really exciting. The new release of Maya 2016 version was announced on 16th April and everything is open to public now. I cannot wait... Read more →

ADN Devdays @ AU Las Vegas 2014

Back from HackZurich, one of the Hackathons we are sponsoring this year. The winners had a good VR solution based on WebGL for viewing, 2 smart phones to create a stereo camera. That was neat... Once again, we will present the ADN Developer Conference - DevDays on December 1st (the day before AU) where 3ds Max and Maya engineering will introduce the new APIs in the upcoming releases and DevHack, a drop-in programming workshop on December 2nd. We will also... Read more →

Building pywin32 for MotionBuilder 2015

Recently a customer came to ask why pywin32 do not work on Maya or MotionBuilder. The answer is very simple, Maya and MotionBuilder are compiled the lastest compiler to get the best performances and the latest technology possible. Maya itself is partially compiler with the Intel C++ compiler and Visual Studio 2012 SP4, whereas MotionBuilder uses Visual Studio 2012 SP4 only. The issue is that pywin32 and many of the Python libraries still use an older compiler, like sometimes the... Read more →

backer for Project PERCEPTION NEURON

It’s amazing that a new company can compete with established MoCap hardware providers for 1/70 of the price, yet maintain the same level of quality - A level of quality which is seen in Hollywood Film production. Noitom Technology Ltd. based in Beijing succesfully funded their Perception Neuron project on Kickstarter. This is an assemble-it-yourself inertial mocap system that aims to give users a complete full-body capture solution. During the week-end they met their goal of USD 250k easily. Zhong... Read more →

SIP fix released

SIP v4.15.5 now contains the fix and is available on Riverbank's site. No need to patch the source code anymore. http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download Read more →

Fix for "sip.wrapinstance on Maya main window causes a hard crash"

Few month back, I wrote instructions to build PyQT for Maya 2014, but couple of weeks later someone came with a problem in using SIP with Maya. The issue was that Maya is crashing when someone tries to get the Maya handle and bind it using sip. I.e.: import sip as _sip import PyQt4.QtCore as _QtCore import PyQt4.QtGui as _QtGui import maya.OpenMayaUI as _OpenMayaUI mainWindow = _sip.wrapinstance(long(_OpenMayaUI.MQtUtil.mainWindow()), _QtCore.QObject) Hopefully, a colleague of mine Yves Boudreault investigated the issue and found... Read more →

FBMenu stops working after an exception was raised

When code associated with a custom menu item raises an exception, the menu item can no longer be executed for that session of MotionBuilder. Steps: Load and execute the script below From the New Menu, select 'SubMenu 1' Observe in the Python window that an exception is displayed in the output From the New Menu, select 'SubMenu 1' Observe that nothing is output. from pyfbsdk import * def eventMenu(control, event): raise Exception('kill this menu item') menuMgr = FBMenuManager() menuMgr.InsertFirst(None, "New... Read more →

3ds Max and Maya SP1 debug available now.

What are symbols? Symbols or Program Database Files (PDBs) are a by-product of the build process and contain debugging information for specific binary modules (e.g. exe or dll files). By default, a C++ PDB file contains the following information: Public symbols (typically all functions, static and global variables) A list of object files that are responsible for sections of code in the executable Frame pointer optimization information (FPO) Name and type information for local variables and data structures Source file... Read more →

MotionBuilder Custom Property .Selected not exposed to Python

When using Python in MotionBuilder, you can select object in the scene using the Python .Selected property. When setting that property to True, you would put the object into the selection list. However, Custom Properties do not have their .Selected Python property exposed which makes in theory impossible to select them programmatically. Hopefully there is a workaround :) The workaround is to use the .SetFocus() method. When using that method with the parameter set to True, you will put the... Read more →

MotionBuilder SDI supported formats

Format 2013 2014 480i 59.94 Hz (SMPTE259) NTSC * Glitchy 576i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE259) PAL * 720p 23.98 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 24.00 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 25.00 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 29.97 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 30.00 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 50.00 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 59.94 Hz (SMPTE296) 720p 60.00 Hz (SMPTE296) 1035i 59.94 Hz (SMPTE260) 1035i 60.00 Hz (SMPTE260) 1080i 47.96 Hz (SMPTE274) Glitchy Glitchy 1080i 48.00 Hz (SMPTE274) Glitchy Glitchy 1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE274) Glitchy Glitchy 1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE295) 1080i 59.94... Read more →

API webcast archives

As part of our ADN Open work to move our API content to more accessible (search-engine-findable) locations, I'm posting our webcast archives to this blog. Some of these recordings are old now, but still contain useful information for people on legacy releases. And, being recordings of live webcasts, they are not as polished as our DevTV recordings. Note that the developer center pages contains additional material which go along the latest training webcast listed below. 3ds Max - http://www.autodesk.com/develop3dsmax Title... Read more →

