You can use ghosting to view an object’s plotted animation as a motion trail—see Ghosting Animated Objects.
When you plot the animation on an object, the animation is evaluated frame by frame and function curves are created. Plotting is useful for generating function curves from any type of animation, such as from constraints. You can, for example, plot the animation of a constrained object and then remove the constraints so that only the plotted animation remains on the object.
You can choose the type of function curve you want to create when you plot the animation: standard (with different types of interpolation), raw, Boolean, or integer.
In addition to plotting general animation, you can also plot shape animation (see Plotting (Baking) Shape Animation [ Shape Animation ]) or plot a curve from an object’s animated transformation values (see Creating a Curve by Plotting an Object’s Transformation).
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You can use ghosting to view an object’s plotted animation as a motion trail—see Ghosting Animated Objects. |
Keeping or Deleting the Resulting Action Source
Plotting is done by first creating an action source (see About Action Sources and Clips [ Nonlinear Animation ] for information). Depending on the settings you select in the Plot dialog box, you can choose to keep or delete this action source after the animation is plotted:
• You can apply the plot function curves immediately to the object and delete the action source.
or
• You can apply the plot function curves to the object and also keep them stored in an action source. This may be useful if you’re using the animation mixer.
or
• You can keep the action source of the plotted function curves but not have it applied to the object immediately. You must then select the source and apply it to the object using the Actions > Apply > Action command (see Restoring (Applying) the Animation in Action Sources Back to an Object [ Nonlinear Animation ]).
You can then load the action source into the animation mixer to make a clip of it, as you would for any other action source.
If you’re using action sources in the animation mixer, you can use plotting to “bake” animation from any combination of sources (including other action clips) into a single action source. For example, you can combine the animation of a walk cycle and an arm waving into a single action clip by plotting instead of creating a compound clip.
While the process of plotting is fairly straightforward, here are a few tips to make sure that you’re plotting what you want.
Plotting Animation for Children Objects
If you branch-select an object, animation will not be plotted for its children. This is unlike storing actions, which automatically expands the branch selection; rather, it is similar to saving keys that work only on the root of the selection.
To plot the animation of an object’s children as well, branch-select the object and then choose Select > Select Child Nodes.
Marking Parameters
If you are not plotting local transformations of any type or constrained parameters, make sure to mark the parameters whose animation or values are to be plotted and then choose the Plot > Marked Parameters command.
For example, if you want to plot an object’s global transformation parameters, you must mark them first and then choose this command. You can also create a marking set for the object with the appropriate parameters in them and then plot with this command.
For more information, see Marking Parameters for Animation.
Plotting Blended FK/IK Animation on a Chain
If you want to plot the blended FK/IK animation on a chain, you need to mark the correct parameters to get the correct results.
• To plot FK, mark the bones’ local rotation parameters.
• To plot IK, mark the effector’s local position parameters.
Then choose the Plot > Marked Parameters command.
You can plot any type of animation on an object or model, including objects that are in different models.
To plot animation
1. Select one or more objects or a model whose animation you want to plot.
To plot the animation of an object’s children as well, branch-select the object and then choose Select > Select Child Nodes.
2. Mark the selected object’s parameters, if necessary.
3. From the Tools > Plot menu of the Animate toolbar, choose the appropriate command for the type of animation you want to plot:
- All Transformations plots only the local transformation (scaling, rotation, and translation) parameters. All local transformation parameters are plotted, whether they are animated or not.
- Shearing and SRT plots the local transformation parameters (scaling, rotation, and translation) plus the Scaling Orientation (Shear) parameter. This is useful to plot when there is shearing information on objects imported from other 3D software.
- Rotations plots only the local rotation (orientation) parameters.
- Positions plots only the local position (translation) parameters.
- Marked Parameters plots only the parameters that you have marked.
- Keyable Parameters plots only the parameters which have been set as keyable in the keying panel.
- Constrained Transforms plots only transformation parameters that are affected by constraints (for example, if a direction constraint is applied to an object, only its rotation parameters would be plotted). Only active constraints are plotted.
