PDA

View Full Version : relativeClipRelating

bengodden
09-22-2005, 05:39 AM
Hey all out there,

I wasnt sure where to post this, as its half a mel question/half a trax editor question so here goes:

What Im trying to do is have my script evaluate the scene (everyframe) and on various conditions get clips summoned to the various objects trax editor. Now, in some research Ive found that my answer lies in "clipSchedule." Here in lies my two questions:

I will be using mocap (which I got from back issues of cgworld) as the clips for my character. The first problem occurs in that when I link my "walk forward two steps" clip with my "walk right two steps" and then resummon my "walk forward two steps clip" it pops back to the original orientation of the hip (as would be expected).... Is there anyway to set the trajectory of the clip into the next clip (my school has Maya version 7)

So far the only thing I can think of is to have my script store the rotation of the hips (the root or the skeletons) rotations everyframe, and have a condition loop saying "is this the beginning of a clip--> if yes ---> offset rotation by the stored X,Y,Z" Any Ideas on this concept?

All ideas are greatly appreciated,
Thanks
-Ben
lucille
09-24-2005, 06:15 PM
I'm not sure I'm getting your question, but...

if your talking about a blend between the 2 hip rotations--you should be able to do this
with mel--but be forwarned--trax mel workflows are a bit sketchy...

if your talking about a sort of rotational "relative clip" --I dont think this will work
as you will overdrive your rotations. you might be able to cheat this effect with a
transform above the clip character that you snap to the end clip rotations with
"delete `orientConstraint `" scriptjob command or a scripted animated orient
constraint.
bgodden
09-25-2005, 05:55 PM
Hey, thanks for the reply...

Sorry if my question was a bit sketchy...but I think I have come up with a solution (its along the lines of your answer I believe). The only draw back to this is I have to start tweaking all the mocap clips (and keying all the translations myself) ....so it will be a bit more time consuming.

Whats Ive done:

I have a hierarchy as such:

agentrootnode -> agenttransnode -> hipjoint ->restofskeleton

Now all the translation of the skeleton goes on the the agenttransnode, and all the rotations go on the hipjoint node. Both of these must start zeroed out at the beginning of each clip. Then what my script will do is summon a clip to the timeline (depending on conditions as to which clip) and then Ill have a piece of the code that whenever a clip is sommoned to the timeline, the agentrootnode will take on the translation values (plus what it had) from the agenttransnode and the rotations (plus what it had) from the hip rotations....and if all clips are set to absolute...I think Ill be in busness.

I have jimmy-rigged this together ina scene...but I havent written the script yet. Can anyone varify if this would indeed work?

All insight is greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
-Ben
CGTalk Moderation
09-25-2005, 05:55 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.