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NLA clip and figure position

cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

I am very frustrated. I generated a nice walking cycle and created an NLA clip from it.

Now I want to apply it to the figure in other positions relative to the scene, but each time I apply the clip in the NLA track, it reverts the figure back to its original position! Is there any way to save a clip without taking into consideration the figure's original position?

In other words, I want the figure to be able to walk freely in the scene without being "anchored" by the NLA clip.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks

Comments

  • JoepingletonJoepingleton Posts: 746
    edited December 1969

    I find it easiest to make a group out of the figure NLA and then change the position of the group. A motion path works well for a walking cycle this way.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    Usually, when I create an animation in “Walkdesigner”, I erase the keyframes of the hip after the importation in Carrara.
    I don't know in which software you worked out your animation, but test that…

  • PjotterPjotter Posts: 274
    edited December 1969

    Outside the range of the clip, the clip has no influence at all. You have to create keyframes. If you have no keyframes, it uses the pose and position of frame 0.

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
    edited December 1969

    I am using Carrara to generate the walk cycles. Thank you everyone for the feedback -- I will give it a go!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited December 1969

    cobusp said:
    I am very frustrated. I generated a nice walking cycle and created an NLA clip from it.

    Now I want to apply it to the figure in other positions relative to the scene, but each time I apply the clip in the NLA track, it reverts the figure back to its original position! Is there any way to save a clip without taking into consideration the figure's original position?

    In other words, I want the figure to be able to walk freely in the scene without being "anchored" by the NLA clip.

    I hope this makes sense.

    Thanks

    On the subsequent NLA clips, select the clip in the timeline and: "Match Previous Position" and then select a part of the figure to track, like the hip or a foot (I use hip). Do this for each, subsequent clip to get it to match the alignment of the previous clip. Works great!

    Also, just so you know, when creating your clip as a Master Clip, you get a dialog where it asks you for a body part to follow for looping. If you leave this blank (default), then you won't get a good loop, if any at all. So to be certain that you can loop your clip, save it with something (like the hip) selected in the Loop Offset in the creation dialog.
    Then once you've added the clip to the figure, you can stretch it or compress it to set the timing, then click a check in the Loop option of the clip, and then drag it out as long as you want it to loop at that timing. Then you may add a new clip, resize to set the timing, click a check into Loop, and drag that one out.

    Note that if you didn't add a loop offset during the creation dialog of the clip, that the "Match Previous Position" command in the clip will always work, regardless.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited February 2014

    Ooops!
    In "Match Previous Position", you'll get asked some stuff. For walk cycles, select "Previous End Time" and "Hip", and your figure will take off from the previous clip seamlessly. I do this all the time and it works great.

    Also know that you can apply this same theory to mix and match many different sorts of clips and animations. Have fun with it!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
    edited December 1969

    Thank you Dartanback -- this is what I had in mind.
    But somehow I am still not getting it to work. let me give you an example:

    I have a walk cycle clip, and then another clip where he figure is standing still. What I do then is to place the still clip after the walk cycle clip to bring the figure to a natural stand-still. I followed your procedure, but what happens then is the following:

    At the beginning of the still clip, the figure gets displaced (probably to the position where it was originally created. Then over the time of the clip it moves towards the end position of the walk cycle clip. SO the figure walks to a point, then suddenly it is gone, and then it moves back to a stand-still where I originally wanted it to end.

    I wish there were more tutorials about this type of workflow. The Carrara 7 manual is not much help either.

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
    edited December 1969

    In other words, my problem is getting the figure to transform from walking to a natural stand-still.

    Thanks again, I appreciate your input a lot! This is crucial for a crime scene animation for the biggest media company in our country!

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Whebn you say you generated a walk cycle, what do you mean? Do you mean you hand animated a walk cycle in Carrara or another software, or do you mean you used something like Poser's walk designer?

    The easiest way would be to find where you get the forward translation. Is it the figure group? The hip? I think the trick is to get rid of the translation. If you used a aniblock from D|S for example, you could bake the aniblock to Studio keyframes and then use the PFE (Poser Format Exporter) to save the clip as an animated pose. You should have the option to disable the forward translation. The same goes for standing and whatever other poses you used.

    I would think that Poser's walk designer would have a similar ability.


    If you created the walk cycle in Carrara, or are using a BVH file for the walk and the standing, I would expand the hip in the sequencer to show the x, y, z translations and delete any keyframes for forward movement or other unwanted translations, then convert to NLA and use a motion path.

  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
    edited December 1969

    Hi, yeas I generated the walk cycle in carrara with a forward offset. so when I use the clip on a figure, I just keyframe the figure from point A to B.

    Thanks, I'm gonna look at your suggestion expand and delete the keyframes in the sequencer.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited February 2014

    Another thing to look for that may cause Dart's idea to not work, is that when the walk was created, instead of translating the hip forward, you translated the whole figure's group forward. This would make using the hip for the loop offset maybe not work as expected. I catch myself doing this myself from time to time..

    BTW, I have found the best way to use a motion path with a stationary walk cycle is to use the figure group.

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • cobuspcobusp Posts: 303
    edited December 1969

    Thankl you very much, that is indeed useful info! And thanks for continuing with the support to all my queries :-)

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