Test Drives: Entertainment Creation Suites
We are holding monthly, free Test Drives of the new Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 software.
First, you will get an overview of the new features in the included software:
- 3ds Max 2012
- Maya 2012
- MotionBuilder 2012
- Mudbox 2012
- Softimage 2012, with an overview of Softimage ICE (Interactive Creative Environment)
Hands-on training will include:
- Interoperability of the Suite applications
- featuring the new single-click workflows between the products
- Max and/or Maya
- Nitrous Viewport system/Viewport 2.0 enhancements
- Substance Procedural Textures
- IRay Renderer
- MotionBuilder
- Basic interface
- Characterizing and retargeting characters
- Animation layers
- How to use with the Kinect for motion capture (see below...)
- Mudbox
- Basic interface
- Using digital sculpting tools
- Using stencils and stamps
- 3D texture painting
- Softimage
- Face Robot for facial animation
- Demo of the Microsoft Kinect device used with MotionBuilder to create an affordable motion capture solution. Items covered:
- Installation, setup and configuration of the Kinect - MotionBuilder interface.
- Associating a character to the rig in MotionBuilder
- Creating and recording mocap data from the Kinect directly in MotionBuilder
- Applying the mocap data and animation to a character
- Modifying the Kinect data
- Retargeting the animation to another character
You 
will come away with an understanding of how to utilize this low-cost motion capture solution for pre-visualization, quickly blocking character movements which is great for game characters, initial motion studies and much more.
The short character animation file you create (fbx) can be saved for use with your own characters in Maya, Max and Softimage, and can also be applied to the Unity game engine.
Prerequisite: a working knowledge of Maya and/or 3ds Max is expected.
