stretching keys to double time... help... me...

#1

I’m about to lose my minds here, I just finished a shot in MB and I have almost 200 keys that need to be stretched to double-time, from “12 fps” (I use 24 fps at half speed) to real-24 fps. first insane problem I get is this non-documented “too many keys for edit” and so it took me a while to discover how to even select my keys… by selecting the first key, moving cursor, shift selecting the last key… but now the real problem comes:

as I stretch my keys from 192 to 384, with snap-on-frames selected, because I can’t afford not to be precise… MB mixes my keys big time, and I get a mess, not a perfect stretch. I get something similar to what I need, but with an incredible amount of randomness in distributing those keys. please, tell me, how can I stretch my keys correctly??

#2

If you just change your frame rate in the timeline, it actually changes the number of frames you have: say if you changed a 50 frame animation running at 30 fps to 60 fps, your animation would now have 100 frames.

So as far as I understand, if you’ve been animating at 24fps at half speed then you should already have the correct number of frames.

#3

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight… I should have worked at 12 fps… and then moved everything to 24, instead of working at half-speed. so now I moved everything from 24 fps to 48 fps, and it works, at half speed…

#4

wow, this is just the beginning of my nightmare… the file I stretched doesn’t transfer to maya, for no other reason, I mean I didn’t do any other modifications… that I would be aware of… (the same file, not stretched, at 48 fps doesn’t transfer right either, it goes at 24 fps leaving half of my animation out)…

#5

here’s a sample of what happens when I import my stretched-keys-animation file into Maya. I get a frozen model, frozen in a pose similar to the last pose in my animation… but not that exact pose… and if I add the fbx file to a new scene, instead of merging with my Maya character, just to test, I also get a moving skeleton with weird de-synchronisation: the controllers move in synch for the most part and off synch every now and then.
in the image there is my frozen model witha selected, green skeleton - the one that should move and it doesn’t, and the Hips_1 skeleton, in blue, with de-synch controllers (or whatever they’re called)

well, but my biggest problem right now is the fact that (let me explain step by step):

  • I convert 24 fps to 48 fps
  • I get double the number of frames, which is what I need (say from 100 to 200)
  • I plot at 24 fps or 48 fps or 5857694856 fps, it doesn’t seem to matter
  • I import in maya at 24 fps or 48 fps or 12 fps or 39859483745987 fps, it doesn’t seem to matter (the resampling frame rate)
  • I invariably get 100 frames instead of 200
  • I go :banghead::argh::banghead::surprised:banghead:
#6

Ok try this: While the character is set to control rig input, switch to the schematic view (CTRL-W), select all the bones in your skeleton (the actual bones, not the control rig), then in the Key Controls window click the Animation drop down menu, choose Plot Selected (All Properties), then in the Character Settings tab, uncheck Active, then delete the control rig. That should, as far as I understand, sort out your import problems where you’re getting the messed up skeleton and the frozen skeleton.

As for your frame rate issue, if you post the file up and tell me what frame rate you want it at, i’ll look into coming up with a procedure for getting it to import correctly.

#7

thanks Headless man :slight_smile:

I’ll try asap, hope it works…
I went with the manual stretching and so I do have all my keys now. next time I’ll work differently, probably at 24 frames and do straight ahead runs from key to key… so I key myself everything, it seems like it works best for me - I had to correct pretty much all the keys the computer inbetweened, and it’s haaarder to correct stuff, and anti-creative :smiley:

#8

I think the plot idea should have worked after using the stretch tool to shrink and hence double time your animation clip. :shrug:

#9

yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooo, it worked. thank you headless!!! now it transfers right.

now the other issue - I had to manually stretch my animation without snap-on-frames. and then snap it, once it was almost in place… while this works, it’s not ideal… I wonder why I can’t work at 12 fps and then enhance :beer: my animation to 24fps, clean it up and transfer it? (again, what it does is - it transfers my 12 fps animation, leaving out all inbetweens)

#10

animation source >as a clip put into story tracks.>strech clip to double time.>plot animation to skeletion.>out put to maya.

#11

thanks zsz98781. so do you mean I can stretch it in the story panel? I’ll try to see what this story panel does…

#12

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