Sometimes the software itself is the hurdle, share your headaches and workarounds
polycounter lvl 9
Hello all,
First off, apologies if this has been a topic of discussion before, I'm not even sure how to search for it in terms that are both concise yet generic to get results...
So, I've just made the jump into full time freelance for 3D Animation after doing it on the side since 2007. Now, maybe its because I've been working mostly on my own, never really part of a larger team where I can ask questions of fellow artists (I've never been very forum active, maybe its time to change), but I still find many instances where I'm fighting the program itself to get an outcome I want.
I know its been said that the software knowledge will come with time, and that what is really important is the art itself, but it feels like there are too many times where something just isn't doing what I want or expect, and I have to figure things out with absolutely zero to go on, aside from trial and error, randomly poking around attributes and menus to stumble upon a solution, or praying to the powers of google that someone, somewhere has had the same problem, found the solution, and decided to share it instead of letting the thread die.
I describe it to my non-digital friends as if they're writing a paper, when all of a sudden their pen stops working, and they have to somehow figure out that now the pen only works in their opposite hand on Tuesdays and Saturdays after eating a ham sandwich. Like, you know what you want to do, but something hidden is preventing you from doing it.
So, for relevant examples, recent things like IK swivels / targets not exactly working like expected (I find this on free rigs sometimes where the elbow is clearly not pointing at its assigned target), causing weird pops in the IK joints that shouldn't logically happen. Solution was to just manually pose the limb every frame, almost defeating the entire purpose of the IK constraint.
Simple things like copying and pasting transform and rotation keys in 3ds Max while using link constraints causes coordinates that are inconsistent, even when the same target is selected but was previously changed to another object. For instance, an object link constrained to a table, character picks it up, constrained to the hand control. If you want to then place it back in the exact same position and rotation as before, but if you just copy the original key frame, its off set. The quickest solution I've come up with in cases like that were to either manually input the values on all channels from one frame to the next (doesn't work all the time), or use dummies/points as alignment targets, hoping that things don't gimbal lock on the way.
I've even had sections of animation completely offset themselves in world space for no apparent reason, though probably something I did accidentally and unknowingly, requiring re-dos and wasted time, and I still don't know if it was a glitch or I hit a random, yet specific sequence of keys.
I've used CAT rigs that look perfect in Max for non-human characters, but once they're in Unity, they jitter like they're being electrocuted, making them completely unusable and requiring a new rig from scratch. I still don't understand the problems CAT/Unity was having, but it was probably something to do with the Dr Octopus like tenticle arms, all four using IK/FK switches in Max.
I recently discovered that, on occasion, Maya will have objects that have no tracks in the curve editor, meaning they have no available place to paste copied key info from another object or file. You have set at least one key on the object, even if its at 0 0 0, just to have something to paste the new values on to. Like, its as if you can't copy text into a blank document unless you've typed at least one letter, just to tell Word that "hey, text goes here".
Hell, even Gimbal Lock is still a major frustration sometimes, even with Max and Maya filters, especially on the wrists of many rigs.
Sometimes the only solution is to brute force it and go in frame by frame and try to get things right, but it would be a lot better to actually know and understand the problems to avoid or minimize them in the future.
So, to ask everyone reading this, what are your common hurdles with using the actual animation software itself and how did you get around it? Have you ever had a solution to such a problem that was right in front of you the whole time, if you just knew where to look? Is there a place or thread where these answers are already gathered together in an organized and easily accessible way? Have you had much luck on these forums getting specific help?
So, there you have it. Maybe this was just an exercise in venting frustration to people who would actually understand, but its certainly helped just to type it all out. Thanks.
First off, apologies if this has been a topic of discussion before, I'm not even sure how to search for it in terms that are both concise yet generic to get results...
So, I've just made the jump into full time freelance for 3D Animation after doing it on the side since 2007. Now, maybe its because I've been working mostly on my own, never really part of a larger team where I can ask questions of fellow artists (I've never been very forum active, maybe its time to change), but I still find many instances where I'm fighting the program itself to get an outcome I want.
I know its been said that the software knowledge will come with time, and that what is really important is the art itself, but it feels like there are too many times where something just isn't doing what I want or expect, and I have to figure things out with absolutely zero to go on, aside from trial and error, randomly poking around attributes and menus to stumble upon a solution, or praying to the powers of google that someone, somewhere has had the same problem, found the solution, and decided to share it instead of letting the thread die.
I describe it to my non-digital friends as if they're writing a paper, when all of a sudden their pen stops working, and they have to somehow figure out that now the pen only works in their opposite hand on Tuesdays and Saturdays after eating a ham sandwich. Like, you know what you want to do, but something hidden is preventing you from doing it.
So, for relevant examples, recent things like IK swivels / targets not exactly working like expected (I find this on free rigs sometimes where the elbow is clearly not pointing at its assigned target), causing weird pops in the IK joints that shouldn't logically happen. Solution was to just manually pose the limb every frame, almost defeating the entire purpose of the IK constraint.
Simple things like copying and pasting transform and rotation keys in 3ds Max while using link constraints causes coordinates that are inconsistent, even when the same target is selected but was previously changed to another object. For instance, an object link constrained to a table, character picks it up, constrained to the hand control. If you want to then place it back in the exact same position and rotation as before, but if you just copy the original key frame, its off set. The quickest solution I've come up with in cases like that were to either manually input the values on all channels from one frame to the next (doesn't work all the time), or use dummies/points as alignment targets, hoping that things don't gimbal lock on the way.
I've even had sections of animation completely offset themselves in world space for no apparent reason, though probably something I did accidentally and unknowingly, requiring re-dos and wasted time, and I still don't know if it was a glitch or I hit a random, yet specific sequence of keys.
I've used CAT rigs that look perfect in Max for non-human characters, but once they're in Unity, they jitter like they're being electrocuted, making them completely unusable and requiring a new rig from scratch. I still don't understand the problems CAT/Unity was having, but it was probably something to do with the Dr Octopus like tenticle arms, all four using IK/FK switches in Max.
I recently discovered that, on occasion, Maya will have objects that have no tracks in the curve editor, meaning they have no available place to paste copied key info from another object or file. You have set at least one key on the object, even if its at 0 0 0, just to have something to paste the new values on to. Like, its as if you can't copy text into a blank document unless you've typed at least one letter, just to tell Word that "hey, text goes here".
Hell, even Gimbal Lock is still a major frustration sometimes, even with Max and Maya filters, especially on the wrists of many rigs.
Sometimes the only solution is to brute force it and go in frame by frame and try to get things right, but it would be a lot better to actually know and understand the problems to avoid or minimize them in the future.
So, to ask everyone reading this, what are your common hurdles with using the actual animation software itself and how did you get around it? Have you ever had a solution to such a problem that was right in front of you the whole time, if you just knew where to look? Is there a place or thread where these answers are already gathered together in an organized and easily accessible way? Have you had much luck on these forums getting specific help?
So, there you have it. Maybe this was just an exercise in venting frustration to people who would actually understand, but its certainly helped just to type it all out. Thanks.
Replies
Bloody hair man, it's hard.