Simple animation between keyframes not working

# 1 16-09-2012 , 04:26 AM

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Simple animation between keyframes not working

Anyone run into this problem? When trying to create a simple animation - 2 keyframes, a sphere translating x from point a to point b, I get no movement between key frames. The sphere simply appears at point b 72 frames down.

I am simply opening Maya, and trying to create this animation. I have set the time to realtime 24fps and haven't touched anything else.

There must be a problem with the software, the environment, something?

If it might make a difference, I have Maya 2012 64bit version on Mac Snow Leopard.

Thanks in advance. user added image

Last edited by 3dviz; 16-09-2012 at 04:29 AM.

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# 2 16-09-2012 , 06:30 AM

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upload the .ma file and we can take a look at it. If it works then you have mostly got a graphics driver problem. But it's hard to know for sure from just the description above.

Actually 72 frames @ 24frames/sec would be a three second clip. Except the default playback speed is "play every frame, free" so if you have a really fast machine it may be that it's playng at a much higher frame rate then 24 frames / sec.

Hover and right click over the time slider and set the playback speed to "real time" and see what that does.

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Last edited by ctbram; 16-09-2012 at 06:45 AM.

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# 3 16-09-2012 , 01:31 PM

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It's possible your tangents are set to "stepped" by default, which means no interpolation. Open the graph editor and check it out. If the animation splines are all at right angles, then you just need to change the default tangent method in your settings/preferences.

-stwert

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# 4 17-09-2012 , 03:12 AM

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Alright, I'm a newb at Maya so I'm not really sure what I'm looking at in the graph editor. I've attached a screenshot of it, it appears to have a 90 degree angle but I'm not sure if that's what you're speaking of?

I made sure that the playback speed was real time 24fps and I'm not sure what a .ma file is. Is it the save file? If so, I've got an .mb file but it won't attach.

Thanks.

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# 5 17-09-2012 , 04:33 AM

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Usually if someone wants to see your scene file they'll ask for an .ma format instead of the default .mb as that can't be salvaged if its not compatible with the Maya version they're running.

As for t Graph Editor, the numbers at the bottom display frames and the numbers on the left side are used to measure the current the value of whatever attribute the curve represents. The black dots on the curves are keyframes and the curve itself shows you how the attribute's value changes as the frames roll along. Right now, instead of gradually changing from one value to another, its happening abruptly because the interpolation being used is `stepped keys` as Stwert mentioned.

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Last edited by GecT; 17-09-2012 at 04:43 AM. Reason: needed to add something

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# 6 18-09-2012 , 02:49 AM

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What would be the way to fix this and why is it set to stepped? Is that the Maya default? This is the first time I've tried animation with this program on this machine.

Thanks for the feedback and helping out a newb.

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# 7 18-09-2012 , 12:09 PM

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For a one time fix, select all your keys (marquee select) and go tangents > linear or another type. Since it seems that this is your default, open the settings/prefences and find the default tangent type in the animation tab I think (or somewhere like that). It probably is set to stepped.

-stwert

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# 8 06-10-2012 , 07:50 PM

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That worked great! Turns out my Maya was default stepped animation which I think is a little strange.

Thanks guys for your help.

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# 9 07-10-2012 , 10:23 PM

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No prob. Often the first pass an animator will do is to setup the key frames with no interpolation, just see the timing and poses. Then they add the interpolation and do all the tweaking. So for this workflow, it's not that strange to start with stepped.