i was watching a tutorial for head turns using actions. I was wondering if it is possible to do all your walk/run cycles, arm switch gesture changes, body turns through switches and all that sort of stuff, to be saved for re-use, using actions.
If so, how do you make any one of those preset actions visible in the main animation timeline?
Cheese
Re-useable actions, walk cycles etc
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
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bigjohnandcheese
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:23 pm
Re-useable actions, walk cycles etc
Animation is to expensive to make cartoons in the uk.- We'll see!
Yes, you can do that -- that's kind of what actions are all about.
You can create your various animations and then just open up an action and copy the animation from the main timeline. That's really the easy way to do it. Otherwise you need to be careful that if you have switches and/or layers of any kind that as you put animation in that layer you always reselect that topmost layer for the action. It's easy to see than explain, but selecting a lower layer will constantly "drop" out of an action for it. You want to build your actions at the top layer (unless, as I say, you just build the whole animation and copy it into an action -- even then make sure you copy it at the top layer of whatever you are trying to animate).
I also find that rather then put an instance I always use a copy of the animation -- that way I can adjust the keys. Putting an instance is supposedly better since you can then alter the action and it will reflect in your main timeline, but in actual practice I find I almost never do this.
You can create your various animations and then just open up an action and copy the animation from the main timeline. That's really the easy way to do it. Otherwise you need to be careful that if you have switches and/or layers of any kind that as you put animation in that layer you always reselect that topmost layer for the action. It's easy to see than explain, but selecting a lower layer will constantly "drop" out of an action for it. You want to build your actions at the top layer (unless, as I say, you just build the whole animation and copy it into an action -- even then make sure you copy it at the top layer of whatever you are trying to animate).
I also find that rather then put an instance I always use a copy of the animation -- that way I can adjust the keys. Putting an instance is supposedly better since you can then alter the action and it will reflect in your main timeline, but in actual practice I find I almost never do this.
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bigjohnandcheese
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:23 pm
cheers buddy,
the whole keyframe thing is something i've yet to look at. I didn't know or think about them at all when I was putting together the trailer for blaze away. but then i wasn't working with boned characters, just switches. Now i'm making an episode, i'm having to learn about the easiest ways for best look and ease of animation. bones seems to be it, but the process has long set up time. I'll post the character Cheese on the share section to show how he looks now, at some point.
Advise for achieving better looking and smoother animation would be greatly apreskied!
the whole keyframe thing is something i've yet to look at. I didn't know or think about them at all when I was putting together the trailer for blaze away. but then i wasn't working with boned characters, just switches. Now i'm making an episode, i'm having to learn about the easiest ways for best look and ease of animation. bones seems to be it, but the process has long set up time. I'll post the character Cheese on the share section to show how he looks now, at some point.
Advise for achieving better looking and smoother animation would be greatly apreskied!
Animation is to expensive to make cartoons in the uk.- We'll see!