I’m trying to get a character to walk into the scene, stop, turn around, turn back and carry on walking. It’s a cut-out character with a 2 leg walk cycle. It’s attached to a motion peg crossing West to East. At a certain point I stopped the cycle and animated the character to turn and turn back. Now I want to resume the walk cycle. I have tried copying the frames on the collapsed motion peg (say from 4 to 16) and pasting on the frame after the turn (say 42). The character is simply moved back to the start position of the motion peg - West entrance. Is there a tutorial on interrupted motion cycles? Any help would be appreciated.
To stop one motion path and pick up a second motion path is similar to switching from one camera shot to another. You have a beginning motion keyframe (b1) and ending motion keyframe (e1) for the first part of the motion, then you have a beginning (b2) motion keyframe and ending motion keyframe (e2) for the second part of the motion. The b2 keyframe is 1 or more frames beyond the e1 keyframe on your peg’s timeline. The segment between e1 and b2 must be set to be a CONSTANT segment. Thus one path stops and the other path starts. Between b1 and e1 is a NON CONSTANT segment between e1 and b2 is a CONSTANT segment and then between b2 and e2 is a NON CONSTANT segment. -JK
Thanks for your reply. Not sure how to work it. Say the walk cycle I have already created and drafted from the Global library is 3 loops - but I want to stop it half way through the second loop. The actual walk cycle is 14 frames, so I cut the character from frame 21 onward. Where do I add a motion key frame to the motion peg element? When I contract the motion peg timeline to f21 and add a key frame, the character jumps back to the beginning of the second loop (walking on the spot for 7 frames).
A single cycle of X loops is not a universal solution to all animating situations. Perhaps you are trying to do too much with too little. If you want to produce a complex animation you may actually have to do some animating other than just trying to force one looping cycle to fit all. If for example the motion path which is part of the walking (the forward component) stops then the character must stop walking in place, the two things are directly related. By definition that means you end the walk cycle and transition into a different sequence. Then after the character turns, you might be able to reverse the direction of your walk cycle and use a second motion path component for that new walk cycle instance. -JK
Sounds like I need to create 2 motion path elements. I’ll have to try this with a simple object as an exercise. Thanks.
You will create two motion paths but they are created on a single peg element. The two paths are just separated by a constant segment. But you also have to stop your character’s walk cycle when you stop the first motion path otherwise the character appears to march in place until the second motion path begins. -JK