Skis part 2: Cycling the
skis
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3 4
PAGE FOUR - Moving the wrists - Personal touches
So we have finished with the lower part of the body. Let's go on with the wrists.
We will use translations
(paths).
Go to frame 0 and select wrist_R (the right wrist
cicle).
This time, the rule is different: The hand is in opposite position of the respective
foot. When the right foot is in front, the right hand is behind, and vice-versa.
Save a translation keyframe
by doing Motion > SaveKey > Objects > Translation.
Copy this keyframe to frame 39. Go to frame 20.
Move the circle, but this time place it in front.
Save a keyframe.
You will edit the newly created spline (the circle's path) in same way as the
heel paths. Go in the Schematic View, and look under CONST.
You can that you have a new path.
Select the path, and do
Model > Effect > Convert. Choose Bezier, click OK.
Hold down M, then click and drag on one point. This will pull out the point's
handles. Do this with the other point. Now adjust the curve to do something
like the image below:
.
Now we will use the same path for the other wrist. With the path still selected, do Model > Effect > Symmetry, and choose YZ (the third choice) axis, and click OK.
Select wrist_L,
the left wrist circle. Do Motion > Path > Pick Path, and click on the
path that resulted from the symmetry (the path at the left side of the character).
When the Path Timing window pops-up, just leave 0 and 39. Click OK.
Then do Motion > FcrvCopy > Object > Translation, and click on wrist_R,
already animated. This will copy the translation function curve from the right
circle to the left one.
Now if you playback, everything should be fine! If, for some reason, the arm moves exactly as the right arm, select the left wrist path and do Motion > Effect > Inverse. There should be nothing more to adjust.
Finally, take a look in the Schematic View. You see that there is a node that is unparented. This node is the one we created with symmetry. Select this node, do Model > Parent, and click with MMB on CONST. This will make this path a child of the constraints parent, CONST.
So we have completed the tutorial, and you can go on with Moving the Skis, the third part of this serie. But there is more you can do.
If you playback the scene, the animation is fine and there is nothing wrong with overall motion. But the problem is that there is no personality to this walk cycle. The character almost has no weight, he doesn't communicate anything about his condition or state of mind. Everybody has a lot particularities that make their walk motion unique. These particularities are often so subtle that you can see them only through careful observation. A rushed person walks differently than a relaxed one, an old person walks differently than a child, a man walks differently than a woman, and so on.
I won't elaborate on these
subtleties, as it is a personal education. However, I can provide you with some
tools and guidelines to help you.
Look in the Schematic View, around the spine area. There are six colored nodes.
Select them and unhide them.
If you look in the viewports, you can see that you have new cicles.
There are two sets of cicles, each set has 3 circles. The three lower-larger circles control the spine's rotations. The three upper-smaller circles control the neck's rotations.
Now, each color has a specific purpose. Red circles indicate that they are to be rotated in local X axis, green cicle is to be rotated in Y axis and blue is to be animated in Z axis. So to animate the spine and neck's rotations, you will rotate those cicle and put rotation key frames on the proper axis.
We will just make a bit more animation. Select the blue circle for the spine. Go to frame 0, and rotate it in Z axis to make the right should higher than the left shoulder.
Save a keyframe by doing
Motion > SaveKey > Objects > Rotation > Z. Copy this keyframe to
frame 39.
Go to frame 20, and rotate the circle in the opposite direction.
Save a keyframe. Do Motion > FcrvSelect > Object > Rotation > Z. Select the function curve, and do Motion > FcrvEdit > Extrap Mode > Cycle. Now switch to translation in X axis, and move 4 frames forward the function curve. So the keyframe that was at frame 0 is now at frame 4.
Do this with every other
cicles, animate them on their defined axis. For the neck circle, you will move
the function curve 6 frames forward.
A shoulder should be in front when the foot of the same side is backward, and
vice-versa. So the right shoulder should be in front at frame 20, and the left
shoulder at frame 0 and 39.
The body and neck should lean forward )rotate the red circle on X axis) each
time a foot touches the ground. So it should be keyframed leaning forward at
frames 0, 20 and 39, and should be keyframed backward at frames 10 and 30.
In the case of the neck, it should move mostly forward-backward, but not very much in the other directions.
Don't forget to cycle and tranlate forward the function curves. You might have to re-edit the wrists's paths, because they were created before we applied rotations to the body.
If you look at the personalTouches-1 scene in the database, you will see that the cycle has more weight, the character seems quite flexible. I exagerated the rotations to show you what I mean.... Much better.
So now you can fine-tune many things. Introducing offsets in your keyframes (generally between 1 and 3 frames) and irregularities will give personality, uniqueness to the cycle. You can edit CUBE, the wrists's paths, the upvectors (the nulls behind the character), and the skis's paths.
So now you can go on with the third tutorial of this serie, Moving the Skis.
