Scenes Timeline Animation - Walk Cycle

[PortiaVam]

PortiaVam submitted a new resource:

Timeline Animation - Walk Cycle - Importable and highly customizable walk cycle for timeline

View attachment 344842

This is a standalone, importable, one-second-per-footstep, highly customizable walk cycle that can be used for various scenes! The intention is for this to be a good starting point if you need your character to walk around in a setting. The actual scene itself is just a demo of the walk cycle, but the real resource here is the Timeline animation file. You can import this into your Timeline instance and use it to...

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[atani]

Looks very interesting, will be checking it out.

About the license, wondering why you chose the quite restrictive CC BY-NC-SA?

 

[PortiaVam]

Looks very interesting, will be checking it out.

About the license, wondering why you chose the quite restrictive CC BY-NC-SA?

One of the dependencies in the scene was CC BY-NC-SA, and it's my understanding if you reference one with that license, you also have to choose that for your resource. I could be wrong on that though; just figured I'd err on the side of caution. *shrug*

 

[atani]

I see. I also get confused a bit about the SA part. I think it would only apply if you repackaged the SA hair, which you don't, you're just referencing it as a dependency.

My suggestion to avoid this altogether and to have almost no dependencies, considering that the asset you want to share is the Timeline animation, would be to use a built-in person. Besides the much more relaxed license you could give it, which in turn makes it a lot more appealing to be used elsewhere, the reduced dependencies is also of interest to those interested in using the walk cycle. A CC BY or even FC walk cycle would be excellent to have.

 

[PortiaVam]

I see. I also get confused a bit about the SA part. I think it would only apply if you repackaged the SA hair, which you don't, you're just referencing it as a dependency.

My suggestion to avoid this altogether and to have almost no dependencies, considering that the asset you want to share is the Timeline animation, would be to use a built-in person. Besides the much more relaxed license you could give it, which in turn makes it a lot more appealing to be used elsewhere, the reduced dependencies is also of interest to those interested in using the walk cycle. A CC BY or even FC walk cycle would be excellent to have.

Right, that definitely makes a lot of sense. I don't know why I didn't think of that, honestly. I'm still pretty inexperienced when it comes to uploading resources here. I'll work on updating it so it's more friendly to people who would actually want to use it. Thanks so much for the info!

 

[PortiaVam]

PortiaVam updated Timeline Animation - Walk Cycle with a new update entry:

Demo Scene cleanup

Changed the demo scene to use the default female look, since using Portia for that was bringing along lots of unnecessary dependencies. This also allows the license to be far less restrictive. Thanks so much to @atani for the info/suggestion!

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[atani]

I didn't see the animation yet, just your description and images.
I'm thinking that you may want to try having the Control target on a different layer than the body parts. This way you could keep the 2 second loop on the body parts, and the Control layer could be as long as needed. Considering you usually only want to change Control keyframes, not the body, having it separate would make it easier to make changes and experiment.
Thinking about, Head on a different layer could also benefit from a dedicated layer, and you probably don't need the eyetarget target in there.

 

[bancmnod]

PortiaVam submitted a new resource:

Timeline Animation - Walk Cycle - Importable and highly customizable walk cycle for timeline



Read more about this resource...

I can't find an of the screenshots you're showing on how to set this up. You're first screenshot on how to set it up isn't anywhere in my version and I have the newest one. Any help would be appreciated. I'm talking about where you are showing import/export. Where exactly is that?

 

[PortiaVam]

I can't find an of the screenshots you're showing on how to set this up. You're first screenshot on how to set it up isn't anywhere in my version and I have the newest one. Any help would be appreciated. I'm talking about where you are showing import/export. Where exactly is that?

Not 100% sure what you mean, but I think you maybe just need to download Timeline? It's the plugin being used here to create the animations. You'll have to download that and add it to your person atom.

 

[PortiaVam]

I didn't see the animation yet, just your description and images.
I'm thinking that you may want to try having the Control target on a different layer than the body parts. This way you could keep the 2 second loop on the body parts, and the Control layer could be as long as needed. Considering you usually only want to change Control keyframes, not the body, having it separate would make it easier to make changes and experiment.
Thinking about, Head on a different layer could also benefit from a dedicated layer, and you probably don't need the eyetarget target in there.

