Skeleton animation

[Nexyz]

Hi everybody,

I'm working on my first character animation via skeleton, and there are a couple of things I'd like to hear from you guys before I put too much time into doing something stupid.

First, once I set a keyframe for my skeleton, the "Native Pose" button doesn't work any more. If I delete the choreograpy it's back working again..
I find that pretty annoying, since that may be a very important pose throughout the animation, and I have to recreate it every single time...

Secondly, I must be doing something wrong with the whole keyframing thing.
Here I am talking about an entire body skeleton including sub-bones, and it seems that once I set a couple of keyframes, the animation is pretty much set in stone, since those keyframes are being stored in the subskeletons as well... so if I have an animation consisting of 3 keys, and I want to change the time of the middle key, I'd have to go through all the sub's and adjust the appropriate key...
Why can't I just move the "main key" that I created for the entire skeleton and that created all the sub-anims?
The same rational applies to duplicating keys..
All I would ever want is a complete skeleton pose stored in a key that I can move and copy. With that I feel I could do anything, but that's not how it seems to work, is it?
Could anybody please help me figure this out?

Thanks a million,
have a great day,
Daniel

[Beg-inner]

HI Daniel...

Character animation and RS Animation Interface is an area that RS lacks pretty much in sadly..
Hopefully the promised Character Anim plugin will see daylight, but I doubt it will happen soon though..
Its a very important area of 3D sw today, so lets hope it will get a fix...

Yep it can be frustrating, like that with 'Native Pose', its a thing that would be nice if it really also worked with animated skels, and also had Save to 'Pose Library' option
With such you could drag n drop whatever already created pose..
Here is abit of a workaround...
(IF the skel (Spine and Subskels as arms, legs etc...) is already abit Animated and have keys, lets say you have keys at First frame (Rest Pose) and at frame 10 (Kick Pose))
(And you find a cool Pose in frame 6, that has come out of the inbetweens from Rest Pose and Kick Pose, and that you want to use elsewhere)
1. In 'Select' Window Select the 'Spine' Skel (the Parent skel)
2. Set 'Anim Record' ON
3. Right Click on frame 6 in 'Animation' Window to make frame 6 the current one frame
4. In 'Animation' Window, Click the 'New Key' button(Its below the 'Current Time' Field), it will create a Keyframe for the Spine skel, in frame 6
5. In 'Select' Window MultiSelect the Sub Skeletons, and do the Step 4 above
6. Open 'Choreography' Window, maximize the window, and click the 'Time Lines' Tab
7. Drag around all the Keys at Frame 6, that belong to the skeletons ! (If there are other keys belonging to other objects or chors inbetween, just use (SHIFT key) and select the needed keys in groups until all skel keys that you want, are selected...) (You can also if you like select all other objects that are animated but NOT the skels and in 'Property' Window 'General' Tab set the 'Hide Choreographs' option !)
8. With the wanted Keys selected, that holds your wanted 'Pose', you can now either copy or just move these keys,
*** Move --> Just Click on one of the selected keys and drag where you want them in the 'Timeline' !
*** Copy --> Hold Down (Ctrl Key) and as above Click and Drag the Keys where you want the copies of the keys to be...
(At least keys in Timelines can be multiselected... hopefully all things in 'Chor' win and RS in General will get at least the functionality that 'Select' Window has...)

Here abit in the general field of selecting keys...
In the 'Animation' Window, you can select ALL 'KeyFrames' at a Certain Frame or at Several Frames, by doing this..
1. In 'Chor' Window 'Time Lines' Tab, First see to it that NO keys are selected, by click into an empty space in the right window, where the 'Keyframe' Rectangles are...
2. Select your animate skel (The Parent Level skel) , Maybe its the "Spine" Skel
3. If not already set to wanted 'Keyframe' Chor, set it in the 'Animation' Windows Right side...in a Drop window..
4. Click on wanted 'KeyFrame' in the 'Animation' Window, lets say its at frame 10
5. In the 'Chor' Window now shows that your 'Spine' s 'Keyframes' at Frame 10, are all selected (for the 'Chor' that you selected in the 'Chor' field of the 'Animation' Window..)
6. MultiSelect the Subskels (that are inside the "Spine", and do Steps 3-4
7. In the 'Chor' Window, Shows that the Subskels 'Keyframes' at frame 10, are now also added to the selection !
8. If you have more you want to add to the selection before you Move or Copy them, do the above of the needed steps..
9. Now do the Move, Copy, Delete and so on.. in the 'Chor' Window !!! (DONT miss clicking on the 'Keys', since this as told above, will DESELECT ALL keys =)
(Since if you drag the Keys in the 'Animation' Window, it first seems like it works.. but as soon as you release the mousebutton.. it looks as you have a copy, but looking in the 'Chor' Window shows that only the 'Keys' of the LAST attribute in EACH 'Chor' has moved...=( bah ) ( hope this will be fixed, so one can work as much as possible directly in the 'Animation' Window) (It also isnt possible to move the Keys past other keys on the Timeline in the 'Animation' Wndow...)
(But at least it can be used as a fast selection tool..=)

Another way for you, is to use the 'Morph' Level Tool
1. Duplicate your Skel (Select the parent skel)
2. MultiSelect both Skels (The Original and the Copy)
3. Use 'Morph' Tool in menu 'Tools/Creation/Morph'
4. You can now Copy any or all of the Sub object of the 'Morphing' Level and Edit them
5. You have at least 3 places where you can move the 'Keys' in time,
A. Selecting the 'Morphing' Level and Open 'Property' Window and in 'Spec' Tab Move 'Keys'
B. In 'Chor' Window as usual....
C. In the 'Animation' Window also..
There are many good things about using the Morphing way..
For instance..
It treats the keys as ONE (if you want this...)
Easy to see Previous and Next Keys All the time (and hide one or all keys if you want to..)
It makes pretty smooth Anims..
Also you have access to a 'Curve' to control Timing of keys (This was a nice General tool inside the 'Chor' Window before for ALL 'Chors', but is SADLY taken out.. =(

But this really should be possible directly with one single copy of each animated object.. (so you dont need to have tons of Keyobjects.. =) abit uneffecient..otherwise..)

I hope I havent made any big mistakes in this text..=).
Or have forgotton something..
Or if someone has better and faster ways of doing things..
If so just correct me.. so we all learn from it..!

If you have any questions about above or other just ask..!

Hope it will help abit..

[TheRookie]

Sounds good to me Stef some very soild honest advice in there