Keyframes help?
 

Hi everyone,
I have a question on keyframes...in my scene I am going to have two characters, and I'm near done rigging the first as well as that the second character is in essence going to be a copy of the first, just modified..

Can I begin to animate the motions of both characters using the first one and then save or transfer the key frames once I'm done with slight remodeling and texturing of the second?

I hope my question makes some sense, if not please say so =)

Thanks.

Hmm, not positive about that one.

I'm not sure either. You might try to export the animation curve nodes and import them in to the other character. Might be a bit of a hassle to connect everything properly in the hypergraph though...

I there is a way using Character Sets and such, but I'm not familiar enough with it.

wow, if it stumps you guys, then I'd really have to think Maya doesn't seem to have that capability (but a good suggestion for Alias). I was looking very briefly at a program called MotionBuilder, which is what gave me the idea to save some time animating. But I uess I'll have to go about the normal method and wait until I have both characters done to animate.

thanks Mike and KB.

Yes, you can transfer animation data from one rig to another by exporting using animExport (Export options box) and then importing the animData. However, you have to be very careful about it. The rig hierarchies on both characters must be identical in structure. Also, you have to select joints in the exact same order (you can get around this by creating a selection set for each character). It's not quite as simple as this, but that's the basic idea.

WooHoo, thanks Danny. Not sure if I can make it work or not..but it will be fun to try it at least.

A. If both skeletons and rigging are exactly the same (with only modifications to skin mesh..), then all I would have to do is select joints in same order to make it work?

B. If the skeleton is slightly enlarged (taller character by just a little bit) with same rigging though, will that mess anything up?

I've never used a 'Set'..so I guess I'll have to find out what that is, so I can use a skeleton set like you mentioned. Many thanks to all of you!