Motionbuilder 4.0: Kaydara adds character to its animation package.

Motionbuilder 4.0 is the latest offering from Kaydara, a company whose name is almost synonymous with motion capture. Motionbuilder is being presented as a new program but is actually a complete rebuild of Kaydara's Filmbox 3.5 animation system.

The new software uses Filmbox technology but features an interface that has been totally revamped to render it more user friendly. In addition, it has a number of new features that make it a robust character animation system that should be highly useful to anyone involved in motion-creation projects, whether or not they employ motion capture.

At its heart, Motionbuilder is an animation system that can work with all types of motion--including keyframed, captured, or that imported from a variety of sources. Motionbuilder supports all the major motion-capture formats, allowing you to work with real-world motion.

This product is almost exclusively an animation tool: It does not handle modeling, special effects, or high-end rendering. Therefore, for most users, Motionbuilder works best as a companion to more traditional 3D tools.

To facilitate this complementary aspect of the program, Kaydara provides Motionbuilder's FBX file format and plug-ins for most of the major 3D packages, including Alias|Wavefront's Maya, Discreet's 3ds max, NewTek's LightWave, and Softimage. The FBX format incorporates 3D model data, texturing, skeletons, rigging, and animation data. It's probably the most powerful 3D file format in existence. I have used it to transfer scenes between packages without even involving the Motionbuilder program.

The FBX format is also available as a plug-in for Quicktime, which lets people view motion files on any system. This is a great feature for directors who need to see animation files but don't have sophisticated 3D software.

Setting up a character in Motionbuilder is straightforward. The software comes with a standard human skeleton that you can fit to your existing model. You can also build your own skeletons for other types of characters. For most characters, however, the Motionbuilder skeleton works well, and I haven't needed to create anything else.