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Keeping hands, arms, legs, feet, etc from passing through the other body parts when animating

ckalan1ckalan1 Posts: 88
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Does anyone know any animation technique for setting up a skeleton to keep body parts from passing through body parts?

For instance, in a walk cycle what tools/methods are available in Carrara to reset the left foot trajectory if it passes through the right leg?

Is there a tutorial about this?

Thanks,
Craig

Comments

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Pretty sure this is a situation where you just scrub the timeline frame-by-frame to check your animation. There is no "plugin" to do it for you.

    If you see a frame where a limb passes through another, grab the offending limb and reposition it. That's it. Rinse-repeat, until you have scrubbed the entire animation.

    I assume you are using some existing walkcycle pose (or hideous dancing motion capture)…. After you correct a number of these you will be ready to simply create your own walk cycles and animations, so as to get it right the first time…. Once you are at that point, it is a dream to start using the NLA clips to make your own loops and poses.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,041
    edited December 1969

    you can move all the keyframed motions at once for one joint along timeline using graph editor I believe, I have done it but not my area of expertise

  • ckalan1ckalan1 Posts: 88
    edited December 1969

    I came across a video about using ikinema.com that explained how to do this but maybe I was just dreaming. I am going to try the graph editor.

    The other thing that I was trying to do was make a walk cycle in Poser save it as a pose then import the pose into Carrara then make it into a clip and save it as a clip.

    Everything was kind of working until I got to saving it as a clip. I could not get it to save.

    Thanks for your suggestions. Hopefully, I will be able to show something soon.

    Craig

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited December 1969

    Are you talking about setting up limits for joints on your own, custom rig?
    Limits (done within the motion tab for each joint of the skeleton) are what define how far the part can rotate (just one example) in any one direction. It's quite powerful, and there are many types to choose from. But it makes it easier to animate. For example, most DAZ figures won't let the forearm rotate in the direction that would make it look like it just broke sideways.

  • ckalan1ckalan1 Posts: 88
    edited December 1969

    Are you talking about setting up limits for joints on your own, custom rig?

    I am not setting up a custom rig. I am using the one that is in Genesis.

    Limits (done within the motion tab for each joint of the skeleton) are what define how far the part can rotate (just one example) in any one direction.

    I understand that. But, I am looking for some way of setting constraints over an existing key framed animation without having to change every key frame.

    It's quite powerful, and there are many types to choose from. But it makes it easier to animate. For example, most DAZ figures won't let the forearm rotate in the direction that would make it look like it just broke sideways.

    WebAnimate from Ikinema has a tutorial that says it is possible to do what I want to do with their software. I have seen it demonstrated there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja-Vd9zHLt4#t=69 but I can't get it to work on the rigs that I upload.

    I was hoping that Carrara had something similar.

    Thanks for your thoughts.

    Craig

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    You can use Target Helper objects to help. I used one in this video to keep the hands on the hip. I didn't animate the hands themselves they're a bit stiff.

    The target helper was offset slightly from the hip and then parented to the hip. The hand was set to track the helper.
    http://youtu.be/nkWBRuJlQhA

  • argus1000argus1000 Posts: 701
    edited December 1969

    evilproducer said:
    You can use Target Helper objects to help. I used one in this video to keep the hands on the hip. I didn't animate the hands themselves they're a bit stiff.
    The target helper was offset slightly from the hip and then parented to the hip. The hand was set to track the helper.
    http://youtu.be/nkWBRuJlQhA

    How did you make the hair move?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    argus1000 said:
    evilproducer said:
    You can use Target Helper objects to help. I used one in this video to keep the hands on the hip. I didn't animate the hands themselves they're a bit stiff.
    The target helper was offset slightly from the hip and then parented to the hip. The hand was set to track the helper.
    http://youtu.be/nkWBRuJlQhA

    How did you make the hair move?

    I just used the included morphs. It's Koz's Short Bob.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited November 2013

    ckalan1 said:

    I was hoping that Carrara had something similar.

    Thanks for your thoughts.

    Craig

    I think that it does.
    Check through this first. It's important, new stuff in 8.5 to know - i have yet to study this, myself... but I have to soon, here.
    Also check the pdf manual under the graph editor. Here's what I'm thinking you can do... but first:

    I know that if you load in an animated walk cycle for a different figure and, say, the feet are rotated around wrongly, you may do this:
    Open the hierarchy of the figure in the timeline and find one of the feet. Select it in the timeline. At the top left border of the timeline window, change the blue button from "Sequencer" to "Graph Editor". You can change the angle along the axis that has the problem and this change will carry through the entire animation. Repeat for other offending angles, and then do the other foot, etc.,

    There just may be a way to apply an additional threshold using the graph editor. That's where I would look but I'm really not sure right now.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • ckalan1ckalan1 Posts: 88
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for the link to the instructions. I have not seen those before. I will let you know how it turns out.

    Craig

  • blderunnerblderunner Posts: 3
    edited December 1969

    IKinema WebAnimate will do this, check this demo scene
    http://www.ikinema.com/wa/retarget.wa

    you have a few control points that you can move and offset and keyframe; They have added a few
    offsets in this scene to do that I think...

  • ckalan1ckalan1 Posts: 88
    edited December 1969

    I have tried webanimate at www.ikinema.com but I have not had 100% success with it yet. I am going to try using a different browser, since that my be the problem with the UI that I am having.

    I will keep you guys posted.

    Thanks,
    Craig

  • blderunnerblderunner Posts: 3
    edited December 1969

    I am using chrome and ff on windows for info .... i had problems as well with IE

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