I am currently working on a caterpillar (or insect like a caterpillar) and it has a few segments. Currently I am working on the walk animation and it consists of each alternating segment sort of “wiggling” as its feet alternate up and down. My issue is that I create the first key frame in a standing position then with the second i begin the “wiggle” animation and when i finish that frame, i check the first. All of the segments in the first key frame are the same as the segments in the second frame except the front segment, which remained in the standing position.
So in conclusion, all segments in additional frames are synced together besides the first segment. Any ideas on how to fix this issue?
This is too complex to figure out from your verbal description alone. Either post some very clear screenshots of what you have and an explanation of what you expect, or better yet, can you post the .blend file?
Since you are new to the forum – Welcome! – you may not be able to post images or files until you have a greater post count for threads/replies. You can post inline images with a url on another server, I believe, and pasteall.org is a good place to upload scene files.
Here are the images, 1 of frame 1 before editing anything, frame 2 is the same in this picture as frame 1, 1 of frame 2 after editing, and then one of frame 1 after editing frame 2
Hard to say for sure without seeing the file and seeing where keyframes have been set, but it looks as if you did not key all the bone positions at frame 1. Without keys to record those initial transforms, edits you made at frame six and keyframed will remain in effect at frame one, since there is no other data telling the bones to return to the original frame 1 transforms. That’s what the keyframes do.
In fact, you need not even have set keyframes for the edits at frames 6 – in the absence of keyframes for every bone that moves, the bones just stay wherever you set them regardless of frame number.
Without knowing the procedure you used to set keyframes, I can’t say where you went wrong, but it may be that you expected setting a keyframe for one selected bone would set keys for all the bones. Setting a key (e.g., using the I-KEY in Pose Mode) sets a key for only selected bones.
If you post a screenshot of the Action Editor and/or the Graph Editor with all the bones selecetd, it should show where keyframes have actually been made.
I think i see where you are going with this, as far as recording each keyframe, i started with 1, set it in the standing state, use copy/paste the keyframe in frame 6 and began rotating the bones in the pose mode… To record each frame i had it on auto-record so any edits made on a keyframe would automatically record to that frame, as far as having it centered that is a definate possibility, I will redo the bones and see if it works, thanks
and 1 other thing, do you happen to know how to duplicate an object into another scene?
No offense but this description doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. How did you “set it in the standing state”? Do you mean you set keyframes for that pose? What method?
I can’t grasp why you would use copy/paste to set keyfraame data at frame 6. There would be no need to dupe the frame 1 data to frame 6 if your intent is just to edit all the bones anyway, thus overwriting the duped data. With Auto-keying, just transforming a bone would set a key for that bone, but not all bones at once.
Not sure what having anything “centered” has to do with anything, either, it wasn’t something I mentioned.
In the 3D Window, Object Mode, menu item Object>Make Links…>Objects to Scene… then choose the Scene. Once linked, you can go to that Scene and either continue to use the linked object or make it a local copy with items in the same Object menu.
If you mean duping to a different .blend file, then while in that file, use the File>Append item from the Info Window menu bar. In the File Select dialog, choose the .blend file that has the object you want to dupe into your new file. You can Append many different kinds of datablocks this way – Objects, Materials, Actions, Meshes, etc.
In Pose Mode, Select All (A-KEY) and use I-KEY, then choose the transform to set a key for. Auto-keying is intended to set a key only when a bone is transformed in some way, so manual setting using the I-KEY is bypassed. But the bone has to be transformed in some way to trigger the auto-keying.
BTW, it is not really a good idea to key every bone at every key frame, that can lead to poor animation flow and stiff, staccato moves. Keyframes should be set only where needed to record the progress of a bone’s transforms over time, based on the key poses of the action (keyframes, key poses, get it ). Dropping new keys between key poses (tweening) is a good way to polish and finesse a motion, as is shuffling the timing of certain keys in the key poses, but this should be done only when the motion needs it, not arbitrarily by repeatedly keying every bone in the rig.
and as far as the keying every bone on every key frame, yes i know that, I animated in flash for years, however, I wanted this animation to be sort of quick, rigid, and forced, in the segments at least, to sort of simulate how insects like this usually walk, i know id probably have to tone it down a bit from the example i posted but that’s exactly that, an example, i did it quick and not caring much about how it came out
). Dropping new keys between key poses (tweening) is a good way to polish and finesse a motion, as is shuffling the timing of certain keys in the key poses, but this should be done only when the motion needs it, not arbitrarily by repeatedly keying every bone in the rig.