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Animators meeting summary 24/8/8
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Animators meeting summary 24/8/8 // Tech Forum
Post by Igor K Handel // Jul 27, 2008, 1:52am
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Igor K Handel
Total Posts: 411
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In case it's of help to anyone else, here are the notes I took from last nights animators meeting.
I have edited them fairly heavily to "try" and keep things shorter. I've also added in a couple of personal tips, for what they are worth.
If there are any corrections needed... np, just pm me and I will edit post as required.
Thanks to all involved,,
to anyone else
------- TRY ONLINE COLLABORATION IT's JUST AWESOME -------
Ok heres the summarised notes I took.......
Add the bones
Then attach skin to skeleton
Now adjust joint limits
[Heidi] says:
Do you create your skeleton or joint limits in object space or in world space?
[3dfrog] says:
I use world
[IKHandel] says:
can limits be set up AFTER Ik is added, or is that not adviseable?
[3dfrog] says:
yes they can be set after
[Heidi] says:
they can even be set or adjusted while you're dynaposing
[IKHandel] says:
would they be keyframed then?
[Heidi] says:
no, not keyframed
[Dele] says:
Probably better practice to do it first though, so you can properly test your IK handles
[Heidi] says:
If you're using IK handles, you want to set them as much as you can first. You also want to keyframe your default pose before you go mucking around with them
My after meeting Edit on this point...
The default pose can also be stored in memory just by using the "set default pose" button in the joint editing tool set.
No keyframe is actually needed to store the default pose. However for other reasons it is good practice to add a keyframe on frame 0 or even frame -10 or whatever, simply because any movement has to have somewhere to come from as well as go to.
For example.. Say at frame 20 you set your first keyframe for a leg rotation. Without a keyframe of the starting position before this one, the rotation has no way of knowing at what speed it needs to rotate, or how many degrees to rotate, in order to arrive correctly at your new keyframe at frame 20. It would just instantly be at your keyframed rotation.
An additional bonus of adding a keyframe in the default pose on frame 1 or or even frame -10(thats minus 10) etc is that it can be quickly copied and pasted within an anim track should the need arise (IE things have gone pear shaped). Any pose stored before frame 0 need never be seen in the final anim. I find it useful to store poses pre frame 0 simply using the frames as a fast clipboard storage area.
It is also good practice to save a rigged character to a library once the default pose has been set. Insurance I guess.
End of Edit
[3dfrog] says:
ok now I set the ik handles
[3dfrog] says:
first I do pelvis
[3dfrog] says:
I leave that on fk, turn off posing only and preserve bone orientaion
[3dfrog] says:
The pelvis bone needs 4 locks, two rotation locks. one on each thigh and a full lock on each foot
Once all four locks are created select the "add ik handle icon" again and select the pelvis handle.
Now click all four locks (3Dfrog please confirm this is all 4 locks) so that they turn green and in the ik panel select "invert ik groups"
[3dfrog] says:
when you create an Ik handle it appears on the bone or joint you choose, it will stop moving where you create a lock
[IKHandel] says:
ok so the Ik chain length is set by where the lock is placed
[3dfrog] says:
yes
[IKHandel] says:
for what reason do locks get inverted?
[3dfrog] says:
it will invert the setting of the rotation locks on the thigh and lock the rotation of those above it
EDIT... Thats the basic ouline of what we covered.
Heres the gist of the BVH we covered
BVH
You can save a keyframed (KF) animation track as bvh to any library.
Heres how..
First select an actor or skeleton that has animation in its animation track, or select the actual anim clip itself. With any of these selected right mouse over any library and chose "save as BVH"
Anim clips may be selected in either the Animation Editor (AE) track or the LE window.
Thats all there is to it!!
But now what??
So now I have a saved animation either as a clip or as Bvh, depending on what I saved it as; how do I apply it to other characters?
To apply an anim clip or Bvh to a different character either in the same scene or a completely new one.
First select your new actor/character. Now just by (double?) clicking on a saved BVH or anim clip in library, that clip/BVH will be applied! No drag and drop required. Thats it ... so simple
NOTE :- it is import that the joints of your new character have the same names as the rig from which the anim clip or Bvh was saved.
Edit
Related bits of info I find useful.
Bvh clips can be sped up or slowed down by grabbing the "clip" handles in the animation window, and dragging those handles. Bvh CAN be edited, but thats a whole seperate topic. It can also be chopped up and small sections saved as seperate anim clips or bvh clips.. Again a whole new topic.
In TS, ANY library can store ANY type of information... Animation, BVH, a model, a project, a scene etc. This is fantastic for keeping all files of a project in the one place.
BUT
Personally I find that it it is all too easy to end up with a library full of a whole bunch of file types and a load of different files of different types all jumbled up from my latest session. I recommend saving out any reusable anim clips or BVH to a seperate Library once you have finished your current session. It then becomes real easy to build up a nice collection of useful stuff thats easily found. Giving all files a good descriptive name also saves a ton of time in the future.
Hope thats of help to someone.
As my first online collaboration experience, all I can say is WOW... you gotta to try this, its easy, everyone is friendly, we had some great laughs, AND we learned a bunch of stuff.
Yours
IK Handel |
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