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I'm having trouble walking....
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I'm having trouble walking.... // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by W!ZARD // Jan 6, 2008, 12:58am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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... and no, it's because of excess holiday indulgence!
I've been dabbling in the unexplored (well, unexplored by me) waters of animation. Here's the state of play so far:
Created character mesh
Imported Mr. Boneses free BVH mocap files,
Found one called 'Limp1' (Please, no jokes about excess holiday indulgence! ;))
Successfully hooked it up to my character,
Copied the anim clip a few times
Adjusted one of them to add some variety....
And I'm (a) highly impressed with tS character anim capabilities which I'm only scratching the surface of and (b) reasonably impressed with myself for having successfully got this far with it all! Oh yeah, and (c) I'm also impressed with Mr Bones BVH file too.
But, (and there had to be a but!) my character is limping along beautifully but he's doing it in one place! :(
My question; Is there an easy way of getting the character to move as though he is actually moving rather than standing in one spot? Is the a method for pinning the characters foot to the ground for the necessary number of frames so the the BVH motions carry him forward?
So far my efforts at key framing the characters position in such a way that his feet don't jump and jiggle have been disappointing. Any suggestions would be appreciated here - and please note that I'm relatively new to animation but not entirely ignorant of the principles.
Thanks in advance....
WZRD |
Post by butterpaw // Jan 6, 2008, 1:34am
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butterpaw
Total Posts: 831
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just a thought, and I'm not an animator... but if you keep changing the background.. it will look as if he's walking somewhere..
... if this wasn't the answer you were looking for... please pardon my four paws :D |
Post by 3dfrog // Jan 6, 2008, 4:17am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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YAY! Cool Wizard. Glad to see you animating.
First thing you got to do is go to into story mode and add a new track, right click on the character name and you will see the option. Then right click the name of the track and enable additive blend mode. This will allow you to blend your animation clips. Make sure that the additive track is selected then animate your movement. you will see how they blend. After that it is all about placement and timing. That you just have to figure out. If things are slipping around try setting the fcurves interpolation to linear. That should help.
Looking forward to seeing your animation. |
Post by DudeMeister // Jan 6, 2008, 6:08am
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DudeMeister
Total Posts: 22
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Alternatively to 3dfrog approach you could enter the FCurve view select the element Matrix , delete all key frames but the first one and then you can create key frames like you would in a separate track.
Regards
Da Dude |
Post by W!ZARD // Jan 6, 2008, 6:11am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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YAY! Cool Wizard. Glad to see you animating.
First thing you got to do is go to into story mode and add a new track, right click on the character name and you will see the option. Then right click the name of the track and enable additive blend mode. This will allow you to blend your animation clips. Make sure that the additive track is selected then animate your movement. you will see how they blend. After that it is all about placement and timing. That you just have to figure out. If things are slipping around try setting the fcurves interpolation to linear. That should help.
Looking forward to seeing your animation.
Hmmn - that's what I thought! Thanks Frog, I was hoping there was a secret cunning method for pinning down his feet that was as easy as the rest of the process - shrug, never mind, I guess I'll just have to persevere with it.
BP - an excellent suggestion, thanks but, given my tendency to want to do something complex when I could do it easily.....:D.
In this case I want to animate a character walking across the dungeon scene I posted recently. Part of the impetus for this project is the interesting shadows on the foreground as the figure walks past the light and for this to work his feet need to look like they're actually doing what feet do when they are being walked on. |
Post by 3dfrog // Jan 6, 2008, 7:39am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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Some other software have tools for making the feet not slip, it is called stride length. Unfortunately, ts does not have this feature. It is most useful when making a character walk a path, but ts workspace side doesn't have that yet either. So we gotta do it the tedious way.
I have used dudemeisters way before too, works fine too. I Think the track is a little easier though and makes it easier to edit. |
Post by DudeMeister // Jan 6, 2008, 8:02am
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DudeMeister
Total Posts: 22
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3dfrog I agree. I actually thought there would be an advantage when saving the animation back as .bvh file but two tracks work just as fine and it is a lot more natural to work with two tracks. Or More I guess ;) |
Post by W!ZARD // Jan 7, 2008, 12:14am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Thanks guys - I was using Frogs approach - it seemed the most natural way to go but I was finding it pretty tedious hence the question. I can see how DM's method works but I'll go with the extra track method... when I get some time that is! |
Post by butterpaw // Jan 7, 2008, 3:17am
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butterpaw
Total Posts: 831
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In this case I want to animate a character walking across the dungeon scene I posted recently. Part of the impetus for this project is the interesting shadows on the foreground as the figure walks past the light and for this to work his feet need to look like they're actually doing what feet do when they are being walked on.Ah, yes .. ;)
Doh!, I knew I shouldn't have read this thread - now I want to do it too, and there just aren't enough hours in the day ...
(where's the head-banging emoticon when you need it?) :D |
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