Are Character Sets Really Any use?

[rebo]

Ah think ive figured it out, the Channels on the character set are updated when i move my control objects , so i can animate and then key in the set that way. :lightbulb: :wip:

[kmp3d]

I not totally sure how you're using character sets with your animation. What exactly do you mean that you can no longer use your control objects once you create your charactger sets? What I do is create my character set for my character. Key my animation. Create my clips. When I create clips I usually block out specific actions. Here is my guy running, heres him jumping , heres him falling down. Then you can blend the clips together or disable clips you don't want to use. Does this answer your question? :shrug:

[rebo]

For some reason i thought you had to use the character set member node only to control the channels. i.e. by keying in different values. however i know realise when the control objects are translated / rotated and added attributes changed, it feeds back into the character member node and you can key there.

[Tom N.]

Just to throw in my two cents.. Usually what I do is make two character sets, one for the root joint, the hands, and all the IKs, and a second set for the head controls. This way everytime you set a frame for the body, a keyframe wont get set for your face. I usually do the facial animation after the body.

i THINK i get what you mean by not being able to use your controls anymore, you mean like when you set a key for one thing, a key gets set for ALL the controls(?) well anyways if thats what you mean, then yeah some controls i leave out of the set, like secondary animation controls such as the face.

If this was useful, then great. If I'm rambling on and on about things that aren't answering your question then I apologize hehe.:blush:

[Jozvex]

Character Sets are cool, but I wish that while you're using one, it would only display the keys for the selected object (in the timeline, graph editor and dopesheet), not the whole character set.

I find myself switching in and out of character set mode all the time to see or edit keys for the right leg etc

[jschleifer]

I use character sets all the time as well.. usually I have a hierarchy of character sets tho..

KeyAll
> Facial
>> upper face
>> lower face
> Body
>> left arm
>> right arm
>> left leg
>> right leg
>> torso
>> head_neck
> Fingers
>> left fingers
>> right fingers

I block the animation with "Body" as my main character.. then I go in and offset things using the sub-body character sets. Then I start using fingers & facial and get everything all sorted, offsetting as I go.


I would LOVE it if there were two colours in the timeline.. one for keys on the selected object, and one for keys on the current character set.

that'd be niiiice. :)
-jason

[Jozvex]

Hey Jason, can you say...control freak?

But seriously, that sounds like a good way to work, I'll have to try it. Most I've ever had is 2.

Originally posted by jschleifer
I would LOVE it if there were two colours in the timeline.. one for keys on the selected object, and one for keys on the current character set.

that'd be niiiice. :)
-jason

Yeah! Or maybe if there were 3 keyframe-masking toggle buttons, for displaying:

1. Selected Object Keys
2. All Keys (for the whole character/sub character set)
3. Selected Object Keys with the rest of the keys templated (in a different colour)

And those buttons should affect the Timeline, Graph Editor and Dopesheet.

[matty429]

jschleifer ,...IM curious

Do you ever create clips ..say cycles...And then bake the keys back into the timeline....If so.....how....? Every way i've tried only allows me to bake the original keys and not the cycled keys....

[jschleifer]

Originally posted by matty429
jschleifer ,...IM curious

Do you ever create clips ..say cycles...And then bake the keys back into the timeline....If so.....how....? Every way i've tried only allows me to bake the original keys and not the cycled keys....

Nope.. never used clips at all.. I just haven't found a workflow that worked for me using it. Maybe someday.. but right now I tend to just block the whole shot I'm on and animate it out.

-jason

[matty429]

Thanks...I'll take that into consideration....Im not very happy with trax....Was turned on to maya via trax...I hope alias plans on improving it..

[Emergence]

Maya Trax are pretty limited, but you can bake a cycled animation back to keys:

1:Insert your clip into the trax editor and extend it out to the number of cycles you want.
2:Merge the cycles into one clip using edit -merge
3: right click and select "Acitvate Keys"
4: Delete the clip in the trax editor, which should be green.

your keys should now be in the timeline.

Couple of things to watch with trax:

Do not expect to be able to reliably animate over the top of layered trax animation. You must merge any cycled clips before you animate on top of them and even then it is pretty unreliable in my experience. So much for non linear animation.

If you use sub-characters Trax will not allow you to lay down clips for the master character node, only the sub-characters. Which is a royal pain.

Maya Trax could definately do with some love from A/W

Have Fun
-Richard

[matty429]

Hey thanks alot guys ...this proves to be very insightfull...
The only real use I can see out of trax is to create walk/run/etc. cycles , bake the keys back to the time line and continue animating as normal..Im curious though does weta use keyframe walking ..or does it employ mocap..or both..Basically do you pull from some sort of library to prevent from repeting the same keys on a shot?....

[jschleifer]

It depends on what it is we're talking about.. if we've got mocap stuff, we'll use it.. if not, we key it.. sometimes even if we've got mocap, we'll key it anyway. it really depends on what the shot is, what's specified for the brief, who's available, what time of the year it is, etc etc. :)

-jason

[matty429]

Hey ,I read your article in Highend..It was clearly the best part of the mag...I hope you write for them more....Even though Im a Little bitter with gnomon...I went to the mental ray master class , and the whole class got kicked out after about 45 minutes into the presentation...but thats a whole different matter...

I already tried baking the walk cycle for my shot and it worked like a charm.....


Have you played with motion builder...

If soo ,Is it any good?

[Wigaru Wiyamoto]

I LOVE character sets! :love:

It allows me to easily work in passes. Get your initial poses down, easily adjust the timing since all the keys are in one spot, then when the timing is in place add details and offsetting.

I think character sets are especially useful for a beginner. I think for many people your first instinct is just to start keyframing individual parts of the character instead of focusing on poses. Then when they try to adjust the timing it falls apart (assuming you had any timing to begin with :p ).

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