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What's New in MotionBuilder 2024

Welcome to MotionBuilder 2024!

This release includes a new tool to show the latest Python output message, a new icon for the Symmetry Edit status in the Character Controls window, and undo and redo support when moving Schematic boxes, in addition to many other beneficial workflow enhancements.

See below for all of the updates and more!

Filtering Box - Assign Sources to Destinations

New search functionality has been added to the Assign Sources to Destinations option in MotionBuilder 2024.

When you right-click on a clip in the timeline of the Story window (Window > Story from the menu bar), and select Assign Sources to Destinations, you can now filter sources in a clip. This is especially helpful when clips contain hundreds of objects.

New Symmetry Edit Icon - Character Controls Panel

The Symmetry functions (translation, rotation and scaling) are now accessible through a new icon in the Character Controls window.

While the Symmetry functions can still be accessed through Edit > Actor in the Character Controls window, you can easily select them through the new icon directly in the window's interface.

Collapse/Expand Action Panel Shot Clips

The new Action panel shot stack in the Story window can now be collapsed to a single line by a recently added drop-down arrow to the left of the interface. This update allows you to save space in the interface, while freely having the option to open and close the stack when needed.

Set the Frame Rate when Exporting an FBX from Motion File Export

Two new columns are now available when exporting an FBX from Motion File Export. They are: Frame Rate and Custom. These new columns allow you to effortlessly set the frame rate from the Motion File Export settings when exporting an FBX as an animation.

More great updates!

Python Status Bar A new dockable Python Status Bar is now available from the Window menu. The bar shows the latest output message from the Python Editor, and will turn red to indicate an output message error. For ease of access, a button is also to the right of the bar which opens up the Python Editor window.
Python Editor Console History When you select a single variable or expression from a script tab in the Python Editor and press Enter, it will now display the value or variable expression in the Python Editor console history.
Schematic View Undo/Redo Support Many new actions performed in the Schematic view now support the undo/redo operations of Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y. These new actions include: moving nodes (including rearranging them), expanding and collapsing nodes, selecting an existing bookmark, and turning on and off the Auto Arrange option. You can also use Alt+Z/Alt+Y to undo/redo while panning, zooming and framing. This update makes navigating the Schematic view easier than ever before.
Specify a Custom Embedded Timecode Value In MotionBuilder 2024, you now have the option to specify a custom embedded timecode value for the first frame of a video clip in the Video settings. When this feature is active, the entire clip will use the custom embedded timecode value. It will also display the video embedded timecode values in the Story Tool and under the Video preview, as well.
Console Window to Command Prompt Option For Windows users, when launching MotionBuilder from the command line, you now can open the console window with the existing prompt: -console [mode]. The FILMBOX_CONSOLE environment variable now also supports if a console is being used for outputting the stdout/err steams. This acts as the -console flag. The -console [mode] flag has precedence over the FILMBOX_CONSOLE environment variable. The values for the -console [mode] parameter and environment variable are: Create: A new output window is created. Current: The current console, if applicable, is used as the output window. If the [mode] parameter is not used, a new output window is created. Using the console window allows you to see more of what is happening under the hood of MotionBuilder. For example, the current console is useful to keep a log even after MotionBuilder has been closed.

What's new in the SDK

Re-scanning Communication Ports In the past, when you plug in a device to your system while a scene is open, MotionBuilder would not detect it. This has changed in MotionBuilder 2024. Now, you can use the FBSerialManager SDK method to interact with communication ports, re-scan your system for devices and allow them to connect while you're working in a scene. This update improves your progress as you'll no longer have to open a new scene to detect new devices.
New Take of the FBTake.PlotTakeOnProperties SDK Method A new flavor of the FBTake.PlotTakeOnProperties SDK method has now been introduced, which uses a parameter of FBPlotOptions. This new method allows you to plot a list of properties and specify the various plotting options. Previously, you had to call PlotTakeOnSelectedProperties to be able to specify the various plotting options. For this method, you had to select all the properties you wanted to plot, which was slowed down your workflow. Now, there's no need to select the properties. You simply need to pass a list of properties, like the other flavor of PlotTakeOnProperties.
Plot Tracks to Camera Switcher To improve your workflow, two new SDK methods have been added to allow the plotting of one or all Shot Tracks to the Camera switcher of a specific take. They are: lShotTrack = FBStory().RootEditFolder.Tracks[0] and lShotTrack.PlotToCameraSwitcher(FBSystem().Scene.Takes[0]). And... FBStory().PlotAllShotTracksToCameraSwitcher(FBSystem().Scene.Takes[0]). These methods are also available by right-clicking the Camera switcher track in Story, and selecting either Plot Selected Shot Track to Camera Switcher or Plot All Shot Tracks to Camera Switcher.
Performance Improvement when Merging Multiple Scenes When merging multiple scenes under new namespaces with the FBApplication.FileMerge SDK method, you will now see a significant performance increase in MotionBuilder 2024.

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