How to proceed with animation?

# 1 31-10-2007 , 06:41 AM

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Hi

I am in a middle of my first 3D project and i do not have a lot of experience. I have done some small modelling before, but noe animation.

I am doing a scene where a squrriel is going to sit, run, turn and do things with its hands.

So i am wondering what is the best way to proceed? Do i keyframe the whole scene or do I make use of NLA? Ive read about NLA and thats seems to me to be the smartes thing to do. But is that only for game development? Or is it possible to use that for "films"...?

Any resouces on how to proceed i am greatly for.

Thank you...

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# 2 03-11-2007 , 12:57 PM

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Buy the animation survival kit, understand how pose to pose works and practice some basics timing and spacing. Keyframe is the way to go for the best results, and most importantly go out and watch squirrels for a few days.

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# 3 03-11-2007 , 03:43 PM

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hmmm...

Yeah! buy the Animation Survival kit! It's a must for any animator. And remember! Animation is Concentration.

EA Games

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# 4 03-11-2007 , 11:32 PM

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Yeah i know about that book, i have actually borrowed it already, looks like i am going to buy it also user added image

But i wasnt asking how to animate a squrriel, but rather how to animate in general. What is the best way to keyframe everything from start to beginning og starting to use NLA and the trax editor.

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# 5 08-11-2007 , 03:14 AM

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Hi again, I'm back with yet another question.

Ive startet to keyframe my scene and it went quite well, but now I've got a problem that i dont seem to find the solution for.

Ive animated the legs and the squrriels "updown" and I've keyframed it. But at one point my new keyframes influences the earlier movements. So when I am pleases with one section, for example a jump, and it looks good. Then i move on, and try to animate the next jump or something, and then the new keys mess up the movements of the last jump... It is hard to explaint, but hope you understand. Somebody got any idea on how to fix this?

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# 6 08-11-2007 , 03:41 AM

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Hmmm, im geared for feature animation so i just keyframe everything, no trax as personal preference.

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# 7 08-11-2007 , 06:30 AM

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OK, thats cool, but any idea for a solution to my other problem?

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# 8 08-11-2007 , 08:00 AM

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hmmm...

ok! so you animated something in the beginning but the follow up animation effects the previous? right? I think what your problem may be is that your root joint or some other joints were not keyed correctly. SO here is the thing...are you keying you joints or controls by pressing the "S" key? if you are that is the wrong way to key. If you notice, when you do that, all the transformations get keyed, translate, rotate, scale and visibility etc. on the channel control on your right. You don't want to do this. You want to key every transformation seperately. For example if you're keying the Rotate X of a joint, you go directly to the channel control and Right mouse click on the "transform X" and a menu will pop up, select "key Selected" . That's how you key appropriately. The you go to the graph editor and do the touch ups.

Of course you may have to start over with your animation. It's easier and will save you more headaches that trying to fix it. Let me know if this fixes your prob.

EA Games

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# 9 08-11-2007 , 03:30 PM

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You've understanded me correctly but i dont think i am doing it wrong... I have placed all the joints and ik-handles i want into a character set.

I am not using the S-key when I am keying, but i usually key all the rotates and not just the one that i am using, but i do select the them in the attribute editor and use key-selected.

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How to proceed with animation?

hmmm...

hmmm...

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