When the plotting is finished, a message box opens displaying the list of constraints that were plotted. You can then choose to remove these constraints from the object so that you are left with only the plotted animation.
4. In the Plot dialog box, specify the following information:
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The settings you make in this dialog box are kept so that the next time you plot (within the same session of Softimage), the same options are selected. This makes it easy to do several similar plots in a row. These settings are kept in a custom parameter set named PlotToAction that is found under the scene root. |
To give a name to the action source
• Specify the Action Name for the new action source that will be created. This only applies if you are going to keep the resulting action source (deselect the Delete plotted action option).
To set the time span and frame step
• Set the Start Frame and End Frame for the range of frames to be plotted.
• Set the Step Value to specify the frame step increment. If this value is 1, every frame is evaluated and a key is set at every frame; if this value is 2, every other frame is evaluated and a key is set at every other frame.
To keep and apply or delete the plotted action
• Select Apply plotted animation to object to apply the plotted action on the selected objects right away. The action source is also kept.
If you deselect this option, the action source is created (with the name you specified) in the model’s Mixer > Sources > Animation folder and the Sources > Model folder at the scene level. You must then select the source and apply it to the object by choosing the Actions > Apply > Action command on the Animate toolbar.
• Select Delete plotted action to do just that: the plotted action is applied, but the action source is not kept.
If you deselect this option, an action source is created with the Action Name that you specified, but you must apply it to the object as previously described.
To paste keys on the original fcurve rather than replace it
• Select Apply using paste keys rather than replace curve to paste the keys from the plotted animation on the object’s original fcurves rather than replacing the entire fcurve with the plotted one.
The pasted keys don’t need to be of the same type as the fcurve to which they are added. For example, you can paste Raw Data keys to a Standard fcurve.
If you deselect this option, the object’s original fcurve is replaced by the plotted fcurve.
5. Click OK to create the plotted function curves for the animation.
6. If you chose Plot > Constrained Transforms, a message box opens displaying the list of constraints that were plotted. You can then choose to remove these constraints from the object so that you are left with only the plotted animation.
Options for the Resulting Plotted Function Curves
You can choose the type of function curve that is created when you plot the animation: standard (with different types of interpolation), raw, Boolean, or integer. There are also continuous rotation and fitting options.
To select the type of resulting function curve
• Select one of these options for Kind of Fcurve:
- Standard maps time and values—the same type of fcurve as is used in the animation editor.
With the Standard fcurve, you can select one of these Interpolation types: Spline, Linear, or Constant. These are the same as fcurve interpolations in the animation editor (see Choosing a Function Curve Interpolation Type). If you plan to do curve fitting, it’s best to create standard spline curves.
- Boolean fcurves map time to Boolean values (true or false). These create staircase-like function curves, useful for plotting animated toggles (on/off values).
- Integer fcurves map time to integer values. These also create staircase-like fcurves, useful for plotting the values of integer parameters, such as RGB values.
- Raw Data maps time and values, like standard fcurves but using only linear interpolation. They require less memory, which means a smaller file size; useful when long animation sequences are plotted, such as from motion capture sessions. Raw data is useful when plotting every frame without fitting, as with motion capture data.
To process continuous rotations
• Select Process rotations to ensure continuity to treat orientation as a single entity instead of individual X, Y, and Z rotation function curves. This allows the plot processing to avoid “spikes” in the continuity of the rotation curves, when they may jump between equivalent (but discontinuous) representations.
You may want to select this option when plotting rotations if you plan to stretch, mix, or manipulate them as actions in the mixer.
To fit the keys on the fcurve
Curve fitting is processed after the continuous rotation is processed.
1. Select Fit Plotted Values with an Fcurve to reduce the number of keys on the fcurves resulting from the plot.
2. Set the Fit Tolerance value to adjust the closeness of the fit of the curve. Smaller values respect the original shape of the curve more by using more keys, resulting in a fit that is closer to the original curve.
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5