That's definitely fair. I did mess around with having the control target on a different layer for a while, but honestly I've always found layers to be more trouble than they're worth, for what I do with animations anyway. I mostly just like the ability to do something different with the arms, head, and eyes for a stretch of a few seconds if I want to. For me at least, that's easier to do all in one animation rather than with them all separated into layers. It's entirely possible I just don't know what I'm doing with timeline though. xD

 

[atani]

That's definitely fair. I did mess around with having the control target on a different layer for a while, but honestly I've always found layers to be more trouble than they're worth, for what I do with animations anyway. I mostly just like the ability to do something different with the arms, head, and eyes for a stretch of a few seconds if I want to. For me at least, that's easier to do all in one animation rather than with them all separated into layers. It's entirely possible I just don't know what I'm doing with timeline though. xD

Fair enough, there's advantages and disadvantages in both options. The license is now very flexible and people can mess around to their liking, all good

 

[atani]

I can't find an of the screenshots you're showing on how to set this up. You're first screenshot on how to set it up isn't anywhere in my version and I have the newest one. Any help would be appreciated. I'm talking about where you are showing import/export. Where exactly is that?

Click "More" on the top toolbar to see the buttons shown:

More screen

Advanced and intuitive keyframe animations for Virt-A-Mate - acidbubbles/vam-timeline

github.com

 

[Stephan]

Would it be possible to make a little video of how they use it? When I import it, it always catapults me to a different place. I would also be very interested in how you do the running route with the path

 

[atani]

There's a Control target that handles the position of the person. The first and last keyframes are the begin and end points; on the first keyframe place the person at the beginning point you want and do the same for the ending point. You can add keyframes in between if you want to customise the route.

 

[Stephan]

There's a Control target that handles the position of the person. The first and last keyframes are the begin and end points; on the first keyframe place the person at the beginning point you want and do the same for the ending point. You can add keyframes in between if you want to customise the route.

Unfortunately I don't know how to do that, I come from Germany and know the timeline, but I don't know how to do it with the keyframes

 

[atani]

See the Timeline tutorials in the Guides section

 

[bancmnod]

Not 100% sure what you mean, but I think you maybe just need to download Timeline? It's the plugin being used here to create the animations. You'll have to download that and add it to your person atom.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

[Stephan]

See the Timeline tutorials in the Guides section

Ok Thank you

 

[darkesthours443]

In your final to last picture guide you state "Her feet are 0.8 units apart, so that's the rate at which the control target needs to move"
Utterly and completely confuses me, and I was hoping someone could translate this into something I could understand.

- Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't we need a distance measurement device, or some kind of ruler within VaM, to "calculate" the exact distance the control target should be in between every "step"?

I currently fail to comprehend how I should determine what the distance (in terms of relative posistion to the previous one) should be in between the main atom control node points in timeline other then an endless stream of trial and errors, rather then actually being able to "calculate" the exact distance in one go.


- When you say 0.8 units, are you implying, For example if the control node is located at Coords X 2.0, the next "step" would occur at Coords X 2.8 ?
Or is your definition of "units" something completely else that has nothing to do with the control coordinates?

I guess what I am asking is "how much world distance" is one loop of 2 seconds supposed to be able to encompass?
So basing the Control node at X 0 Y 0 Z 0, what should it say after exactly 2 seconds of a loop in accordance to how the animation was intended?

 

[PortiaVam]

In your final to last picture guide you state "Her feet are 0.8 units apart, so that's the rate at which the control target needs to move"
Utterly and completely confuses me, and I was hoping someone could translate this into something I could understand.

- Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't we need a distance measurement device, or some kind of ruler within VaM, to "calculate" the exact distance the control target should be in between every "step"?

I currently fail to comprehend how I should determine what the distance (in terms of relative posistion to the previous one) should be in between the main atom control node points in timeline other then an endless stream of trial and errors, rather then actually being able to "calculate" the exact distance in one go.


