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Overview ¶
In the animation workflow, users can add characters and animation to a scene, transfer animation to characters through motion retargeting, and play back scene animation. The animation scene, along with the characters and other scene elements, are organized in a packed character format.
An example file that demonstrates the animation workflow is available here.
Basic animation scene setup ¶
The following is the basic workflow for adding a character to a scene, performing animation, and playing back the animation.
For a basic setup using the Electra Test Geometry, see the How-to.
SOP |
Description |
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Adds characters to a scene. Characters are stored in the packed character format. Specify a name for the character:
The input to the APEX Scene Add Character SOP is a set of character elements (skeleton, shape, rig) that have yet to be packed into a character (.char). We can view the contents of the node in the rig tree view:
The APEX Scene Add Character SOP packs the character elements into a character:
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The animate state on the APEX Scene Animate SOP allows you to display, pose, and animate the characters in a scene. To enter the animate state, select the APEX Scene Animate SOP, turn on its display flag, and click Animate on the left toolbar. Note The animation in the scene can be played back on this SOP only while in the animate state. Once you exit the animate state, the animation cannot be played back. To play the animation outside of the animate state, use the APEX Scene Invoke SOP. |
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The APEX Scene Invoke SOP allows you to play back the animation in the scene.
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To... | Do this |
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Add multiple characters to a scene |
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Import existing animation onto a character ¶
If you already have existing animation, you can use the APEX Scene Add Animation SOP to import the animation onto a character.
SOP |
Description |
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In the Rig Path parameter, specify the rig to put the animation on. To find the rig to use:
The animation is added to the scene in the form of channel primitives. Channel primitives are animation curves that are stored along with the geometry and are optimized for use in the animate state. |
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In the animate state, you can see the animation that is added to the character. The animation data is available in the animation editor graph view as curves that you can edit. To perform additional animation on top of the imported animation, you can pose the character in the animate state, or manipulate the channel data directly in the animation editor. To work in the animation editor:
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Add animation to a character ¶
You can add animation to a character by extracting the character’s skeleton control hierarchy, and using the Rig Pose SOP to pose the character and add keyframes.
In this example, the animation is not added back into the scene.
SOP |
Description |
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Extracts the control hierarchy of the skeleton.
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Pose the character and set keyframes. To see the character while posing with the Rig Pose SOP, set up the APEX Scene Invoke SOP as below, and turn on its display flag. |
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Updates the skeleton controls with the animation performed on the Rig Pose SOP. The APEX Control Update Parms SOP is used together with the APEX Control Extract SOP to update the controls on the skeleton. |
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Play back the animation on the character.
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Add additional animation on top of the Rig Pose animation ¶
To add additional animation on top of the Rig Pose animation, we first save the Rig Pose animation as channel primitives, and add these channel primitives into the scene. We can then perform additional animation using the APEX Scene Animate SOP.
SOP |
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Creates a MotionClip from the skeleton animation. |
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Creates channel primitives from the MotionClip, and adds a keyframe on every MotionClip pose. |
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Adds the animation from the channel primitives onto the character. |
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In the animate state, you can see the Rig Pose animation on the character. The animation data (from the channel primitives) is available in the animation editor graph view as curves that you can edit. If too many keyframes are added by the APEX Channel Primitives from MotionClip SOP, use the Reduce Resample tool on the animation toolbar to reduce the number of keyframes:
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Retarget animation onto a character ¶
The APEX Control Extract SOP extracts the skeleton control hierarchy of a character and outputs a KineFX skeleton. We can then use any of the KineFX SOPs to modify the transforms of the skeleton, and put the updated transforms back onto the skeleton using the APEX Control Update Parms SOP.
We can use this workflow to retarget animation onto a character in a scene.
How-to ¶
To... | Do this |
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Animate on an Electra Test Geometry |
The Electra test geometry can be configured to be output as part of an animation scene. This allows you to animate on Electra with minimal setup steps:
To play back your animation:
To add multiple Electra characters to the scene, use an APEX Scene Add Character SOP for each Electra:
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Test the state of the scene |
Use the APEX Scene Invoke SOP to test out the state of the scene.
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Add keyframes only on the key poses when creating channels from a MotionClip |
Add a MotionClip Extract Key Poses SOP after the MotionClip SOP in this setup. |
Save a scene to a file |
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Use a scene file |
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