walk cycle/character set tutorial
 

hello guys!!

as some know I'm involved into a 3d Stick Fight project.But before any animations can begin i need a tutorial on how to create simple walk cycles and do the complete character set in Maya.And please dont give me the on on highend3d because it is only related on setting keys on attributes which are in a window (very stupid with no teaching in my opinion).If possible a tutorial with editing the animation graphs afterwards.

thx for all help!!!!

That tut cover a walk cycle but nothing really on the graph editor....

Re: walk cycle/character set tutorial
 

the manual has good explanation on how to use the graph and some short tuts and walk throughs

I seem to be misunderstood.
Let's say i have made a walk cycle and a jump cycle(if that exists) for my character.Now i want my character to walk 3 steps then make a jump and then again a few steps...or is it better to set everyy key separatly???It`s just because i need that character set or whatever i need in order to animate a stick figure....I just thought connecting cycles spent a much of time...

Sounds to me like you need to use the TRAX editor... With that you create clips (like walkcycles and jumps) and then put them in a sort of playlist and then end up with an animation...

EDIT: Don't really know any tut's on it, I just know a little about it from my Learning Maya 5: Foundation...

hey i have the book maya fundamentals 5 .....it is another one as maya foundation 5 right?.....well...thx for the info about that trax editor...ill use the maya help to learn that

Hi
 

Hi. My first post. Yes, you need the trax editor. It's funny, cause I was in need of the very same thing a few months back and after weeks of scouring the internet, I could not find one tut on the trax so I used Maya help to try and learn it.

It's actually quite simple but I'll give you a quick overview.

1. Before keying anything, select all the handles/joints that will have "keys" on them. Create a "character set" out of them.

2. In the channel box for each of the "keyed" items, you'll now notice that the attributes are "yellowed" out. This means they are part of a "character set". If you right-click any of the attributes(scale, rotate, etc.) you can add or remove from the set.

3. In the bottom right corner of the screen, you'll notice an arrow where you can turn on/off your character set. Set it to none(I'll explain this later)

4. Key in some cycle(remember, when making cycles, the first frame and last frame are NOT identicle, rather, the last frame is ONE frame short or the first frame. This is because when you loop the "clip" in the trax editor, you don't get a "repeated" first frame, resulting in a "skip" in animation)

5. After the cycle is complete, open up the graph editor. Check how many frames the cycle is. If it's, say, 14 frames, then key in a value for every "keyable" attribute for everything in the character set at frame 1 and frame 14, even if there are no keys for certain joints/controllers(this in a sense, "isolates" the "clip", so you don't get joints interpolating due to future keys. Also, make sure there are no keys going past the end frame for anything.

6. Load up your trax editor and on the bottom right next to the timeline, select the character set to "Your Character".

7. You'll notice that ALL your keys will appear in your timeline, for all controllers/joints that you "keyed". This is why we didn't create the cycle with the Character set "on". It gets hard to manage your keys with keyticks all over the timeline.

8. Select the "+" symbol in the trax editor that says "load existing character set", and select "create clip" with animation curve checked. Name your clip.

9. You now have a clip in which you can scale, cut, blend into other clips, etc.

10. To access all your clips, open up General Editors>visor. You can delete/rename them there.

11. To add clips to the trax, goto clip>..... all your existing clips should be there.

12. To redump the keyticks of your clip back to your timeline for further editing, select the clip and rightclick "activate keys"



This is just a simple start, hope it all makes sense. YOu can do much more with the trax editor, like layering clips, create Sub character sets(for reusing upper body or lower body motions), keying "into" clips.


I used the trax extensively in creating my first character. You can download the cycle test here if you want to see:

http://s40829.sites45.storefront-hos...ion_test_7.exe




http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...an/Knight1.jpg



-podman:)

He, great way to make a first post PodMan! This info is also going to be usefull to me eventually, thanks!

What does it mean when parts of the skeleton turn brown?

And also when I try to do stuff with dynamics I get an error and Maya closes out. Is that just a problem with the computer?

You can also email me at rrduncan@sbcglobal.net

And also when I try to do stuff with dynamics I get an error and Maya closes out. Is that just a problem with the computer?

You can also email me at rrduncan@sbcglobal.net

P.S. How to I get points to unlock tutorials?

This is writen all over the ite in the 'How do I get points' section... You have to buy them or win a contest.