- When you say 0.8 units, are you implying, For example if the control node is located at Coords X 2.0, the next "step" would occur at Coords X 2.8 ?
Or is your definition of "units" something completely else that has nothing to do with the control coordinates?

I guess what I am asking is "how much world distance" is one loop of 2 seconds supposed to be able to encompass?
So basing the Control node at X 0 Y 0 Z 0, what should it say after exactly 2 seconds of a loop in accordance to how the animation was intended?

Yeah, everything is based on the position units in-game, so your assumption is correct. If you are moving in the X direction, for example, and start at X=0.0, then her taking a single step would translate to X=0.8. Also, when I say 'control atom' I'm referring to the actual Person atom and its position.

To more directly answer your final question. If you start at (0,0,0) and are moving in the X direction, then after one full cycle (two steps) your new position would be (1.6, 0, 0).

Of course, if you have your person walking in a diagonal direction, then you should use the relative position controls to change their position between Timeline keyframes, as trying to calculate the correct change in the X and Z direction would be rather messy.

Hope this helps!

 

[darkesthours443]

Yeah, everything is based on the position units in-game, so your assumption is correct. If you are moving in the X direction, for example, and start at X=0.0, then her taking a single step would translate to X=0.8. Also, when I say 'control atom' I'm referring to the actual Person atom and its position.

To more directly answer your final question. If you start at (0,0,0) and are moving in the X direction, then after one full cycle (two steps) your new position would be (1.6, 0, 0).

Of course, if you have your person walking in a diagonal direction, then you should use the relative position controls to change their position between Timeline keyframes, as trying to calculate the correct change in the X and Z direction would be rather messy.

Hope this helps!

This answers everything concerning the units vs time! Thank you so much!

But it indeed leaves me with a problem, as you pointed out when you start to walk even in a slight diagonal, the X and Z calculation becomes very complicated. You mention "Relative position controls", could you perhaps elaborate what you mean with this?

I am still somewhat confused what your exact method is in how to make this "calculation" a non issue through timeline.

- In your example image, the first ~10 seconds of the "Z" control, appears to have only 1 node?
Same for the X axis, however it does not change position.
Am I to deduce that the Z location is 0.8 x 5 units, from it's original location?
I am then still left confused, how I would determine this exact new position if the path required was diagonal in any shape or form and effectively would have touched upon the X axis, during a "straight walk" without throwing some mad maths at it haha.


I mention this, because the reality is that in allot of existing scenes that i'd like to add in some of these walking cycles, the path required is rarely, if ever, a non diagonal one.

 

[PortiaVam]

Am I to deduce that the Z location is 0.8 x 5 units, from it's original location?
I am then still left confused, how I would determine this exact new position if the path required was diagonal in any shape or form and would also have touched upon the X axis, during a "straight walk" without throwing some mad maths at it haha.


I mention this, because the reality is that in allot of existing scenes that i'd like to add in some of these walking cycles, the path required is rarely, if ever, a non diagonal one.

So in the first ten seconds of that animation, she's moving 8 units in the Z axis, since each second is 0.8 units.

And there's actually no need to do any math if you need her to walk diagonally. In the 'Move' tab, there is a section labeled 'Self Relative' (see screenshot). The Self Relative section is the one you want to use. What that section does is allow you to move the atom in each of the axes relative to itself. So then clicking the +1 on the Self Z Relative Position control will move the atom forward by 1 unit, in the direction it is facing. This is really convenient if you want your person to walk in a diagonal direction. So no matter how much you rotate them, all you have to do is use the self relative Z and move them however far you need.

The real complication comes from having them change directions mid walk cycle. There's no easy way to get it to look perfect, as rotating the person atom means you're moving the foot atom, so if you want her foot to stay rooted as she rotates, you have to move the person atom in such a way that it doesn't make the foot slide around. The only way I've really come up with to combat this is to make a note of the absolute X and Z positions of the planted foot before rotating, then move the person atom after rotating it so the X and Z positions are the same. It's not perfectly clean, but I haven't been able to come up with a better way of changing direction in a convincing and lifelike way. Of course, if you don't mind it looking slightly janky while they're changing directions, you could just not worry about this at all.