CGTalk - ANIMATION: attaching an animation onto a motion path issue .

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kyo

01-03-2003, 12:20 AM

hi . i have a scence ( referenced object with animation data on it, its a walk cycle) . and i want to attach it motion path . when i attach it - joints and mesh goes their seperate ways . also, the walk cycle doesnt work properly after the attachment .

is it because i select the wrong object to attch it to the path ?

ps. the referenced scene with animation has a walk cycle with a post infinity set in the graph editor so that it continues infinitely .

mbudd

01-03-2003, 02:34 AM

one thing you might want to do is put everything under one node and then attach that node to the motion path. this gives everything a single pivot and orientation.

one other thing I like to do with cycles is create a clip in the Trax editor and then cycle the clip. This makes it a little easier for me to tweak the cycle later on if I want to.

good luck

svenip

01-03-2003, 07:41 AM

everything under one node will give you a strange result too, because of double translation. you always need to be aware "what is driven by what". so if you have a rigged character he`s probably driven by a skeleton. if you have bound the geometry, the geometry is driven by the skeleton. so if you put it under the one "god" node it will get two transformations. one by the skeleton and one by the node. if you have just parented it`s different. because the mesh is still in the hirarchie of the skeleton.

so you need to seperate what you can parent under the one big node. if you bound all the geoemtry, group the whole meshes to one group and DON'T put it under the node. then look in your rig for the root joint(s) and parent them under the node.

i can't really give further advices what and what not to parent under the node because it really depends how complex your rig is and if you have constraints, rigid dynamics etc built in. always keep in mind the double transformation and look in your rig for it, you`ll get it !

uhh forgot :

with the motion path will probably not work, because of foot slipping. if you think about it you`ll see that in a curve the inner foot has a shorter way to go than the outer foot. that`s not easaly handable with motion path.

btw : new xsi 3.0 can do that :hmm:

kyo

01-05-2003, 09:05 AM

thank you both svenip and mbudd for your reply . it came to me as very useful information . the double transformation is driving me insane . i wish i knew about it before setting up my rig . well . i will go back and do what you say svenip . thank you very much .

as for xsi . i've never used the program . but that's great that it does handle that . i hope maya will soon catch up to that .

well . thanks agian .

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