Character Movement Help

[Steven547]

Hello.

 

I'm having trouble with the basic movement of my character. What I'm looking to do (and this is just me practicing), is have a character kick with his one leg, bring it down, then kick with the other. (This applies to arms as well.). However, after I create the movement with his one leg and begin the other, the 2nd leg begins to move at the very BEGINNING of the entire animated sequence (during playback) instead of AFTER the 1st leg movement. Any help? Suggestions?

 

Thanks.

 

Steven

[NancyGormezano]

Hi Steven

 

Sound to me like you need to set some keyframes for the leg that you don't want to move.

 

For example - If bone A starts moving from frame 0 and completes movement at frame 10, and you want bone B to start moving at frame 10, then you need to set a key frame for bone B at frame 10 that is the same as it's position & orientation at frame 0, so that it won't move.

 

Many ways to do this. Copy frame 0's keyframe & paste it at frame 10 for bone B. Or another alternate way is move to frame 10 & hit the make keyframe. Or assuming no channel for bone B has been setup yet, move to frame 10 - wiggle the bone - a channel and keyframe will be set up. Delete the keyframe (not the channels) for this bone, and then hit the make keyframe.

[Steven547]

Hi Steven

 

Sound to me like you need to set some keyframes for the leg that you don't want to move.

 

For example - If bone A starts moving from frame 0 and completes movement at frame 10, and you want bone B to start moving at frame 10, then you need to set a key frame for bone B at frame 10 that is the same as it's position & orientation at frame 0, so that it won't move.

 

Many ways to do this. Copy frame 0's keyframe & paste it at frame 10 for bone B. Or another alternate way is move to frame 10 & hit the make keyframe. Or assuming no channel for bone B has been setup yet, move to frame 10 - wiggle the bone - a channel and keyframe will be set up. Delete the keyframe (not the channels) for this bone, and then hit the make keyframe.

 

 

Ok...I think some part of my brain just stopped working. Here's what I'm doing: start at frame 0, move part A until frame 10. Now I want part B to begin moving. So, it has NOT moved since frame 0. I select part B and I click the "force key frame" button. Then I adjust my frame to be 20, and move part B to where I want. When I run this, it still moves at the same time. What the heck am I not understanding here??

[KenH]

Forcing a keyframe usually only works of bones you have already moved. You'll have to copy/move it manually at frame 10.

[Steven547]

I am so lost.

[Pengy]

ok i'll take a stab.1st take a breath this isn't surgery lol. the way i understand it if you dont put a keyframe for every bone you plan on moving the program starts the movement from the last set keyframe. so, basically you have to set a keyframe to tell the bone to hold still. so at frame 0 go and wiggle each bone you intend to use,this will set a keyframe for them. now if you want the arm to rise up at frame 10 go to say frame 7 and wiggle them again.then at frame 10 position the arm the way you want it. this way you've told the bone to hold still until frame 7 then take 3 frames to move into position.

[robcat2075]

or... look at it this way...

 

keyframingbasicsMP4.mov

[Pengy]

ignore me...lol robcat's got it! can we maybe save this somewhere i'm sure it'll help every noob out.

[Steven547]

Ok...still looking at the video. Not working for me yet. I'll keep practicing and figure out what the heck i'm doing wrong. I'm following the video exactly, but I think my "copy" is not copying correctly. Well, here's to trying.....

[Dhar]

Is your Animate button ON?

[Steven547]

Yea..it's on. I think i'm starting to get the hang of it. Some reason, my CTRL + C key wasn't doing what it was supposed to. I think i'm understanding this now. And trust me, I appreciate ALL the help you guys have and probably will still give me!

[robcat2075]

Yea..it's on. I think i'm starting to get the hang of it. Some reason, my CTRL + C key wasn't doing what it was supposed to. I think i'm understanding this now. And trust me, I appreciate ALL the help you guys have and probably will still give me!

 

Remember, CTRL+C is just a keyboard shortcut. You can select copy and paste from the menus at the top also.