Skis part 3: Moving the
skis
Page 1 2
PAGE TWO - Fune-tuning translations - Skis rotations - CUBE's movements - Conclusion
We need to refine the translation function curves once more. Select the two heel paths, and do Motion > FcrvSelect > Objects > Translation. Select one function curve, and tag the 2 first keyframes that from a plateau.
Turn one of your upper viewports to Right, and turn on the Center display (Show > Center). Zoom-in a lot in the Fcurve window and also in the Right viewport. Finally, move the time slider to the plateau.
Note that if the first plateau is at the beginning of the function curve (like on the image above) you won't need to do this. In this case start with second plateau.
Translate in TAG mode on Y axis the tags to position the heel right in the bottom corner of the path.
Do this for every plateau, then do it for the other heel.
After that with are done with the translations!
This step is exactly the
same as with the looping walk cycle. If you create a walk cycle as regular as
the one we are creating, you can loop the rotations on the various ski parts.
Of course if you create an irregular walk cycle you will have to keyframe every
rotations. But here we will keyframe every rotations to show you the procedure.
Go to frame 0. Select ski_R_bone1,
and save a rotation keyframe on Z axis (Motion > SaveKey > Object >
Rotation > Z).
Copy this keyframe to frames 20, 42, 60, 82, 100, 122, and 140.
Go to frame 40, and rotate the bone on Z axis to turn it up.
Save a keyframe (MMB on
the SaveKey cell). Copy this keyframe to frames 80, 120 and 159.
Do Motion > FcrvSelect > Objects > Rotation > Z. You should have
a function curve that look like this:
Click on INTERP, and click on each first upper keyframe with MMB to make the keyframe linear.
Move the keyframe that
is on frame 0 to frame 2.
Readjust the curve with the M key to make a shape like this:
Do this for every plateau.
Go back to frame 0. Select
ski_R_bone2, and apply a keyframe for the Z rotation.
Copy this keyframe to frames 20, 42, 60, 82, 100, 122, and 140..
Go to frame 40. Rotate the bone on Z axis to make it turn down.
Save a keyframe, and copy
this keyframe to frames 80, 120 and 159.
Again, load the function curves and do the same editing as we did earlier.
Move the keyframe that is on frame 0 to frame 2.
Go back to frame 0, and select ski_R_bone3. Save a rotation keyframe on Z axis. Copy this keyframe to frames 42, 82 and 122. Move the keyframe that is on frame 0 to frame 2.
Go to frame 20, and rotate the bone to lift off the heel.
Save a keyframe and copy this keyframe to frames 60, 100 and 140.
So it's done with the rotations! Now you have the compelling task of doing this for the other foot, but this time you're on your own!
Now we will animate CUBE's local movements, like the up and down movement as well as the rotations.
In the Schematic View,
select BODACT, the null that is right under CUBE,
and make it visible.
Select CUBE_trans, the path we created when we
animated CUBE. Do Model > Effect > Convert,
and choose Bezier.
Now we will add some points. Do Model > Edit > Add Point. Go to frame 10, and add a point on the path with MMB, as close as possible to the position of BODACT.
Move 10 frames forward and add a new point at BODACT's position. Continue adding points every ten frames.
Then, tag the points that correspoint to frames 10, 30, 50, 70, 90, 110, 130 and 150. Translate up those points.
Invert the tag selection, and move down just sligthly the points.
So now you will pull out the handles for every points and make a nice smooth shape.
Now we will see the rotations.
In fact, if you completed the last tutorial, Cycling
the skis, there is nothing much to add here.
To make it short, the hips rotate accordingly to the feet.
See the scene CUBEmovements to get the resulting animation.
So now we have completed the tutorial. You might say that we haven't, because we didn't animated the torso, the neck and the arms. Well from here you don't need my advice, because you just did that in the Cycling the skis tutorial, and what we have done so far is enough for you to do it alone.
For the wrists, if you use a looped translation, you will have to cut the paths from their hierarchy and make them child of CUBE, so they will follow the character as he moves in space.
You will notice that the cycle we created is pretty mechanical. You can introduce irregularities and offsets in the animation to give personality to the character. You can use the Dopesheet to increase the overall speed.
I hope you enjoyed this
serie of tutorials and that you learned something from them.
Have fun!
