learning to animate

[thetanman]

here is my first (under 1 second) animation!

[thetanman]

here it is

MyFirstAnimation_.zip

[thetanman]

here is another one that i did

ShaggyGroove_.mov

[thetanman]

how do you make a keyframe at 00:00:00??

[Dhar]

how do you make a keyframe at 00:00:00??

 

By slightly moving each bone

[c-wheeler]

What Dhar Said, also

Whenever I start an animation, on frame 00 I always key in all the bones I am going to animate - also the pose sliders as well.

Chris

[phatso]

You can select the whole rig in the lower toolbar (the button that looks a bit like a windmill) and then click to make a keyframe. Another way of selecting the whole model is to go into the workspace window and click on "shortcut to..." the model.

[KenH]

Careful with forcing keyframes on the whole model. It's liable to make a keyframe for every bone in the rig......slowing things down hugely. You're better to move the few bones you want at frame 0 then later on you can force keyframes on just the bones you've made. Pressing SHIFT as you force, gives you this option. Or you can copy keyframes for all bones by selecting the bones folder.

[goodguy20k]

Nobody starts an animation out with the character in it's "natural pose". You should always set your char's initial pose up on frame 0. From there, keying is a like normal.

 

And don't forget negative keying and post-cut keying. If you go right into the scene with action, move applyable keyframes back before 0. This will give you better follow-through and motion. And for heaven's sake, keep your timeline cleaned up!

 

Note: Those are all suggestions, and backed by me alone. Don't blame anyone else but me if your animation flops... (Just kidding!)

[thetanman]

here is another little crazy animation of shaggy. i would like some comments please!!!

Shaggy2Seconds_.mov

[phatso]

Looks like you got tripped up on the 00:00:00 keyframe thing - I assume you didn't intend a monster camera move just into the animation. (Or was that switching cameras?) The first thing you always want to do, at least in my own experience, is set up the scene at frame zero.

 

When I mentioned keyframing the whole actor, I should have said that I was talking only about frame zero. From then on, as KenH said, you can get into trouble keyframing all bones. Let's broaden that: You see the three buttons that let you select a single bone, a kinematic string, or the whole model? Keyframing will go faster, with fewer "How the hell did that happen?" moments, if you always pay attention to what you're keyframing.

[c-wheeler]

I think you may have missed the point there, Phatso. If, on frame 00, you force a keyframe, then from THEN on you get every single bone channel in the action. If the model only has a few bones, no problem, but if youre using, for example, the posable squetch rig and face setup, well, it adds a lot of clutter and uses much more processing power just to manipulate.

For me, its far simpler just to key a few bones at the start to setup the action file.After that I always key on every 4th frame just to keep it neat.

Chris

[thetanman]

how do you add a light to an object? i am modeling a ceiling fan. How do I get the lights in the bulbs? Do I add them in the choreography or modeling window?

[Rodney]

how do you add a light to an object? i am modeling a ceiling fan. How do I get the lights in the bulbs? Do I add them in the choreography or modeling window?

 

There are several ways. I assume you want to make the lights part of your model rather than constrain the lights to it in a choreogrpahy/action.

 

 

Modeling Window (Older way)

Create or Open a Model

RIGHT CLICK, select New/Light

You must enter Bones Mode to see and move/adjust the lights.

 

Action Window (Newer way)

Create or Open a Model

Create an Action for that Model

RIGHT CLICK, select New/Light or drag and drop lights into the Action

Adjust the lights as needed in the action window

 

Thats pretty simpified. Sorry if its not enough.

I'd promise a tutorial but would probably never get around to it.

Let me know if you have any problems!