Workflow questions for production - run cycle + acting
polycounter lvl 9
Hello everyone ! I have an anim workflow question that has me a little stumped and I'd love to discuss with anyone willing to share 
The question is simply what is the most efficient way to animate the following - a character (biped or quad) running across screen on a cycle, stopping to act (taking a few steps, delivering dialogue etc) and the continuing on it's run cycle again (and perhaps acting once more at the end of the shot)
By efficiency I mean I'm looking for a workflow that would allow fast blocking and flexibility in the beginning followed by straightforward polish once the shot is approved in production.
At the moment I can think of various approaches but none seem partcicularly clean - for example I can have the character run cycle happen on the spot while moving the characters top controller around which is great in the beginning of my shot. However when my character has to act and take a few steps off his top controller he's no longer placed above it cleanly to resume his run cycle at the end of the shot. This method is great to quickly block an idea but I think would prove challenging to polish and final.
Similar issues are apparent if I have my character on a motion path for example.
Another workflow I thought up - having two sets of rigs for a character, a run cycle rig and an acting rig and doing a one-frame switch between theese as necessary. This workflow is pretty clean throughout and can deliver good results but it's not as viable in production - as eventually all the motion has to be merged into one rig and published down the pipeline which can be time consuming and stump less technically profficient animators.
Thank you to anyone who shares a bit of insight and happy holidays to you all
Rafael
Replies
I don't really animate for cutscenes or acting productions however can throw some ideas forward that could aid in finding the right way to head. I believe the on the spot cycle would still be the correct way to go about this, it allows for quick iterations on that run, any acting on top of that run if the character looks around or something while running can be done on another animation layer. Have your cycle go to the acting location as you mentioned you did, have the character act out that part but rather then blending right back into the cycle maybe have a "Push off" back into the run. This can be a short animation however would give you those valuable frames to get the top controller correctly aligned again and allow for a more natural blend into the run cycle.
How are you blending the animations together? Using the Time editor in Maya allows for some nice smooth blends in between animation clips.
I guess another way to go around this is know exactly how far your character is running onto screen, then animate it all as one continuous shot. You do lose a bit of the flexibility of doing each part as separate pieces however with a solid blocking pass to show the production team, once its signed off its all polish from there. This way would probably end up feeling more natural as well, rather than having what could be some unrefined blends decided by the software you have total control on how the character eases in and out of the run into the acting section.
I hope this brief insight proves at least a little bit useful and gives you a couple of potential directions to think on! I hope your holidays are lovely and that you get this sorted!
Rob