[ANIMATION] Beginner Question

[portbash]

Ya, I just started with animation in Blender... and only got the basics so far. I just had a problem again, which I've encountered several times now. I haven't found a solution to fix this yet, so I'm asking for help. Here's the problem:

 

 

I imported the dialogarmscrossedlistena kf (fallout3) into my blender scene. the mesh was proper attached to the skeleton and it's pose. the animation works fine aswell.

 

Now, if I do alter the animation (just raised the arm a bit) a "distortion" is placed between the start and end frame of this change. If I go to the "invected" frame and copy/pase a keyframe over it, this "distortion" moves to a previous frame.

 

How do I fix/avoid this?

Edited March 11, 2011 by portbash

[fore]

This is one of the mysteries I was never able to solve, or even come close to a satisfying explanation. I couldn't help but setting way-points in between, sometimes for every frame.

 

What is interesting is that whenever I tried one of these obscure animations in-game, they showed a very similar behavior there. So it appears that Blender and Oblivion use the same interpolation "strategy", and these distortions are some sort of discontenuity, but my mathematical background doesn't reach that far.

 

I think, the distortions are the reason why in some original Oblivion animations some bones movements are defined using splines, while for similar animations the moves for the same bone are simple Transforminterpolators. By looking in all of Beth's animations you can see that they tried to avoid splines. So why should they use a spline for a tiny pelvis rotation in the onehandidle?

 

Bad thing is that Blender/Nifscripts don't have splines (Beth used 3DSmax), and do a very bad job when translating into frames. So we poor Blender users will probably never understand... Hope I could help you by sharing my confusion :confused:

[portbash]

Hope I could help you by sharing my confusion :confused:

 

now I'm confused! I thought (hoped) it was just a little glitch and the bones just needed the right button to be pressed... uhm...

 

I couldn't help but setting way-points in between, sometimes for every frame.

 

does it fix it? what do you mean exacly with "setting way-points"... or better: how do I do that? :pinch:

(still a complete anim-beginner)

Edited March 12, 2011 by portbash

[fore]

As I see from your setup you are not a total beginner. :wink: That's good.

 

I called "way-point" (my own term) what you already had described: create a new key (for the infected bone only) right at the point of infection. Insted of copying a key you can simply insert it:

- in Action Editor select bone and frame

- in 3D View posemode open the Transform Properties (N)

- in Transform Properties set set x,y,z and rot-x,rot-y,rot-z "appropriately"

- Insert Key (I) and LOC-ROT

 

"Appropriately" means that you have to calculate the 6 values right at that poin. Usually Blender or the game engine do that, but here apparently they fail. In your case (Frames 1, 8, and 15) it's relatively easy: the 6 values are right in the middle between the respective frame 1 and 15 values.

 

But as you said: the infection wanders to a previous point (sometimes even 2 points: one in front and one behind), and than arithmetic is a bit harder. So what I do is to enter the values in a spread sheet and let the "way-points" be calculatad there. If you are not so familiar with spread-sheets, I can give you the formula)

[portbash]

As I see from your setup you are not a total beginner. :wink: That's good.

 

Thanks. :yes: In fact I've spent some time in blender and have done some work related to f3/obl. But the just opened animation chapter is yet an unexplored area.

 

"Appropriately" means that you have to calculate the 6 values right at that point...]

 

If I understood you correctly - I have to add the Loc & Rot values of the related bone manually?

 

 

But as you said: the infection wanders to a previous point....

 

So the result is the same as pasting a keyframe (In fact pasting sounds a lot of easier that using a spread sheet to calculate the proper loc/rot values) over the infected one, update it by eye and start hunting the distortion down till the beginning of the frame? nanana... I don't get the point.... :huh:

 

 

If you are not so familiar with spread-sheets, I can give you the formula)

 

That would be great! What kind of format are we talking about? Is it a script?

 

And as I have an expert on the line: Is there a shortcut to jump to the selected bone inside the action editor? I hate the scrolling to death...

 

EDIT

Dude, I just took a look at your Animation Theatre!

 

Is it right, when they tell you that BBB (Better Bouncing Breasts) animations are for the female player only? NO!

Is it ok, when male heroes run around as a girl (player character), only to watch their wiggeling fronts during fight? NO!

 

Bruahaha! :thumbsup:

 

EDIT2

 

Alright... I just fixed the distortion by hand and for each frame.

 

The animation starts just fine but at one point it's getting really messy - spikes to infinity as they are called in your wiki article (cool, btw). but your written solution is not clear for me. I got Loc and I got Rot in the transfrom properties... no LocRot, nor float_min or float_max :mellow:

Edited March 12, 2011 by portbash

[fore]

Glad you making progress :thumbsup: and glad you like the reason why I make all these BBB adaptations :biggrin:

 

As I can read in your 2nd edit you have solved all your distortion problems. Of course you can copy/paste a key. The reason I usually not do that is you easily have another bone selected, and then you copy this bones key as well. And I don't know of any shortcut jump between 3D and Action window. I always have the action list on the side, and then I can scroll the whole bone list with just one big mouse wheel.

 

Maybe the spikes have another reason. You have to set the the end text key in the Text editor equal to the end frame. Unless you change frequency with NifSkope, but then all 3 values have to be in sync. In the Wiki I have described the result as "badly twisted bones", but I think someone has experienced spikes as well. Others than that I only know spikes from missing bones in the skeleton, but than you would see them from the beginning of an animation.

 

As to the spread sheet formula (Excel or, what I use, OpenOffice Calc). It's a simple formula which enter like a value, but starting with an "=" character. Enter the following data:

Cell A2: <value in 1st frame>, e.g. 0,6

Cell B2: <value in last frame>, e.g. 0,8

Cell C2: <number of 1st frame>, e.g. 1

Cell D2: <number of last frame>, e.g. 15

Cells E2,F2,G2,.. =$A2+($B2-$A2)*(COLUMN()-5)/($D2-$C2)

 

Cells E2, ... show you the resulting values for frames 1,2,3,.... You can copy/paste this formula to the right (for following frames) of or down (for the other loc/rot values)

 

Edit: I'm not sure if it's "COLUMN()" or "COL()" in the formula, since I'm using a German version.