Mirroring animations from left to right

[sonosublime]

Hi all,

In my current short, I am trying to have the character twirl a sai in each hand all badass-like. Is it possible to have the animation of his left hand mirrored exactly by his right hand?

[Pte Jack]

The only way I know of duplicating animation is to copy and paste the existing animation. You could try copying what the right hand (which ever bone is twirling) is doing and paste that to the mate bone on the opposite side. You might have to do some adjusting...

[Capt Fuzzy]

I asked something similar in another thread, the answer I got was 'no'...
You can animate the spinning of the sais at the same time by selecting both and animating them that way, as for the hands, you'll just have to 'wing it' or try what @Pte Jack said... lol

[Pte Jack]

The way you animate 2 bones spinning at the same time on their own individual axis' is to select both bones, go into the motion editor and select the rotate or scene modulator then right click the center box and change the rotation mode to Local.. (I think this is what Cap'n Fuzzy is talking about and another way to do it.) I do this to spin props on multi engined aircraft.

[sonosublime]

Damn, that really sucks. Copying won't work because then the sais will be spinning the same way and it would look kind of weird.

[Pte Jack]

How's your Blendering coming? Could always export a dmx of the right animation, Pull that into blender, Duplicate the animation and reverse it, export the animation and load it on to the left???

[sonosublime]

Haven't used Blender in a while. I'll probably just find it easier to do it by hand. Thanks though.

[Kumquat [Velbud]]

If it was possible to set values for rotations in sfm, you could try and add negatives for angle of rotation.

[Capt Fuzzy]

Originally posted by sonosublime:

Copying won't work because then the sais will be spinning the same way and it would look kind of weird.

Not really, I just watched this video on how to hold and spin a sai, check it out, he goes slow to show ya what to do, then speeds it up to show what it looks like...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r1_lNsvHsQ

[Pte Jack]

Originally posted by Velikhi Maikeru RESTING:

If it was possible to set values for rotations in sfm, you could try and add negatives for angle of rotation.

The only way I know of manually setting rotation values in SFM is through the graph editor.

[Kumquat [Velbud]]

You are familiar with data used for the procedural animated bones right? Maybe we can manipulate that data?