Using Global Interpreter Locks (GIL) when developing Python code in C++

Python uses a Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) to ensures that Python code in only executing in a single thread at a time. When you use the Python C API and/or expose C++ code to Python, you have to re-acquire the GIL each time you call in a C Python API. This is also true when writing Python extensions for Maya or when using the Python C API from a Maya plug-ins. You will need to add these calls in a... Read more →

Selection time in MotionBuilder isn't as fast as expected

If you are using MotionBuilder 2012 and above, you should use the functions FBBeginChangeAllModels() and FBEndChangeAllModels() to accelerate the selection time otherwise the selection might not be smooth like in the UI. Here is an example: import time from pyfbsdk import * FBBeginChangeAllModels() s_Time = time.clock() all_Grp = FBSystem().Scene.Groups for grp in all_Grp : for item in grp.Items : item.Selected = True e_Time = time.clock() FBEndChangeAllModels() print "Select","ProccesTime = %s"%(e_Time - s_Time),"OK" If now you try the same code without... Read more →

Maya, 3ds Max, SoftImage, Mudbox, MotionBuilder 2014 for developers

Following the new "origami" theme Tomorrow will be the first day where the 2014 family of Autodesk products will be available around the world. You’ll no doubt find lots of information on the interwebs regarding the product’s features (including the AREA), so I’m going to focus specifically on the opportunities – and requirements – the new release presents to developers. Firstly, ADN members should refer to the (as ever) thorough information produced by the ADN team and posted under the... Read more →

Using FBX SDK to make animated user properties that are compatible with 3ds Max

A huge thanks to Kevin Vandecar, who supports both FBX and 3ds Max in the ADN M&E team working with me, and provide the original article for this post. This is a topic coming from one of our FBX SDK customers recently. Basically the animated properties were coming into MotionBuilder correctly, and after being exported from MotionBuilder would also come into 3ds Max properly. However, when coming directly into 3ds Max, the properties were not visible. First, note that there... Read more →

Importing Python scripts from a different path than predefined ones

This post applies to Maya, but MotionBuilder as well (or any Python based application). The other day I wanted to source a Python script into Maya and he took me few minutes to realize there was no easy/automatic way to do this in Maya other than loading the script into the Maya Script editor and run it unlike with MEL and the source command where you can give the full path name of the MEL script. Fine, but I wanted... Read more →

Querying animation layers returns FBBox

This is more a bug report with its workaround than anything else. But this one seems serious enough for me to bring it here. On MotionBuilder 2012 -> 2013 (and on the current PR release), if you attempt to query an animation layer from the current take, an FBBox object will be returned. But on new scenes (yet to be saved), FBAnimationLayer objects will be returned for the two default animation layers. But for any new layer you add, only... Read more →

MotionBuilder code convention change

In the past, MotionBuilder classes may be prefixed with a 'H'. The SDK now will enforce not using this syntax, and you will need to change your code accordingly. To avoid too much work here is a tip on doing it in VisualStudio or Notepad++ using Regular Expression. In copy paste form: {^|:b|\(|,|<}H{FB:i*}{[&*\)>]*:b*} \1\2*\3 Read more →

MotionBuilder eventAddPose callback called twice

The reason that the eventAddPose callback is called twice is because the new pose is connected to the scene and to the folder that contains the pose. Just check the lEvent.DstPlug pointer and only consider the event when the DstPlug is the FBScene. Note that for the eventUpdatePose callback, you may receive it because the scene image thumbnail shown in the pose tool is connected to the pose. However, there is no really good way of finding out that a... Read more →

Maya Device API

Recently there was a lot of enthusiams around Virtual Production and use of Motion Capture. This article really summarize what great future and fun we will get on that side. But this is mainly about Virtual Production in general and mostly applied to MotionBuilder when it comes to Motion Capture. But there are many people asking - ok, but what about Maya and/or 3ds Max. I am not an expert on 3ds Max, but what I am going to say... Read more →

Vote for Visual Studio x64 Edit-and-Continue

A colleague in one of our product development teams pinged me today to ask for my support in voting up this request for Microsoft to implement x64 edit-and-continue. I’m sure this isn’t the first time this topic has been raised with Microsoft – but hopefully it will be the last . I went ahead and added my votes. And what’s a blog for, if not to nudge your readers into helping each other out once in a while . I... Read more →

