Still moving after key selections markers have been placed

# 1 22-12-2009 , 03:00 PM

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Still moving after key selections markers have been placed

I wonder if someone could help. I am animating my character in Maya 2008. There is a part where he throws a glowing orb and it bounces back at him and he ducks. Im having some problems with when I have a pose set up say him ducking on frame 250 and I go 10 frames over (260), select the back 1 joint that I want to use (one of my joints that I named), than select the positions in the channel box (rotate x, y, etc) than right click it and select key selected so that the he dosent move at all, than go to frame 267 adjust rotate y so that he begins to move upward between the frames 260 to 267 and key select it. That works fine but when I go back to say frame 235 to 250 he is moving in a weird way in between the frames on the rotate y even though starting on frame 250 his rotation is -69 and it is -69 on frame 260 in between those he will move and go back even though I key selected that he wouldnt move. It also messes up my poses on say frames 230 to 250 now as well. But only in between the poses, he goes back to the original at each key selection marker.

Is there a way to get it to where he just stays put? Im not sure why its doing this or what Im doing wrong?:headbang:

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# 2 22-12-2009 , 05:34 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

If I understand your problem correctly, that's a common result. You're not doing anything wrong really. What is happening is the interpolation between your key frames are taking into account the keys on either side as well to create a smooth spline between your keys.

Open up the graph editor and you'll have to change the tangents of your curves. You'll notice smooth curves in between keys, and they might curve up and down even though the keys surrounding that section have the same value. There are several ways to fix this. One way is to marquee select the keys causing the issue, and select a new tangent type. Tangents > flat, linear, stepped etc.Save a backup of your scene so you can freely experiment.

Stepped is interesting because it will not do any interpolation, it will be at the value of one key all the way until it reaches the next key, then immediately switches. This might work for you if there is a section where something should not be moving.

You can also: select the key of interest, marquee select a tangent handle, select your move tool (w) and MMB drag to change the angle manually.

Also you could try breaking the tangents so each side behaves differently.

I think you get the idea that you get HUGE amount of control over your animation in the graph editor where you can modify your tangents.

-stwert

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# 3 22-12-2009 , 09:37 PM

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Movement

I dont know the graph editor very well, Ive used it in After Effects but it works really different in Maya. Im wanting I guess to do steeped but how do I apply it to the 2 frames? Do I highlight them in the animation bar? Basically I dont want them to move at all unless I tell it to when I make a new key for it to move. Im going to try playing around with it tonite to see if I can fix it. Middle mouse dragging causes the whole thing to be effected.

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# 4 22-12-2009 , 10:12 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Make sure you're only selecting the necessary keys. They will appear as black points on the colored curves. Marquee select over the keys. I think clicking on the keys might select the entire curve.

-stwert

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-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

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# 5 22-12-2009 , 11:17 PM

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Fixed it

Ok i figured it out, what I was doing wrong was that I wasnt making a "key selected" for each position (translate x,y,z, rotate x,y,z, etc) on each movement marker that I created. Say on frame 10 I would adjust the rotate z only than go to frame 20 and adjust the rotate y- so it was causing movements, so I went back and put key selections for everything t each movement. I figured it out by looking at the graph and seeing where at on the line they are at. It helped me to start to understand how the graph works. There sure is a lot of stuff contained in Maya.

Thanks for the help though because I dont think I would have figured that out without looking at the graph. And I know better for my next animation to have key frames for every translate or rotation or whatnot from now on. Ive been using flash and after effects too long for animation.

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Still moving after key selections markers have been placed

Movement

Fixed it

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