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Yesterday i made an attempt to explain copied pairs to a student at AM... (btw. her name is Dita Lang... keep that name in mind... she will make it big... im sure of that!)
And i thought that concept would be nice to post up here as a base for discussions.
So here is what i wrote to her about how i approach copied pairs:
The main concept and advantage of working that way is probably that you can figure out how trasitions and the timing feel much better than in stepped...
Im doing it this way (this is for an acting shot):
im setting a key pose (nicely fleshed out of course) and put a key on all controls... then i go to the place where the movement should end... do the end pose and set a key on all controls...
lets assume that there is a hold following after that movement... i go and set a key on all controls at the end of that hold but at the START of the following movement without changing anything... so that there are two identical keys... combined with plateau curves, the character shouldnt move AT ALL between these two curves... if he does you probably have some overshoots going on somewhere...
then i go to the end of the following movement and do the next key pose... try to feel out how long this one should be held and set another key without changing anything at the START of the next movement... and so on...
After that you can start filling in the breakdowns but thats coming in a second pass...
What i think is really important to get the concept of copied pairs, is that you have two identical poses at the end of the previous movement and at the start of the next move...
(all this of course also applys to physical shots with one advantage: you can time it out in a later pass... wich means... in the first pass you just put in all your golden poses every fifth (or so) frame without looking at the timing... and in the next pass you time it out...)
If you want to go in later and add a copy of a key... you just select everything again... go to the key you want to copy, right click in the timeline and choose copy... then you go to the frame you want to place it, right click on the timeline and choose paste...
Some rigs get messed up when you copy the keys of ALL controls at once... in that case i usually go in, one frame after the key i want to copy, set a key on everything, go to the graph editor and push the curves back to the same value as the actual keyframe i want to copy, and then you can drag it out to where it belongs...
Im not using many tools or scripts for that... except for two things:
-Tween key... (as soon as you start doing breakdowns!) Gives you such a nice start on your inbetweens... (emphasis on start! you still have to go in and flesh them out! Dont be lazy on those inbetweens! You want to know how the character gets from one golden pose to the next!)
- there is a script done by cameron fielding from dreamworks who allows you to easily figure out your timing...
check it out here: http://fliponline.blogspot.com/2007/04/quick-trick-tap-your-timing.html
Its such a simple script but speeds you up a LOT... and you dont have to go into the dope sheet or graph editor and move keys around...
Just hit select all on your GUI Picker and then use the hotkey you gave it... so simple... so fast... try it! :-)
Another note at the end just to think about... mostly for acting shots i block in stepped to be fully focused on the poses but with copied pairs in my back head... so i put in copied keys even if you cant see they are there when you play in stepped... but you will see it as soon as you turn it into spline (or in my case plateau)
Im doing it this way (this is for an acting shot):
im setting a key pose (nicely fleshed out of course) and put a key on all controls... then i go to the place where the movement should end... do the end pose and set a key on all controls...
lets assume that there is a hold following after that movement... i go and set a key on all controls at the end of that hold but at the START of the following movement without changing anything... so that there are two identical keys... combined with plateau curves, the character shouldnt move AT ALL between these two curves... if he does you probably have some overshoots going on somewhere...
then i go to the end of the following movement and do the next key pose... try to feel out how long this one should be held and set another key without changing anything at the START of the next movement... and so on...
After that you can start filling in the breakdowns but thats coming in a second pass...
What i think is really important to get the concept of copied pairs, is that you have two identical poses at the end of the previous movement and at the start of the next move...
(all this of course also applys to physical shots with one advantage: you can time it out in a later pass... wich means... in the first pass you just put in all your golden poses every fifth (or so) frame without looking at the timing... and in the next pass you time it out...)
If you want to go in later and add a copy of a key... you just select everything again... go to the key you want to copy, right click in the timeline and choose copy... then you go to the frame you want to place it, right click on the timeline and choose paste...
Some rigs get messed up when you copy the keys of ALL controls at once... in that case i usually go in, one frame after the key i want to copy, set a key on everything, go to the graph editor and push the curves back to the same value as the actual keyframe i want to copy, and then you can drag it out to where it belongs...
Im not using many tools or scripts for that... except for two things:
-Tween key... (as soon as you start doing breakdowns!) Gives you such a nice start on your inbetweens... (emphasis on start! you still have to go in and flesh them out! Dont be lazy on those inbetweens! You want to know how the character gets from one golden pose to the next!)
- there is a script done by cameron fielding from dreamworks who allows you to easily figure out your timing...
check it out here: http://fliponline.blogspot.com/2007/04/quick-trick-tap-your-timing.html
Its such a simple script but speeds you up a LOT... and you dont have to go into the dope sheet or graph editor and move keys around...
Just hit select all on your GUI Picker and then use the hotkey you gave it... so simple... so fast... try it! :-)
Another note at the end just to think about... mostly for acting shots i block in stepped to be fully focused on the poses but with copied pairs in my back head... so i put in copied keys even if you cant see they are there when you play in stepped... but you will see it as soon as you turn it into spline (or in my case plateau)
Thats my personal approach to this... i would really love to hear some comments, suggestions or other peoples approaches!
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