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ideas? pick up cycle

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:12 pm
by funksmaname
sometimes (often) I set up a cycle (say a walk) which takes control of all the bones. Then say I customise some bones at a particular time (say a wave of the hand) but at the end I want the arm to go back to it's cycle position and continue as though I didn't interupt it... I can't work out how to do this, maybe it's possible with a script?

Work out where in a cycle selected bones would be, and put them 'back on track'?

It would be almost like cycles work on a seperate 'layer' of animation that can be over-ridden and then reactivated without interruption, so specific bone movements don't break the relationship of said bones to the cycle.

obvious answer is morph dials... with a complex rig realtime preview is lost :(

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:14 am
by Víctor Paredes
I don't think if this be the kind of solution you are expecting, but have you tried using relative cycling?. I always make my walkcycles relative.
This way, you have the walk cycle, in some frame you want to wave the hand, then, to return the cycle to normality, just select the wave involved bones of the arm and copy and paste the cycle keyframes of the walk on the desired frame.
Probably you will have to add a keyframe for a good transition between the wave and the cycle movements, but that's pretty fast to do.

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:15 am
by Víctor Paredes
(nice avatar, by the way :) )

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:40 am
by funksmaname
thanks :)

But you have to calculate what frame to put it on so it is back in sync with the rest of the cycle?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:58 pm
by Víctor Paredes
funksmaname wrote:thanks :)

But you have to calculate what frame to put it on so it is back in sync with the rest of the cycle?
Yes, you must calculate that. Anyway, you could copy the cycle first and then add the wave movement before the copied cycle. This way will be easier to know where the cycle goes.
Motion Graph also works as a reference to know where to copy the cycle.