I have read the documentation but dont quite get that part of it, I have an animation walk that starts from a standing idle position into the three step that would be the looping cycle how/where do you define the keys to split the idle pose from the walk loop so that they are treated as separate actions to be converted to NLA strips
please be as explicit as you possibly can
I tried looking at Malefico’s sample file and read the tuts and docs but found nothing specific that makes it clear enough, I keep breaking the animation and just have to start over.
If you have the Action setup so that Idle goes from Fr1 to Fr100 and the 3-Step-Walk goes from Fr101 to Fr200 then that is all one Action. If you want to split it into 2 you’ll have to delete all the Idle Keys, Fr1 to Fr100, and redo them in a seperate Action. Just Box-Select them in the NLA window and delete them, then Box-Select the remaining Keys and move them to Fr1.
so could you the briefly outline the process for making multiple actions in a single file I’m making mistakes in the process and the docs aren’t very explicit in this respect. I would be happy not to have to go all the way down the timeline but just work within frames 1-50 and be confident of the fact that I’m not destroy/overwriting work already done.
for example if make a 30 frame idle action and save the Nla strip how do I then tell blender that I’m starting a new action. please keep in mind that these are for game, will be exported to the md5 format which save mesh and animation data to separate extentions md5mesh/md5anim and most animation will be a max of 30 50 frames each
Let’s say you have an Action AC:Walk. That will show in the Action Editor Menu while you’re working on it. Now you want to make a new action where he waves his arms. Open the Action Editor and choose Add New and name it AC:Wave then Keyframe the waving arms and rotating head and torso or whatever over 50 frames beginning at Fr1.
Then you can make an NLA Strip for each, set them one above the other so they are both active at the same time (Fr1 to Fr50) and the character will walk and wave.
thanks I understand that aspect but would this cause an issue if I were to animate say a run and then make a new action e.g a walk,
in other words could I make one disable/move it and make the other in the same space sort of like using frames 1-50 like a factory to make different actions and then moving them out of the way to do another.
hope I’m making sense if needed I can try to clarify further
Yes, just hit the X in the Action Window Menu so that no action is showing. When you then Pose and I-Key your Armature a new Action will automatically appear in the Menu, seperate from the previous ones.
