Building a MotionBuilder → MCO Pipeline (Progress + What’s Next)

TL;DR: I can now make animations in MotionBuilder and get them into Skyrim SE as AMR-ready (root motion works in-game). Hitboxes and combo windows aren’t wired yet, so attacks don’t deal damage yet—but I have a plan to fix that. This post is just progress + next steps. The deep technical guide for Maya/MotionBuilder animators will be a separate blog article.

↓Animate in MoBu

↓Add notifies in Blender

↓Drop it in-game!

What’s working now

• Authoring in MotionBuilder, playing in Skyrim:
  I created an animation in MotionBuilder and brought it into the game as an AMR-compatible clip. The character’s movement (root motion) is correctly reflected in-game.

• Pipeline sanity check:
  For a quick test, I used a placeholder animation (ripped from a fighting game) to validate the pipeline. This is for testing only and won’t be distributed—just making sure the path from MoBu → HKX → game is solid.

What’s not wired yet (and how I’ll fix it)

Right now, the punch “plays” but doesn’t hit—no damage, no combo progression. That’s because:

• Hitboxes aren’t assigned yet.

• Combo windows (like “when the next input is accepted”) aren’t annotated yet.

Plan: I’m scoping a small helper tool to add the necessary animation notifies/annotations cleanly. Once that’s in, hits will register, and combos will feel right.

Why I’m going hybrid (MotionBuilder + a bit of Blender)

I originally tried to do everything in Blender because that’s where most Skyrim rigs, add-ons, and tutorials live. After real production use, here’s where I landed:

• MotionBuilder is where I animate fastest and cleanest (layers, retargeting, control workflow).

• I’ll still use Blender for the implementation side when it helps—export paths, annotation utilities, etc.

• In short: Animate in MotionBuilder. Implement with a light touch in Blender. It’s the most reliable, low-friction path for me.

Tools I tried (quick notes)

• Coach’s Enhanced Nickanak Blender Animation Rigs
  I even bought FT Anim Picker (Blender) and built a custom picker for this rig. I attached the picker file at the bottom of this post—if you want to try it, first install FT Anim Picker (Blender) and Coach’s Enhanced Nickanak Blender Animation Rigs, then load the picker and go to town.

• Animation Layers (Blender add-on)
  Functionally solid, but overall I’m still faster in MotionBuilder.

What’s next

1. Finish the notify tool

   • Add hit events and timing windows so attacks deal damage and combos chain correctly.

2. Publish the blog guide (for Non-Blender animators)

   • A step-by-step doc you can actually follow: export settings, gotchas, naming, and how to get AMR/MCO-ready results without guesswork.

New posting schedule (to match your day)

I’m moving weekly updates from Saturdays 17:00 JST to Thursdays 23:00 JST.

Why? Most of you are in the EU and North America, and this time hits EU evening and NA morning—much easier to catch during your day. It’s also after work in Japan, so it’s friendly here too.

(For reference: 23:00 JST ≈ 16:00 CEST / 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT / 07:00 PDT during summer.)

Thanks

Thanks for sticking with me while I lock this down. Once hitboxes + combo windows are in, we’ll finally see the combat feel kick in. The blog guide will follow—clear, step-by-step, and made for people who live in Maya/MotionBuilder every day.

— KEI