Monique Binstok
Registered User
Join date: 5 May 2008
Posts: 87
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05-29-2008 08:10
I have just started using Orion Neville's rig for doing dance animations with Maya 2008. I understand the necessity to move all the joints in frame 2 so that SL knows which to animate. So far my normal procedure has been to have the "T" bind pose in frame 1 than move all the joints in frame 2 followed by my animation loop. This works fine but I would like to have a relaxed pose that I can use to begin all my dance animation so that the transitions look smooth. My "relaxed pose" if used in frame 2 to begin the dance loop doesn't have ALL joints moved so SL has problems knowing which joints to animate. I tried using frame 1 for twisting all the joints followed by my loop at frame 2 but although the animation with run I get some weird angle on my character. My questions: Does frame 1 have to be the "T" pose? Do all animations start at frame 2 or is there a way to make the loops start at the 3rd keyed frame? How do other people do their dance animation clips so that they have smooth transitions form clip to clip?
Any advice or tips will be much appreciated.
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Deira Llanfair
Deira to rhyme with Myra
Join date: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 2,315
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05-29-2008 09:45
Hi Monique - to answer your questions very briefly:
1 - yes 2 - yes - but you can use the loop percentage on upload to loop just part of an animation, eg, missing out the starting frames.
[EDIT - this will probably solve your problem. Frame 1 - T-pose, frame 2 - all joints peturbed a few degrees...then....make your relaxed starting pose static from Frame 3 for half a second or so. Then work out your upload loop start percentage based on frame 1 to the last frame of your relaxed starting pose. Upload, looping from this percentage to 100%]
3- I can always see the loop jump even in the best animations.
I think the skill lies more in having a dance movement where the loop back isn't involving a big change of position in any joint. More to do with the actual dance than anything else and just accepting the limitations of animating in SL.
It might help you to know that SL optimises every animation to 15 fps on upload - if you animate at a higher fps, frames get dropped. This can exaggerate any jumps and even introduce them where they are not present in your original animation.
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Deira  Must create animations for head-desk and palm-face!.
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Monique Binstok
Registered User
Join date: 5 May 2008
Posts: 87
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05-29-2008 12:36
Deira thanks for the quick reply and good info. So if I make my relaxed pose last for 1/2 second and make sure to end loop in same position then it's just a matter of testing different start % untill I find my 1/2 second pose?
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Deira Llanfair
Deira to rhyme with Myra
Join date: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 2,315
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05-30-2008 05:09
From: Monique Binstok Deira thanks for the quick reply and good info. So if I make my relaxed pose last for 1/2 second and make sure to end loop in same position then it's just a matter of testing different start % untill I find my 1/2 second pose? You've got it!  Test them on the beta grid - saves a few L$ uploading.
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Deira  Must create animations for head-desk and palm-face!.
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BigJack Rolls
Registered User
Join date: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 39
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05-30-2008 09:29
Why not just make frame 2 your starting pose ? Then look at each joint and if it's the same as frame 1, move it just a little bit .. it won't be noticable in the finished product. Be sure to then select frame 2 , COPY it, and PASTE it as the last frame of the animation
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Deira Llanfair
Deira to rhyme with Myra
Join date: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 2,315
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06-01-2008 06:10
From: BigJack Rolls Why not just make frame 2 your starting pose ? Then look at each joint and if it's the same as frame 1, move it just a little bit .. it won't be noticable in the finished product. Be sure to then select frame 2 , COPY it, and PASTE it as the last frame of the animation That would be fine if Frame 2 pose was part of the actual dance and not a "standing relaxed before I start to dance" pose.
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Deira  Must create animations for head-desk and palm-face!.
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