Animating frame by frame in Maya.
polycounter lvl 10
Coming from a 2d animation background with Flash and Toonboom,I find drawing my frames efficient as I draw my characters exactly the way I want them to move.The disadvantage is the time it takes to draw say a 2 minutes animation,is way longer and ur hand gets tired bigtime.
Now,in getting into Maya for serious 3d animation,I realized everytime I make some key poses on the time slider,the movement when I do a playback is messed up as the timing is incorrect.I readjust the keys to match the timing I want but things are still off.So,I open up the graph editor,and start tweaking curves(frustrating and time consuming).Then I realised,there is a way I could animate freely,I could just make my tangent settings for all my curves to be stepped rather than linear or flat and start posing my character for every frame.If I want to ease in,I pose the movement more closely together exactly from a 2d animation approach rather than tweaking curves but someone pointed out that too many keys in the time slider might be problematic for Maya to compute.
Is that true?
Now,in getting into Maya for serious 3d animation,I realized everytime I make some key poses on the time slider,the movement when I do a playback is messed up as the timing is incorrect.I readjust the keys to match the timing I want but things are still off.So,I open up the graph editor,and start tweaking curves(frustrating and time consuming).Then I realised,there is a way I could animate freely,I could just make my tangent settings for all my curves to be stepped rather than linear or flat and start posing my character for every frame.If I want to ease in,I pose the movement more closely together exactly from a 2d animation approach rather than tweaking curves but someone pointed out that too many keys in the time slider might be problematic for Maya to compute.
Is that true?
Replies
I wish I could picture what's happening more so I can help. Perhaps make a video with Jing? The graph editor should be working for you, not against you. Ease in/out is really easy with the graph.
id strongly advice to get used to the curves and try to master them !
These days calculating a bezier interpolation isnt too much work and is going to be a lot better for memory, plus you get exactly what you had in the authoring software. Some engines do have a key reduction process if you did want to export frames for some reason, like to include movements of an advanced rig.
If you decide to go full madness and key every frame it will be a pain in the ass to adjust arcs. If you make an animation layer you can offset your existing animation with a couple of frames which blends nicely.
The same method is often used to exaggerate motion capture which usually has keys on every frame.
Using arcs and curves distracts u from focusing on the animation itself,making it technical.There is a trick to this,u could animate frame by frame using 12fps and later scale the keys to match a 24fps animation.
I am just gonna try this out.I am just tired of seeing my animation looking off and thats because of some curve not smooth or linear and u have to know if its the translate x,y or z curve or the rotate or any other parameter.Just pose the damn 3d model frame by frame and no need to open that graph editor.You should be in control of your own animation and not Maya dictating to u how u should animate.
That doesn't mean I wouldn't use the curves for simple tween movements,like door rotating,or mechanical gear stuff.
Most games nowadays are cheorographed with motion capture devices which keys every frame and then the animator starts to break them into simpler keys,some of the animation is lost with the keys removed but the important keys are kept.
I did read somewhere in the help that Maya might find it difficult to compute too many keys in the slider so try and keep ur curves as simple as possible but from what the other posters have said.It won't be an issue.
Think of it as an offset/exaggeration tool.
Melviso : I have seen many pro game animators (often coming from a film background) using the technique you described, that is to say, working with stepped keys then only later smoothing things out, instead of going for the interpolated curve stuff right away. Their results were always consistently superior to other animators not lucky enough to have film experience. The ones not focusing on good basic poses often end up with weird floaty animations, fluid for sure but very often going against basic rules of balance and rythmic timing.
Yes keying the extreme poses with stepped interpolation so your not distracted by the broken, untweaked interpolation. Then going back and fixing the interpolation and add keys as needed. Thats way different than putting a key at every "frame" to attempt to create a smooth animation.
Most of them who use arcs didn't really come from a 2d animation background.There are some 2d animators that are so good,they just keep on drawing frames(straight ahead frame by frame) of a character's movement without doing a playback or test for say 1 min of that animation and when they finally do a playback,everything looks perfecto.
It also enables u to focus on the animation in general,rather than focusing on a certain part you are animating like a character looking upwards,u tweak the rotate y curve to create an ease in.Then u animate the shoulders and tweak curves,animate the eyes and tweak curves.
Frame by frame:you pose the head,shoulders,eyes,even hair movement as you key each frame,no need for those damn curves,you can create random movement of the shoulders as the head moves upwards,get the hair over the face e.t.c.Its something that comes with 2d animation practice.I remember somebody saying in order to be a really good 3d animator,learning 2d animation first is an added advantage cause you learn all the tricks and understand the principles of animation better.