Thursday, March 27th, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

Autodesk releases MotionBuilder 2026

Animation is now retained when loading a USD stage in MotionBuilder 2026.


Autodesk has released MotionBuilder 2026, the latest version of its character animation tool, commonly used for viewing and editing motion-capture data.

The update extends USD workflows and makes small quality-of-life improvements.

Updates to USD workflows
MotionBuilder 2026 extends USD-based workflows, USD support having been introduced last year in MotionBuilder 2025.

When loading a USD stage file, the animation contained in the file is now retained, and will be rendered.

A new animatable frame offset property in the Python API makes it possible to retime or time warp the motion.

There is also a new button in the UI to reload USD stage proxies, and a corresponding property in the API.

Other quality-of-life improvements
Workflow improvements include a new shortcut key to force-select previously unselectable objects, and support for extended function keys – [F13] and beyond – as keyboard modifiers.

There is also a new SDK property to control whether HUDs are exported in FBX files, and some API properties have been renamed for clarity.

Pricing and system requirements
MotionBuilder 2026 is available for Windows 10+ and RHEL and Rocky Linux 8.10/9.3/9.5.

It is available rental-only, with subscriptions costing $2,225/year, up $80/year since the previous release.

Read a full list of new features in MotionBuilder 2026 in the online documentation


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