I've created my walk cycle on the spot, now how do I animated the translation?

A

AlwaysThinking

New member
Note: I'm using Motionbuilder 2014


Question 1:
What is the correct way to animate the translation of my character in the scene after I've applied my walk cycle to it?


I've got my smooth looping walk cycle on the spot/without translation and I've been trying to use constraints to animate the path that my character follows.


I've drawn a 3D curve on the ground plane and then tried to constraint the characters translation to the 3D curve.
The character will follow the 3D curve but will not face the direction of translation.


I thought that I could use story mode to loop the walk cycle as I can easily just turn on loop button and drag the end of the clip to the frame that the character translation finishes at or when the next animation comes in. This way, I can control the translation of the character separate from the motion animation.


I feel that this isn't the correct procedure and I've decided to post this seemingly simple question as I cannot find anything on Google; I keep getting results about how to make a walk cycle and not how to animate translation of a walk cycle.
 
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I think your suspicions are correct.

From past experience: If your not finding answers to your question online then your probably asking the wrong question.
What does that mean? Your probably not approaching the problem correctly.

How are other people approaching it?

I don't believe it's a simple matter of translation. It's a bit deeper than that.

//Yikes. Didn't want to get into it. A basic looping walk cycle is more ideal for video games. We've all notice it. Where the actual foot printing doesn't matter.
 
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Wow. I like that. As I said to someone once before, I think at this point you have to start listening to yourself. What do you think is right or wrong.
I know we all need technical tips. Everyone does.

I suspect sometimes people use camera tricks. One being to only show the body from the knees up to avoid showing the feet sliding. As a quick fix.
There are so many areas of animation, what area are you most concerned about at the moment?

Looks good. Keep us updated.
 
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