How to stop tweening (Moho 12 Pro) ??

[ilovelessons]

Hi,

Ok first off I hope I am using the correct terms for my problem. Let me describe what I am try to accomplish (am new to animation ) and I recently got Moho 12 Pro.

1. I have a time line going from 0 to 100.
2. I created a blinking action using the smart bones tool.
3. At frame 75 I want to make my character blink.
4. So i fast forward to frame 75 and use my smart bone to make the eye lid FULLY down.
5. Then I move the to frame 76 and use my smart bone to make the eyelid FULLY up.

Here is my problem:

From frame 1 to 75 the eye moves slowing down. I wanted frames 1 to 74 for the eyelid NOT TO MOVE. I assume from 1 to 75 TWEENING is occuring. I only want the blink to occur at 75 and 76 and 1 to 74 to not be involved. How can I make 1-74 be how u say INDEPENDENT from 75 and 76? What should I be researching?


Any ideas? I hope my explanation was ok, if you need me to elaborate more please feel free to ask me to explain more. This is driving me NUTS NUTS i says !

I was having the same issue when I using Spriter (another animation tool)

Thanks in advance.

[Greenlaw]

You need to add a keyframe for the Smart Bone just before the 'eye close' keyframe. To create the keyframe, click on the smart bone at frame 74--that should create the key there. Or you can select the smart bone and double-click the rotation channel at 74--either way works. The eyes will then snap close from 74 to 75 and open at 76.

Depending on how you set up the animation, you can slide the keys around to adjust speed of the blink. Generally, I make blinks last two frames and sometimes even three frames even when they're just held. If they're fully animated, you might even go 'Pixar' and stagger the timing for each eye (I call it the 'lazy blink'.) It depends on the character, scene context, style of animation or personal preference.

Alternatively, you can add a keyframe for the smart bone at the beginning of the timeline (frame 1 maybe) and set the interpolation to Step. This will hold the pose until it reaches the next keyframe (the one currently at 75.)

I personally prefer duplicating keys to hold them--this make it easier to keep track of the animation and easier change the timings. For me, anyway.

Hope that helps. This is a common way to work with keyframes so my guess is that this should work with the other program you mentioned.

[ilovelessons]

Thanks Greenlaw,

So i tried it, i put my blinks between two key frames and it worked. So let me see if i have the concept correct. Any animation between TWO key frames acts independently from the rest of the animation. Right?

[Greenlaw]

Animation occurs between two keys on a channel when they're different. If you didn't have a keyframe for the Smart Bone between 1 and 75, then you were interpolating between frame 0 and 75 (0 is always the 'first' keyframe,)...which is what the unwanted animation you described was doing. By adding a keyframe at 74, your holding the pose between 0 and 74 for that item and animating between 74, 75 and 76.

Or, if you use a Step keyframe earlier than the keyframe 74, then the key will hold that pose until this next keyframe (75). Or, you can just set a keyframe at 1, and copy that key to frame 74. Any of these methods is valid--it's a workflow choice.

Sometimes it helps to freeze the pose at frame 1 so you see all your keyframes and don't get any surprises down the timeline. I usually just freeze the bones at frame 1 and clear the channels I'm probably not going to use in the scene.

Depending on your animation style, some users (especially beginners) like using the new Auto Freeze option. This will keyframe everything in the rig when you change a pose, and may prevent unwanted interpolation.

(For more advanced users, this option can makes us nuts though.)