KOut

A generic output device plugin for AUTODESK MotionBuilder 2010-2015 and the Kuper Control device from General Lift used for motion control of camera rigs and other equipment. KOut reads data from general-purpose ouput animation nodes of MotionBuilder and delivers the data in real-time to the Kuper Control system via the serial port or network card (ethernet UDP/TCP).  KOut is the output counter part of KIStream , the input device plugin for Kuper Control. 

 

Purpose

KOut connects AUTODESK MotionBuilder output animation nodes to Kuper Control axes, either in live mode or by playing out a user-defined animation. Up to 12 axis values can be processed by the KOut output device and are available as general-purpose floating point animation output nodes in AUTODESK MotionBuilder. The operator can map any translational or rotational animation channel of any model available in the scene to the output animation nodes and export the data to  the Kuper Control device. On Kuper you refine the move until it reaches production quality and to let the Motion Control software perform the move precisely as it was designed. 

BTW, the resulting move can be monitored in real-time in AUTOKDESK Motionbuilder by using KIStream, the input device plugin, to compare the real move with the drafted version.   

KOut is designed to be ignorant of the meaning of the axes data to ensure maximal flexibility on MotionBuilder as well as on the Kuper Control side. In MotionBuilder, for instance, general constraints can be used to let scene geometry to produce Kuper Control data in real-time or to record the data within Motionbuilder for later export. To support as many processing pipelines as possible, ad-hoc model bindings between simple marker geometry and corresponding output Kuper axis are introduced and can be used without loosing too much time for preparing the virtual scene accordingly. 

KOut can also be used to simulate artifical Kuper Control encoder data for other systems for testing purposes.

Compatibility

Access

Developed by

EckesVision

Precondition

You need a valid AUTODESK MotionBuilder 2010-2015 license installed under MS Windows 7/8 Prof. 64-Bit  and access to a Kuper Control system to benefit from the plugin. However, you can always use a 30-days trial version of AUTODESK MotionBuilder and a demo license for KIStream to test the system before purchasing a license needed for production.