Simple question about animating in general

[tido]

Hi,

I'm new to animating and I wanted to know what was the best to do: create a bunch of actions we load in a choreography or create some actions and modify them in skeletal mode directly in the choreography to suit a particular movment. The problem I found with the second option is that, when we animate in the choreography, it also modify every following actions that we give to the model.

 

I have another question about actions: How do we smooth the movment fron 1 action to the second one. I mean, my guy is walking and then stops to idle. How do we make the transition between walk and idle without creating a new animation between these two?

 

thanks

tido

[Rodney]

Glad you didn't ask any TOUGH questions!

 

Regarding Choreography versus separate Actions here's my take.

 

If you are animating repeating or cyclic actions you should create these in their own separate Action. Animating in the Chor will add to these actions. I've found I prefer this method but then again I'm not an accomplished animator.

 

Animating in the Chor is what I do anytime I'm NOT working with a repeating or cyclic action.

I'm discovering this isn't always the best route though and have started initial animation of characters and objects in their own animation so I always have a basic action to fall back on.

 

How do we smooth the movment fron 1 action to the second one. I mean, my guy is walking and then stops to idle. How do we make the transition between walk and idle without creating a new animation between these two?

 

There is a video tutorial called "Walk and Wave" that you need to review.

You'll find it at the bottom of Hash Inc's video tutorial page:

 

http://www.hash.com/vm/

 

Hope that scratches the surface.

More accomplished animators can definitely get us pointed in the right way.

[tido]

Thanks for the reply.

 

If I use an action, can I modify it in a choreography to suit the situation. But, if I move the model's arm, it will affect following actions. Is there a way to reset the skeletal modifications at a different frame without moving all bones individually?

 

thanks

[Rodney]

I'm not fully understanding the questions here but I'll take a stab at them...

 

If I use an action, can I modify it in a choreography to suit the situation.

Yes.

 

But, if I move the model's arm, it will affect following actions. Is there a way to reset the skeletal modifications at a different frame without moving all bones individually?

 

Yes. Here you could either delete the keyframes on that particular frame or paste in another set of keyframes.

 

It sounds like the animation workflow you are working at would best be served by approaching from the Pose to Pose perspective (as opposed to Straight Ahead).

 

In Pose to Pose animation you might set a pair of keyframes definining one pose and then move ahead to the next pose where you set another pair of keyframes. Generally you'll want to keep these pairs at least 4 frames apart so that the pose will register with the eye of the viewer.

 

There are some video tutorials linked here in the forum that might describe this process pretty well and there are video tutorials you can purchase from Anzovin, Bizzle and others.

[Rodney]

I was in the Technical Reference looking up some other information and ran across this on actions. Some examples of reusable actions you might consider animating in an Action rather than the Chor:

 

REUSABLE ACTIONS

Anytime the animation you are creating has repetition, or multiple actors are to act out the same motion, or you will use the motion in multiple scenes, then a reusable action should be created. Here is a list of some examples that would make good reusable actions.

 

 

 

Any motion that can cycle:

• Walking
  
• Running
  
• Skipping
  
• A bird flapping it’s wings to fly
  
• The prop spinning on an airplane or helicopter
  

 

Any motion that multiple models will be acting out:

• Dancing
  
• Waving
  
• Cheering
  
• Clapping
  

Any motion that a model might use in multiple scenes, or multiple times in a scene:

• Standing up
  
• Sitting down
  
• Laying down
  
• Punching
  
• Kicking
  

 

There are more of course but that's some pretty good insight into the where and when of it.

[Rodney]

For those following along here is some more information regarding Actions and Choreography Actions that you may find of use:

 

KINDS OF ACTIONS

Animation:Master has two basic methods to create animation. These methods are called actions. The first type of action is called “Action”. It is intended to be reusable and is made in an action window. The second type of action is called “Choreography Action”. This is an action that is used one time in a choreography and is specific to the scene and model. Choreography actions are created automatically for a model when animate in a choreography window.

 

 

 

Export Action As

 

This feature is used to save the motion created in the choreography as a reusable action. This is useful when the motion is most easily created in choreography, but will be reused again in a different shot or on a different model. It does not replace or change the choreography motion to reusable. Right-click (Control-click on a Mac) the Choreography icon Action icon in the Project Workspace tree, then pick [Export Action As…], then delete the choreography action, then import the reusable action that you just saved. This only saves the choreography action, not the other underlying reusable actions. (To save everything as a single action, first bake them into the choreography action). “Export Action As…” can also be used to layer motion where a different time interval between the keyframes is required. You can make your low frequency motion first, then save it out, delete it and bring it back in as an action, then using “Add to Underlying Motion” selected on the Choreography Action Properties panel, add the high frequency motion. This could be an arm that swings, but twitches while it swings. This layering technique can be used for layering facial motion, secondary clothes motion etc…

 

 

 

Bake All Actions into Chor Action

 

This feature collects all of the actions, reusable or not, on an object and bakes them into just one simple choreography action. This choreography action can be saved out by right-clicking (Control-click on a Mac) a choreography name in the Project Workspace tree (this will save actions for all objects in the choreography), a model shortcut in a choreography, or within an object's manipulator in a choreography window. Then choose “Export Action As…” from the menu.

[tido]

Thanks a lot, that really helped

[robcat2075]

many animation situations are so specific that pre-existing actions won't do; everything is just animated directly in the chor.

 

However, "second chor actions" can help in modifying premade actions.

 

How to add any animation after any action

 

[Rick Coona]

Greetings All!

here is a really newbie question:

How do I get the files from the extras disk into the animation master proggy?

 

see told ya

 

Thank you in advance,

 

--Rick

[C-grid]

Tido,

 

My vision of animating is craftmanship and manual labour, not doing a sequence of glued predefined actions...

This being said, chor-animating the bones and use actions where its convient to use is my way togo.

Of course the type and quality for the final animation decides when 'convenient' will apply.

 

Niels.

[Muff]

Actions to me are a tool for timesaving movements. Cyclical/repetative etc. Like, why re-animate a walk when one is already done if an action file is saved for a walk cycle? Actions are just a tool for saving time with movements already created. You can "adjust" things in the timeline if needed to do certain other things from within an action already placed, to vary movements from already existing keyframe points in an action file that still would ultimately show up on the timeline in the Chor. Now this is all my hearsay thinking. Im not an expert animator. You can do everything in an action (it could be a whole scene that is individually scripted movements on something). Or you can do it all in the choreography. Ultimately, you can change any movement in time on the timeline in Chor. mixing up actions and any on-the-fly adjustments in real time, going the Chor route of animating. Of course, actions are already animated; so adjusting things in the Chor. would require modifying or deleting/replacing already existing keyframe points to suit any added movements, to the placed "action file" in a Chor? OF course there are the options in Chor. to "replace/add/blend actions" should a sequence of them be used together on the timeline. For timing purposes, I prefer CHor. so that I can play to the Cam, and judge distances and placement of movement to time. This is all just a quick thought, not intended to be exact dialogue into animation.