How to keyframes in Xsi for character animation?

[elfenomeno]

Hello there a plenty way to keyframe in XSI,so i am in lost,and i want to know what is your animation method withing XSI,do you key some node,or do you use key set and set everything each time you press k?
just try to explain your animation method within XSI.
tks

[jamination]

I use the method I was taught at Animation Mentor, that is use character sets. Put every parameter you want to animate in a "character key set". Set keying type to "key character set". Set the timeline to show "current character set". Then start blocking! Only drawback is the time line has a bug and you can't drag keys around when in the "show current character set" mode so you have to use dope sheet. Not sure if this is fixed in 6.5. I am assuming you are using at least 6.0, if not you would have to use a similar method with marking sets.

[franky]

for the blocking phase you should definately set keyframes for all animatable (keyable) parameters of the whole character. otherwise you cant make sure that a pose stays the same when you go on setting keys later.
like you set keys only at the legs (because in this pose you only moved them) and the pose looks fine. 10 frames later you start moving/keying the arms and this way you destroyed the arm pose 10 frames earlier.

if you want to stay away from character key sets for now (till bugs are fixed) you can as well make you a little button that keys your whole character. first put all controls into a group. then select the group, press k (with set to key all keyable).
now check the script editor and copy&paste the last two lines onto a free space in a tool bar and voila, you got a button that keys your whole character.

after this basic blocking is done i usually refine the poses with just autokey on. but i still key all keyable.

after thats dont i might go down and just key what i really moved. the basic frame for the acting is set by then and not much damage can come from keying single parameters any more.

[elfenomeno]

what is the difference between keys set and key all keyable?
tks

[franky]

do you mean character key sets?

in a character key set you can add multiple objects and define what parameters should be keyed on them. then with one click you key all of them

key all keyable however only works with the currently selected objects. it will key all parameters that appear in the keying panel and are set to be able to receive keys of all the current selected objects.

[elfenomeno]

ok thanks,
but while animation should i put keyframe on all bone with key set or just on the bone am working with?

[franky]

that depends on the current stat of your animation and you preferences of animating.

i do

blocking - key all the character
till the last polishing - key all keyable
last touches - key marked keyable

:)

[tuna]

I think I'm the only person in the world who uses autokey these days :) But during the blocking and breakdowns I key character set or make a button that keys the entire character. Later when the curves have been converted to linear and eventually to spline, I simply let autokey do the work. If I'm moving a control, I'm moving it for a reason and I will pretty much always want to set a key on it anyway, so I save myself a lot of extra keystrokes by leaving it on :)

[franky]

ahm... but of course. autokey is the life saver and the reason we can have weekends and sometimes holidays :)

i was referring to principles. autokey can act as "K" with all its possible settings of generating keyframes.

[elfenomeno]

all your guys seems to work like it is advocated in this keith lango tuto http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/popThru/popThru.html
do you use the the animation-mixer for motion like character that walk and waving hands or do you animation all thos movement within the scene?
do you use layer?
do you use the layering method of old days?
how do you keep track of your keyframes?
a lot of question,but i need to know since i don't go at school.

[franky]

i think at this point you should head over to the WIP forums and post your wip character animations and improve upon that. you can only read that much about a topic. in the end it boils down to your preferences and how your work flow will develop.
mixer and layer have their own strength and weaknesses, i don't think there are perfect answers for your questions. everybody does it a little different...

[tuna]

all your guys seems to work like it is advocated in this keith lango tuto http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/popThru/popThru.html
do you use the the animation-mixer for motion like character that walk and waving hands or do you animation all thos movement within the scene?


That's a fantastic tutorial for pose to pose animating, and it's a great place to start. I've never used the mixer for character animation, it's more for procedural animation or motioncapture data, stuff like that, I guess.


do you use layer?


If you mean the animation layers in XSI, I thought I would, but I still haven't since it was introduced. It seems like something which could be useful but I just haven't had a reason to use it yet!



how do you keep track of your keyframes?


You have to work in a structured way. Keith's tutorial explains how to stay structured very well. I could write about it, but Keith has already explained it better than I could. Everyone works slightly different however, and it takes a lot of experimenting to find what method is best for you. For instance I don't like offsetting keys to create overlap and follow through etc. I prefer to build those principles directly into the poses. I also like to stay in constant keys until there's a fair few of them, and then convert to linear and work in linear using only the dopesheet and little to no graph editor if I can help it (I prefer adding keys instead of tweaking bezier handles). But like I said, you just have to jump in and animate to find out what works for you.

If you find yourself lost, you're probably a bit in over your head. Step out and start again with something SIMPLE :) . Animators of all experiences always need to occasionally collect themselves and explore simple animation tests every once in a while, it's also a lot of fun and very rewarding. Things like bouncing balls, flour sacks and drink cartons are as simple as it gets, so if you're starting anywhere, start there.

[elfenomeno]

awesome thanks,i think the working method is very hard to find but also very important,those days i found that a lot of new animators animate mostly in the same fashion,maybe because of AM that becoming a leading in Animation education.
Thumbnail,blocking,polishing....

[mde]

I do use mixer when I have a lot of cycles etc... But, often, I plot animation (apply action) afterwards and tweak.

Other than that, I use script button method, I find character sets bit immature atm, my main concern is speed in animation editor, when you have a lot of controls in character set, they become rather slow, and other thing, you can't drag them around on the timeline in show character set mode.

[elfenomeno]

does all animator make the blocking stage?

[franky]

i didn't saw any who didn't at least block in the rudimentary poses and timing....