Intermittent jerking

I have an animation (made in Blender if it matters) where I keep the avatar locked in the final pose. The final pose also happens to be the first pose (an exact cut-and-paste match).

I'm using it in a script.

After a randomised period of time, the script stops the animation, thus releasing the avatar from being locked into the pose, waits 0.1 second, then restarts the animation. I put the wait in because without it, the start of the (restarted) animation wouldn't show.

Most of the time the transition between stopping the old animation and starting the new one is nice and smooth, and actually invisible - the only thing that shows it is the movement the animation is supposed to do.

But occasionally, there's this real jerkiness at the changeover instant.

In case my goal isn't clear, I'm trying to achieve an action, a pause (of random length of time) with the affected parts of the avatar locked into a pose, then a repeat of the same action. Continue for a few repeats, then release the avatar to their default animations.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

You might try using a second animation with just that ending pose in it. Then you could play your main animation, start the helper pose before killing the main, then restart the main before killing the helper. It's a bit Rube Goldberg, but would help keep the default movement from leaking through.

Might look into the ease in and out of about 1 second in the Animation upload dialog box. this keeps animation from being jerky, giving it a smooth blend from one animation to the next.

Or making it looped with a ease in and out.

The irritating thing is that I already have an ease out. But I'll try the helper pose trick - that just might work. As you said, annoyingly Rube Goldberg. But sometimes you have to paddle like mad to give the illusion of gliding smoothly over the water.

Thanks! I'll let you know how it works out.

I noticed that the animation wasn't precise enough for me, and modified it. I don't know whether I set a longer ease out, or if the grid has just been more stable, or what has happened, but the animation hasn't jerked for me during my testing ever since.

However, if it does, I'll try the helper animation trick.


Thank you both for your kind responses.