exilea
(Stranger)
03/09/08 03:18 PM
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Animating running/walking to standing transition
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I'm using Poser 7 and I can't figure out how to make the animated character transition smoothly from a walk/run to a stand still. They move, and then at the end of the walk path, POP, they're standing. Can anybody explain how to make the smooth transition or point me to a good tutorial? Thanks!
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DavidJHanna
(Newbie)
03/09/08 04:43 PM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transition
[re: exilea] |
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Hello exilea. I don'y have Poser 7. I only upgraded from 4 to 5 when Content Paradise was giving it away. One trick I used to use with Poser 4, and still works with Poser 5 is to put gaps between poses. The following example would be if I had a 15 frame walk. In the first frame, I would pose the character standing. In the 5th frame, I would start the pose for walking, which would go from frame 5 to 19. Next I would make small adjustments to frame 2, 3, and 4 If it messed up my walk, I would apply the walk pose at frame 5 again. Then I would pose the character standing at 24. I could then tweek frames 20, 21, 22, and 23. Then I would repose 24 again, just to make sure it was still correct. I'm not an artist, just a PC junkie who loves to play with 3D toys. Please let me know if this helps, so I will know if I should tell others, or keep my mouth shut. -David
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exilea
(Stranger)
03/09/08 06:22 PM
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I guess that would make sense if I were doing this manually. I forgot to mention that I was making the character walk/run with the Walk Designer. Trying to transition out of the Walk Designer movements back to a standing pose.
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DavidJHanna
(Newbie)
03/09/08 11:23 PM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti 
[re: exilea] |
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Hello Exilea.
I just checked Walk Designer in Poser 5. When you apply the walk/run to the Walk Path, you have several options. By checking the “Transition from pose at path start” and “Transition to pose at path end”, that should resolve your problem of the pose. You can even set how many frames to use for the transition. You can also check “Always complete last step” so that your character doesn’t stop mid step. You can even decide which frames to start from and end in. I noticed that at the end of the walk, the character is quickly dragged to the beginning location. This is easy to fix. After applying the walk, simply delete the frames where the character is dragged. Then you can add a few frames, pose the character in the last frame, and the program will put intermediate frames in the untouched frames. Going from a walk to a run is a bit trickier. For that I would create the walk and run scenes separately, save them as multi-frame poses, then apply them.
If anyone else is reading this, who has actually used Walk Designer, please speak up. I’m just guessing and experimenting. I’m sure there is a better way. Well Exilea, I hope this helps, but if it doesn’t, be sure to speak up. That way more experienced Poser users know you still need help. I wish you the best of luck.
-David
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dadchamp
(Member)
03/10/08 04:43 AM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti
[re: exilea] |
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As pointed out you can use the Transition to/from in the WD panel but it is difficult to get this work very well. What I usually do is break the action down into two seperate movements, the walk and then the shift from final walk position to standing position. This is done by first completing the animation of the walk and saving the last frame of the walk as a static pose to the pose library. Reload the saved last frame onto the first frame to repose the character and visuall make sure that the positions for first and last frame match. Delete all key frames in between if they do. Decide how many frames you want to have the transition be (around 15 to 18 are usually enough) and trim the animation to this length. Go to the last frame and pose your character in the final standing pose and render the sequence. Clip it together in your video editing software for a complete animation. --
I don't fear God anymore. Anything he/she can do to me now is only adding insult to injury!
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exilea
(Stranger)
03/10/08 07:05 AM
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I had checked all 3 boxes (Complete last step, trans from pose at start, trans from pose at end) but the character never completes the last step. Now, one thing I tried was going into the base layer and adding 15 extra keyframes (making it 95) and shortening the blend frames to 5, then returning to the walkpath and restricting it to 80 frames. It worked the first time, but my PC glitched and I had to reload it. I followed the exact same steps and it didn't work again. In another instance, MOST of the body returned to the standing pose, but one of the legs was left still up in the air from the last running pose. I don't understand what is going on with it...
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exilea
(Stranger)
03/10/08 07:10 AM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti
[re: dadchamp] |
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Assuming I had to go with the 2 different animations, is there an easier way to get the character to the end-of-walk location besides manually dragging him? Is there a way to save the character's on-screen position?
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dadchamp
(Member)
03/10/08 07:20 AM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti
[re: exilea] |
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That's why you do a visual inspection of the final 'walk' position saved and reloaded as the first frame of the new animaiton. The final xyz location of the character is sometimes exported in the pose but usually not. What you can do is record the final position of the hip joint for the xTrans, yTrans, and zTrans in the last frame of the first aniimation and use these to move the character to correct location on the first frame of the 2nd animation. Make sure IK is turned off for all of this ... you need the IK chain for the Walk Designer to work, but it doesn't need to be turned on to use it. Also be sure to save your camera's xyz location for the final frame if that changes during the animation too. Usually what I do is actually do a cut and paste of last frame info back to the first frame for things like body position, camera position and lighting for the second animation setup.
--
I don't fear God anymore. Anything he/she can do to me now is only adding insult to injury!
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exilea
(Stranger)
03/10/08 08:11 AM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti
[re: dadchamp] |
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Where can I find & how do I cut+paste each of those?
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dadchamp
(Member)
03/10/08 08:23 AM
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Re: Animating running/walking to standing transiti
[re: exilea] |
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From the 'Window" drop down menu activate the animation pallet. This will give you a matrix of all the characters, props, lights, cameras, et al, blocked out on a timeline. Key frames are shown in green (sometimes gold for facial movement and morph targets). If you slide the view to last frame you can scroll through all of the items that are key framed for the last frame. Find the character you want to copy a position and pose from, click and drag over the green key frame marks for that charater in the last frame and then select Edit/Copy. Move your cursor back to the first frame of the animation and resellect the same range that you just copied for the first frame of that character. Then do Edit/Paste. Sometimes you have to paste several times to convince Poser that you want to actually do this. LOL Once all the keys from the last frame you want to copy to first frame are competed (and confirmed that they copied) you can delete all the frames after the first frame and save this as the beginning of your second animation.
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I don't fear God anymore. Anything he/she can do to me now is only adding insult to injury!
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