NLA and Looping

mhscspo

I tried to use the loop function with this NLA clip and extended it by just a few frames and if you take a look at both of the front views you will

notice that in the second one V4 is below the ground plane, is there something that has to be done other wise to make the loop one smooth transition.

I tried editing the clip to rearrange the hip position on the second part where the looping started but in doing so the hip went well above the ground plane on the first part of the clip

Dartanbeck

Without being on Carrara at the time, I cannot explain the method to do it in the NLA panel - I think there's a way to have the repeat take place according to the: And then we select which part to match - which is where I choose: Hip.

But without having access to Carrara, I do know of the top of my head how to fix this:

Without any NLA clips or animations loaded, select V4

In the NLA tab, use Load Data from Clip - and select that NLA clip, which will load all of the keyframes onto the timeline

In the NLA tab, use "Create Master Clip" and during the dialog which follows, make sure to select the Hip as the part of the object to track.

=========================================================

Another way is to NOT use loop, instead simply add the same clip again, right after the first along the timeline.

Select the second Clip in the Sequencer and in the NLA tab choose "Match Previous Position" and select the Hip in the dialog which opens.

Dartanbeck

One thing I've noticed is that we can sometimes have problems using clips made from previous versions of Carrara. The Devs have done some work on the clips system bug reports in the 8.5 phase.

So this can cause loops to not perform properly as well as the Match Previous Position functions, not lining up properly.

To fix this, simply use the first method I've mentioned above:

• Load Data From Clip onto the proper figure
• Create Master Clip, selecting Hip as the tracking position
• Save the new Clip

3DAGE

Firstly,. just to check,. is the clip a loop,. ?

The first frame should match the last frame.

if it's a loopable clip,. load the clip data, as Dart suggested,. create new master clip, and select "Hip" as the loop reference.

if the Hip's don't match well,. try selecting one of the feet as the loop reference object.

:)

 

Dartanbeck

3DAGE said:

Firstly,. just to check,. is the clip a loop,. ?

The first frame should match the last frame.

if it's a loopable clip,. load the clip data, as Dart suggested,. create new master clip, and select "Hip" as the loop reference.

if the Hip's don't match well,. try selecting one of the feet as the loop reference object.

:)

 

Good point - and a cool idea! I've never tried that, yet often thought about it. Another animator never uses Hip but uses something else... I can't remember which - and it works just fine. The same, actually. But I could see where dancing might turn out better using the planted foot as the referrence instead of the hip!

mhscspo

ok, I did both methods the hip didn't work but using one of the feet did, however I still have one problem which I forgot to make mention of in my post and that is the feet are going through the ground plane

and I couldn't correct them using the edit clip option and the graph editor, It's the x rotation that I need to correct but it seems that limits are on and when I first loaded the pose I checked turn off limits, I also unchecked the feet in the

rotation section in the motion tab, they still wouldn't rotate upwards. However before making the nla clip I corrected the rotation by using the graph editor and then I made a master clip afterwards I placed the clip

onto the time line but again the feet were below the ground, the heel was where it was supposed to be but not toes.

Just to let you know I used the PoserMocap zombie moves to make the nla clip and I am using Carrara 8.5.1 Pro Build 19 (64 Bit)

and to answer 3DAGE's question about the clip being a loop I see now that it's not the first and last frames are totally different. I got one problem solved now to figure out this limits situation..

and thanks to both of guys for the very helpful info...

Dartanbeck

Select the figure and hit Ctrl + G (or Edit > Group) which will put the figure into its own group. Now you can move that group (with the figure inside) any which way you want! ;)

FYI, we can do that again, for further tweaking the animation - put that group into another group, and so on. This is very helpful for changing positioning without disturbing the animation data.

What do I always say? Carrara Freaking ROCKS!!! :)

mhscspo

mhscspo said:

ok, I did both methods the hip didn't work but using one of the feet did, however I still have one problem which I forgot to make mention of in my post and that is the feet are going through the ground plane

and I couldn't correct them using the edit clip option and the graph editor, It's the x rotation that I need to correct but it seems that limits are on and when I first loaded the pose I checked turn off limits, I also unchecked the feet in the

rotation section in the motion tab, they still wouldn't rotate upwards. However before making the nla clip I corrected the rotation by using the graph editor and then I made a master clip afterwards I placed the clip

onto the time line but again the feet were below the ground, the heel was where it was supposed to be but not toes.

Just to let you know I used the PoserMocap zombie moves to make the nla clip and I am using Carrara 8.5.1 Pro Build 19 (64 Bit)

and to answer 3DAGE's question about the clip being a loop I see now that it's not the first and last frames are totally different. I got one problem solved now to figure out this limits situation..

and thanks to both of guys for the very helpful info...

Thanks again I got it, and what you always say is Totally Right!!

 

3DAGE

I couldn't correct them using the edit clip option and the graph editor,

this is where using the "load clip data" makes sense,.  edit the keyframes,. then use the graph editor,. save as new edited and improved clip :)

You could also try adjusting the offsets in the NLA clip parameters,. this can be used to correct position issues, can also be a bit clunky.

Grouping , and then animating that to adjust for the foot offset,. as Dart suggests, is a much easier solution.

mhscspo

3DAGE said:

 

this is where using the "load clip data" makes sense,.  edit the keyframes,. then use the graph editor,. save as new edited and improved clip :)

You could also try adjusting the offsets in the NLA clip parameters,. this can be used to correct position issues, can also be a bit clunky.

Grouping , and then animating that to adjust for the foot offset,. as Dart suggests, is a much easier solution.

Thanks 3DAGE for the info, thing are looking a lot better now, it can take a little time but then again that's what animating in Carrara is all about...