Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

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CharlieChompnChicken
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Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:09 pm

Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

Post by CharlieChompnChicken »

I haven't needed to register on the forums until now because this is the first time I haven't found the answer by searching. Thanks to everyone providing help here it has been a valuable resource and I am extremely grateful. I have been learning animation and using the software for about two months so I am very new to this.

I am working with a cycled walk animation which is saved as an action. I would like to be able to have my character continue the walking action after key-framing a new action such as a wave or a pointing motion. After adding new key-frames, the cycle gets interrupted. I have to reinsert the same walking action reference and try to time it so that it looks smooth and natural. I seem to have accomplished what I am attempting once before but I don't know if it was just perfectly timed or if I got lucky and somehow accomplished what I hope is possible; regardless, I haven't been able to achieve this success again. To put it another way, after the character points, his arm is stuck there. I would like his arm to resume the walking animation after he is finished pointing. I have been trying to achieve this by reinserting a reference to the walk animation (sorry for repeating this, just trying to make it clear.) Auto-freeze keys is not checked.
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Maestral
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Re: Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

Post by Maestral »

Most likely you were "just perfectly timed" but you`d be again with a little help of onion skinning.

When inserting a new action reference, you`re always adding the very same set of keys and in order to maintain the smooth movements - do your best to match the preceding pose. Bear in mind that different adjacent interpolations may also interfere with the smoothness. So, deploy onion skinning (checkbox on timeline) and stitch `em all ,)
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slowtiger
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Re: Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

Post by slowtiger »

In something like this I've used 2 bone rigs - one for legs and body, and one for arms. Then I created two walk cycles of same length in each. Doing some waving with the arms now only disrupts one cycle, so I can use the other one as reference to where to start the cycle again.
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CharlieChompnChicken
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 1:09 pm

Re: Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

Post by CharlieChompnChicken »

Thank you for the responses. I figured out that the main issue was rather simple and left me feeling silly. One of my character's walk cycle had a startup that differed very little from the rest of the key-frames. The other had a six frame startup that was practically impossible to blend mid action. Hours of trying to force it before I figured out something so simple!

I am yet to work with the onion skinning other than the quick lesson in the tutorial (inchworm.) The idea of animating a show or movie frame by frame blows my mind. I can't believe people can actually do that. I should keep an open mind to it though as I'm sure there will be a time and place like you have mentioned.

Two bone rigs? That is so clever. I can already see some of the advantages that could have. This forum is the golden goose that keeps on giving, thank you.
Tsongo
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Re: Resume Cycled Action After Keyframing

Post by Tsongo »

I've just been doing this sort of thing and what I did was copied and pasted the action points into the time frame then moved the character however I wanted then continued with the actions after it was finished keeping the same start and finish points so it all went together.

This way you could have a wave with the legs still moving just the same as in the action because you're not touching those bones and it wont break the action because technically it isn't one.
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