Maya Graph Editor and Game Animation
polycounter lvl 11
My wife just signed up for Polycount because she had an animation-related question, but since she's now waiting for her first comment to be approved, I'm asking on her behalf.
She's doing some game animations in Maya and is using pre-infinity and post-infinity in the graph editor to edit the tangents in order to make the first cycle seamless. Now that she's ready to make the next cycle, she's wondering if there's a way to isolate or mask the new keyframes for this second animation so she can take advantage of the pre-/post-infinity in the same way as before.
An obvious workaround is just making a new file for each animation, but she wants to know if there's a real answer in the graph editor, not just a quick fix with more files to keep track of. Seems like something that Maya would have, but we don't know what/where it is.
Thanks in advance!
She's doing some game animations in Maya and is using pre-infinity and post-infinity in the graph editor to edit the tangents in order to make the first cycle seamless. Now that she's ready to make the next cycle, she's wondering if there's a way to isolate or mask the new keyframes for this second animation so she can take advantage of the pre-/post-infinity in the same way as before.
An obvious workaround is just making a new file for each animation, but she wants to know if there's a real answer in the graph editor, not just a quick fix with more files to keep track of. Seems like something that Maya would have, but we don't know what/where it is.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
You can set your range slider to the length of your looping animation with the first and last frame identical. If the character moves in space, I parent (or parent constrain) the camera to the root, so that it seems to walk in place, for adjusting the cycling of the animation.
In my pipeline I mostly do have one animation per file (more flexibility, when the animation lenghts change), but i know that some game animators prefer to have multiple animations one after another in the timelime, and select the right time on export.
antweiler,
I use pre/post infinity curves all the time in cycling animations. In 3ds Max they are called out-of-range curves. It's a really fast and easy way to create lag. You probably know this, but I didn't want Oliver's wife to think she was doing something wrong.
P.S. love the wiggling boxes, they are pretty humorous to look at, out of context!
@ monster, I've not actually used the graph editor to create lag in the past, but I managed to re-create your little box exercise and am dumbfounded at how awesome it works. How did I not learn this sooner?!
Thanks again, I really appreciate the answers!
To solve the issue with cycles I have made my own script, just a one click button, which copies the first frame in the timeline to the last. Then it calculates the tangents based on nearby keyframes to create a seamless flow. The effect is very similar to having auto tangents in the middle of a shot. I have not touched the tangents of the first/end keyframe in months after creating it. Consider making a similar script if you're capable.
I am probably the only animator who doesn't use pre/post cycles, yet. :P
Sorry for the delay, that's a great idea, I'll put some time into a script like that for my wife, thanks!