Which is best & faster for animation-Maya,Poser or MotionBuilder?

[melviso]

I am presently using Maya for character & camera animation.Using the Trax and Graph editor is really cool.Especially the Trax editor,as it makes animation easier but the problem is, it takes time to get the animation right especially with keyframing,not to mention rigging the character first before animating.

Then I heard about poser.I gather its easier to use and u can animate cameras and characters faster and easier.I have watched the DEAD FANTASY series and I understand Maya was used for the modelling while Poser for animating.It seems with Poser u don't need to worry about the whole rigging routine in Maya and animation is less technical and easier to manage.Can one import models into Poser and animate straight away or u need to rig like maya or is the rigging way simpler.I have seen some tutorials on youtube and I like what I am seeing.

About motion builder,I don't really know much about it.But someone told me its used mostly for motion capture.I understand it was used for the overawesome movie:AVATAR.
Your opinions really matter here.I would like to know what u all think.I use Maya as my primary software,so I am wondering if its possible,after animating in Poser or MotionBuilder,can the animation be exported back to maya along with the models as a file format?A fbx file peharps?

Thanks.

[egerie]

Poser for animating?!?!????????? Well that’s new. Anyways, I haven’t touched that software in a few years, but here goes:
Poser as a built-in rig to.. pose your character. I can’t remember about it’s IK or time management capabilities though (isn’t it all FK?). I do have tremendous doubts about the ability to use it as a keyframing animation software but they may have changed it for the better. Until I’m proven wrong, anything coming out of Poser is going to be amateur stuff.
For Maya, as you know, you need to build your own rig unless you download a free-to-use one. They vary in quality and have all their properties and technicities.
Motion Builder is a motion capture editing (and retargeting, etc.) software. Unless you have mocap data, I don’t think it’ll be worth it for you to key animate in motion builder, especially if you already know Maya. Unless of course, you have a kickass rig in MB? MB’s native file format is fbx.
The second part of your question, I *think* Maya loads fbx files but I’m not sure if it’s in the original package. You may have to find an importer otherwise. In the long run, it’s probably going to be skeleton data that you’ll need to plot on a Maya rig.

So to conclude, unless you have mocaped data, stick with Maya. And remember, a good rig makes or breaks a project... It takes time, just like good animation.

Cheers!

[Zazerzs]

don't get confused with thinking that motion capture is animation cause its not.

Motion capture usually needs alot of tweeking after the fact, of course that depends on how well the motion is captured and the actor doing it, and that's where the animator comes in, fixing timing,removing keys, adding keys, adding back in weight ect. ie: polishing the turd.

Maya seems to be the preferred 3d program for animators these days.

3D max is fine, and has character studio. Character studio has its limitations but it also has a bunch of cool features.

also there is XSI which is also in use.

faster? better? You'll get arguments from all sides.. it all depends on the animator.

[melviso]

Thanks for your replies,egerie &Zazerzs.
I have found tutorial videos of motionbuilder on youtube by autodesk.It shows how simple and easy it is to animate with it.Its appears like an awesome animation software.It can easily rig characters unlike Maya where u have to stick in the bones and curves although I must admit most of the tutorials seem to be about motion capture.U can pick ur camera angles as u animate.This will definitely save a lot of time.
It easily animates hair and cloth with bones in real time as u move ur characters.Now I see how game characters in FFXIII & Heavenly sword were animated.
Here are some vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVJ-UnAH6F8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH6-szX1xFk

[melviso]

Some couple of questions about motionbuilder.For some reason,I have a file containing a model with textures in png file format.Okay,I have put in the bones,exported it as an fbx file with Maya 2009.On importing into MB2010,the textures are not showing.Also does MB 2010 support realtime display of normal maps and alpha planes?I have heard a lot about its realtime capabilities so please what am I doing wrong?

[trevissg]

try cinema 4d

[tyree]

you should look into cat for animating. character animation toolkit.