Motionbuilder

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Shotgun Engine for Motionbuilder

Shotgun Integration in Motionbuilder
Latest Version: v0.5.2 (prod)
For our version numbers, we follow the Semantic Versioning standard.
System Name: tk-motionbuilder
Please Note: This document describes functionality only available if you have taken control over a Toolkit configuration. Please refer to the Shotgun Integrations User Guide for more details.

The Shotgun engine for Motionbuilder establishes a bridge between Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit apps and Motionbuilder. It also contains a PySide distribution, which is designed to connect to the QT inside of Motionbuilder, making it possible to write apps using Python and PySide that run right inside the Engine.

Supported Application Versions

This item has been tested and is known to be working on the following application versions: 2016-2020. Please note that it is perfectly possible, even likely, that it will work with more recent releases, however it has not yet been formally tested with these versions.

Documentation

The Shotgun engine for Motionbuilder contains a standard platform for integrating Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit (Sgtk) Apps into Motionbuilder. It is light weight and straight forward and adds a Shotgun menu to the main menu.

screenshot

Installation and Updates

Adding this Engine to the Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit

If you want to add this engine to Project XYZ, and an environment named asset, execute the following command:

> tank Project XYZ install_engine asset tk-motionbuilder

Updating to the latest version

If you already have this item installed in a project and you want to get the latest version, you can run the update command. You can either navigate to the tank command that comes with that specific project, and run it there:

> cd /my_tank_configs/project_xyz
> ./tank updates

Alternatively, you can run your studio tank command and specify the project name to tell it which project to run the update check for:

> tank Project XYZ updates

Collaboration and Evolution

If you have access to the Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit, you also have access to the source code for all apps, engines and frameworks in Github where we store and manage them. Feel free to evolve these items; use them as a base for further independent development, make changes (and submit pull requests back to us!) or simply tinker with them to see how they have been built and how the toolkit works. You can access this code repository at https://github.com/shotgunsoftware/tk-motionbuilder.

Special Requirements

  • You need Shotgun Pipeline Toolkit Core API version v0.19.18 or higher to use this.

Configuration

Below is a summary of all the configuration settings used. These settings need to be defined in the environment file where you want to enable this App or Engine.

menu_favourites

Type: list

Description: Controls the favourites section on the main menu. This is a list and each menu item is a dictionary with keys app_instance and name. The app_instance parameter connects this entry to a particular app instance defined in the environment configuration file. The name is a menu name to make a favourite.

Release Notes

Welcome to the release notes for this Engine. Below you will find an overview of all the changes we did for each release. We try to be as detailed as possible and include all bugs we have fixed, features we have added and things that may have changed. If you have questions about a particular release, don't hesitate to contact our support team!

v0.5.2

2020-Dec-8

Switches from using the support email alias to pointing to the support site

v0.5.1

2019-Dec-11

Support for MotionBuilder 2020

v0.5.0

2019-Apr-05

Support for v2019, PySide2, core 0.18 and misc changes.

Details:

  • This version of the engine is not compatible with versions before 2014.
  • Engine now requires core v0.18 or later.
  • Adds support for mobu 2019, PySide2 and cleans up the engine payload.
  • Adds context switching support.
  • Updates to 0.18 logging.
  • Removes deprecated config params debug_logging and use_sgtk_as_menu_name.

v0.4.2

2018-May-14

Now ensures that the folder is created, before saving the workfile during publish.

v0.4.1

2018-Jan-09

fix for broken thumbnails in mobu

v0.4.0

2017-Nov-20

Now houses publish2 plugin hooks and supports template-based worklfows

v0.3.1

2016-Feb-18

Adds a call to log a user metric for the DCC version

v0.3.0

Rebuilt PySide to fix many stability issues with newer apps

v0.2.13

Implemented workaround for menu instabilities in Motionbuilder 2011 & 2012

v0.2.12

Fixes to menu creation and destruction

Details: It is now possible to restart the engine correctly from the Work Area app Fixed some instability issues when certain apps are launched from the menu Tidied up menu location and construction

v0.2.11

Improvements to the Toolkit dialog & widget management

Details:

  • Dialogs created with show_modal & show_dialog are now released correctly when closed.
  • Updated to require core v0.14.23

v0.2.10

Updated Engine Icon.

v0.2.9

Updated Icon.

v0.2.8

Renames and support for the new name Sgtk.

v0.2.7

Renames and support for the new name Sgtk.

v0.2.6

Uses new API methods for file system lookups.

v0.2.5

Fixed window parenting

Details: Fixed window parenting

v0.2.4

Added an icon to the engine bundle.

v0.2.3

Updated manifest to require core v0.12.5

v0.2.2

Added support for automatic reload.

v0.2.1

Fixed a unicode related bug in the menu handling.

v0.2.0

Added pyside support.

v0.1.0

Initial Release

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