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In addition to being able to extend anima® with additional Characters, you can also import your own motion clips. Motion clips should be applied to an anima® compatible rig (almost any biped skeleton will be fine) and imported using the FBX format.

The anima® importer can automatically detect and adapt to multiple types of skeletons. However, sometimes they don’t work as expected or simply are not detected, and then it might be necessary to fine-tune the bone matching manually.

To take a closer look at the standard skeleton included used by anima®, follow the process described here to export any model in FBX and then import that FBX to any 3D animation software like 3dsMax, Maya, Cinema4D, Blender, Lightwave, etc.

To import one or more animated FBX files into anima®, follow these steps:

1. Open the Project to which you’d like to add Motion Clips and change the anima® UI Mode to Editing.

2. In the Motion Clips Library click the + button.

3. The Import Clip menu will open. Click on the Input File Picker and select an FBX file containing a motion clip on a correctly rigged skeleton. To import multiple FBX files, select all of them in the picker and click Open to continue.

4. Set the File Units, in most cases, you can leave this set to Auto, but if you find the character’s scale is incorrect this can be set manually.

5. Add a Description if necessary.

6. Click Save to import the file.
NOTE If your bones do not follow the naming conventions accepted by anima®, a dialog will open asking you to manually map the bones. Just drag each of the bones on your rig to its counterpart in anima®’s internal rig and click Save to continue.

7. The Movement Orientation options will open. These are used to tell anima® the direction the actor is facing in the motion clip. In most cases, anima® will estimate this correctly but you can also set the value manually if necessary.

8. Your new animation will now be available in the Motion Clips Library.

9. New clips don’t have a thumbnail. To generate one, go to the Clip Information panel and click Image Added to create a snapshot. You can also add a Description or edit the Name from this panel.

10. To control the start and endpoint of the Motion, use the Clipping Markers on the play bar.

11. Set the Loop Type: Cycle will continuously play from beginning to end and Ping Pong plays the clip backward than forwards.

12. Set the Clip Type, use Standing for characters on the feet, and Sitting for seated characters.

13. Set the Motion Category and Tags. Motion Categories allow you to classify and create groups for types of movement. Tags allow you to control which characters the movement can be applied to.  Please see the Using Categories and Tags page for more information.

14. Click Save once you finished editing. Changes to motion clips are available in all scenes within a project.