benjii19
09-16-2009, 08:45 PM
I have got a bit of understanding of the problems you can have with gimbal. Unfortunately it always provides me with a massive hurdle I never quite get over.
When rotating the upper arm in gimbal mode (so i can see what's happening) Rotation Order is set to XYZ for this example
X axis doesn't affect Y or Z
Y axis affects X
Z axis affects Y and X
In this configuration X would twist the arm, Y would swing it from side to side, and Z would move it away from the body. I'm now of the assumption that it is impossible to actually manipulate your curves in the graph editor unless they are based on translation values.
For example on an up and down motion say a bouncing ball i may not necessarily adjust the animation of the Y axis in the viewport. I'd probably fiddle with it in the Graph Editor as many animation tutorials demonstrate. This work fine, however from past experience I've come to realize the same can't be said for rotational values. You could probably play about with the one axis that affects the other two but thats it. If you fiddled with the other curves for the other axis you would run into problems and this would not be representative of what was actually happening. ( I hope I explained that one OK took far too much brain power!)
I guess you could eliminate one of the axis for example X (twist) you could then create a group above the upper arm control which controls the arm controls twist.
ARM TWIST--> ARM CONTROL-->ELBOW CONTROL
Obviously arm twist would not be visible but you'd wire up a twist attribute under ARM CONTROL to the rotate X of ARM TWIST.
However there is one problem with all of this only one of the axis will control the other two.
After being told the importance of the graph editor I've started to think that maybe I should just use LOCAL mode and just use the viewport to animate in. Then I can check my curves for the translation and basically bugger the ones for rotation or maybe just fiddle with the main rotational one that affects all the axis.
When rotating the upper arm in gimbal mode (so i can see what's happening) Rotation Order is set to XYZ for this example
X axis doesn't affect Y or Z
Y axis affects X
Z axis affects Y and X
In this configuration X would twist the arm, Y would swing it from side to side, and Z would move it away from the body. I'm now of the assumption that it is impossible to actually manipulate your curves in the graph editor unless they are based on translation values.
For example on an up and down motion say a bouncing ball i may not necessarily adjust the animation of the Y axis in the viewport. I'd probably fiddle with it in the Graph Editor as many animation tutorials demonstrate. This work fine, however from past experience I've come to realize the same can't be said for rotational values. You could probably play about with the one axis that affects the other two but thats it. If you fiddled with the other curves for the other axis you would run into problems and this would not be representative of what was actually happening. ( I hope I explained that one OK took far too much brain power!)
I guess you could eliminate one of the axis for example X (twist) you could then create a group above the upper arm control which controls the arm controls twist.
ARM TWIST--> ARM CONTROL-->ELBOW CONTROL
Obviously arm twist would not be visible but you'd wire up a twist attribute under ARM CONTROL to the rotate X of ARM TWIST.
However there is one problem with all of this only one of the axis will control the other two.
After being told the importance of the graph editor I've started to think that maybe I should just use LOCAL mode and just use the viewport to animate in. Then I can check my curves for the translation and basically bugger the ones for rotation or maybe just fiddle with the main rotational one that affects all the axis.