DynamicLighting & FrustumCulling in MotionBuilder

If you want to manually specifying Shadow Caster Culling during render pass, you could use the following functions on FBModel. This will give you control per model instead of a global control. /** Acquire no frustum culling request. * \return Current no frustum culling request count after function call. */ int NoFrustumCullingRequire(); /** Release no frustum culling request. * \return Current no frustum culling request count after function call. */ int NoFrustumCullingRelease(); You can also use the ShaderPassTypeBegin()/End() to turn... Read more →

Coming on Autodesk Labs… “Plug-in of the Month”

This is less an announcement of something we’re doing than it is a call for input (or perhaps a cry for help? ;-). For the last 3 months, we started posting plug-ins on Autodesk Labs containing a “plug-in of the month, brought to you by the Autodesk Developer Network”. The plug-ins we’re providing will be simple productivity enhancing tools and utilities that streamline the use of one of our products. The drivers behind this are to a) solve customer problems... Read more →

How I Plan a Tool…

This post isn’t super technical but more of peak into my thought process when creating tools, I think it is worth sharing and I would love to have other’s feedback if you have other thoughts that work for you. I was once asked by an attendee from one of my Maya API trainings if I could share some wisdom with them about writing a tool. How do I plan my work? How do I start thinking about the way I... Read more →

Introduction to MotionBuilder OpenReality SDK Programming DevTV Video

I have just recently completed a MotionBuilder DevTV, called “Introduction to MotionBuilder OpenReality SDK Programming”. This is located on the public Autodesk MotionBuilder Developer Center page, under the title DevTV: http://www.autodesk.com/developmotionbuilder This is a quick start guide (1.5 hours), the primary goal is: How to sit down and write your first plug-in Learn the general structure and capability of the SDK Where to go to find out more The target audience for this DevTV material: Familiar with the MotionBuilder product... Read more →

What's a callback and what's its purpose?

A callback is something you can setup to watch a specific behaviour, and when that behaviour is performed you do something special which is out of the normal behaviour or functionality of MotionBuilder (or Maya). Here is my everyday English example of a callbacks :) You assign me to watch a front door, and when people come in the door I hand them a visitor pass, without me watching the front door people would just come through the door and... Read more →

What do I mean by a “handle”…?

Through my years at Autodesk/Alias, I have done a lot of teaching and education (some is recorded and some is not), but some things you might catch me saying during training are… “Now you get the handle to the object”, or “this now returns the handle to the object”, but what the heck does that really mean? I will know try to explain my colloquialism below using MotionBuilder Python SDK code as an example. A Handle in Programming Terms What... Read more →

Expose your code to Python - Deploy & Consume

If you want to know in details follow that link - or use this tools But since Python is already installed on your Maya (or MotionBuilder) distribution, it is fairly easy to distribute your Python 'module' onto other machines for these products. However depending on what you did while compiling your module, you may run into couple of issues. It is never simple, isn't it? let's take the simple approach and we see the downfalls later. In case you did... Read more →

Expose your code to Python - get Boost 'ed!

Some house cleaning first... "Boost provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries". http://www.boost.org/ The Boost C++/Python binding library is just one member of the boost C++ library collection at http://www.boost.org It is quick and easy to export C++ to Python using Boost. Boost is also designed to be minimally intrusive on your C++ design. In most cases, you should not have to alter your C++ classes in any way in order to use them with Boost Python. The system should... Read more →

What’s New in the MotionBuilder 2013 SDK?

Programming Environment and Code Refactoring Changes MotionBuilder and its distributed plug-ins are now compiled using Visual Studio 2010 (Service Pack 1). FBContainer has been renamed to FBVisualContainer for uniformity of cross-product naming schemes. const correctness improvements. Although not enforced in this release, we recommend that the "H" prefix in classes such as HFBPlug be removed and replaced by the pointer suffix "*", for example: FBPlug*. This change is intended to facilitate the use of the documentation system in the near... Read more →

Webcast in the making

I thought I’d mention one of the projects we’re working on in DevTech right now. While the Maya Python training as been delivered already (and recorded - see my previous post), there is more coming: MotionBuilder/OpenReality SDK (Python/C++) starting on May 29th 2012 - 1 hour per day during 9 days 3ds Max SDK (C++) starting on July 16th 2012 for English - 1 hour per day during 10 days July 30th 2012 for Japanese - 1 hour per day... Read more →

Getting started with Autodesk's APIs

Autodesk has a wide range of products that expose Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), to the point that it can be a bit overwhelming for developers new to our products. A great place to look for introductory information around developing with Autodesk software is the Developer Center on Autodesk.com: http://www.autodesk.com/developer From here you will be able to navigate to individual Developer Centers for a number of our products, some of which I’ve provided direct links to below: http://www.autodesk.com/developmaya (Maya) http://www.autodesk.com/develop3dsMax (3ds... Read more →