PeCap W9 '24: Organising the Data

This week we took a look at organising our maya scene file so everything was ready for additional animation.

My frame range for the cortex data needed to be updated/edited as the data started from her T pose. The scene I was given starts at the beginning of her performance. This means the correct frame range for frames 0001:0265 was 399-663 in the data.

Because of this, we had to edit the data and remove all keys before and after the intended frame range as they became unnecessary.

I selected the body controls and marked in/out from frames 399-663, then deleted all the keys apart from the range and the neutral pose at -10.

I could then move all the keys on frame -10 closer to the data at frame 398.

With the frames altogether, I used a neat trick where you can type in '-=value of difference' into the stats slot of the graph editor to send the whole frame range back to the first frame of the timeline.

Then when the controls were organised, I did the exact same thing with the joints on the rig.

Finally, Dr Kennedy went briefly over the feet. It is important that the feet remain flat when they are planted on the floor as this gives the illusion of realistic weighted steps. We create an animation layer for the feet like we did with the knees.

Then we added a floor plane so that it is easier to see from the orthographic side view where the feet penetrate the floor. The floor plane is created with a cube instead of a plane so that its visible in the side view.