Animation questions

[sonosublime]

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions about animating that I would appreciate some help with:

1. Is there a way to take the animation of a character and reverse it? So, for example, I would like to animate a character walking backwards.

2. Is there a way to take an animation of something turning at a constant speed (eg. a wheel or propellor), and have it gradually speed up or slow down?

[TheFrozenMonkeyKing]

I don't know about #1, but I think you could do #2 with the graph editor. We can discouss it over private chat if you want to.

I think all you have to do is to make 2 keys. At the second key you set the rotate value much higher/lower depending on which way you want it to rotate. Then just do the same with a longer gap between the keys and repeat to slow it down.

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

1) Nope
2) I usually use motion editor. Create the ramp on the left side of the green layer, set the falloff like 1,2 ,3 or 4 button (linear, decelerating, accelerating and both respectively). Spin the bone around but if you already made the ramp on the right side, it will spins in reverse.

[sonosublime]

Thanks for the replies.

Originally posted by TheFrozenMonkeyKing:

I don't know about #1, but I think you could do #2 with the graph editor. We can discouss it over private chat if you want to.

I think all you have to do is to make 2 keys. At the second key you set the rotate value much higher/lower depending on which way you want it to rotate. Then just do the same with a longer gap between the keys and repeat to slow it down.

Sorry, I'm a bit confused by what you're saying. My situation is that I have 2 keyframes: the first one being the propeller in its ref pose, and then the second keyframe with a huge number for the end of the rotation. The graph lines are of a consistent gradient, so that the propeller rotates at a constant speed.

What would I do from here to have the propeller gradually speed up from rest until it reaches constant rotation speed?

Originally posted by EmperorFaiz. spook:

1) Nope
2) I usually use motion editor. Create the ramp on the left side of the green layer, set the falloff like 1,2 ,3 or 4 button (linear, decelerating, accelerating and both respectively). Spin the bone around but if you already made the ramp on the right side, it will spins in reverse.

But how is it possible to rotate a propeller in the motion editor? In the graph editor it is simple enough to create a new keyframe and enter a huge number for the rotation. But you do not have that option in the motion editor.

[Marcy]

I think you have some things confused. You can achieve all the same things in both the motion editor and the graph editor. One is more accurate for certain things than the other.

Going from what you're saying, you want a wheel to spin, speeding up slowly until it reaches a constant speed. It has to do with the way curves are drawn. It's very similar to how synthesizers use waveforms to produce sound, and an envelope to determine "Attack" (or "rise") speed, Decay rate, sustain, and even modulation of the pitch, volume, or cutoff.

I can explain to you in a chat with the little knowledge of SFM I have to avoid a wall of text here. It might be easier to read that way.

[sonosublime]

Feel free to write as many walls of text as you need. I like to favourite these sort of topics so I can refer to them later.


The main reason I'm asking is because I am making a fantasy steampunk train model in Blender that has complicated locks between its pistons and wheels. As the wheel turns, the pistons should also be pumping.

I plan to port this model to SFM with its wheel turning animation as a built-in sequence (with the wheels turning at a constant speed). Then I would like to use SFM to fiddle with the lines before the animation to simulate the wheels beginning to turn as the train accelerates, if that makes sense.


tl; dr: I just want to animate a propeller gradually accelerating its rotation to a constant rotation speed.

[sonosublime]

Bumping.

[ConfederateJoe]

Originally posted by sonosublime:

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions about animating that I would appreciate some help with:

1. Is there a way to take the animation of a character and reverse it? So, for example, I would like to animate a character walking backwards.

2. Is there a way to take an animation of something turning at a constant speed (eg. a wheel or propellor), and have it gradually speed up or slow down?

Originally posted by EmperorFaiz. spook:

1) Nope
2) I usually use motion editor. Create the ramp on the left side of the green layer, set the falloff like 1,2 ,3 or 4 button (linear, decelerating, accelerating and both respectively). Spin the bone around but if you already made the ramp on the right side, it will spins in reverse.

To answer your questions, sonosublime,
Both are YES!!!
:O

1. There is a feature in the graph edior most inexperienced graph ediotr users don't know about called scale. Use it and scale backwards to reverse the selected frames from the point you want. Do yourself a HUGE favor and learn the hotkeys for this and the other graph editor operations.

2. Use the graph editor For example, in a turn table rotate something 90 degrees twice and copy/paste those keyframes at a consistent rate. Then make sure the curves are linear. Want a somewhat different effect? Play with the timing, curve presets, and curve tangents.

~Been using the graph editor almost exclusively for 2 years.

[sonosublime]

Thanks for the reply.


1. How exactly do I use the scale feature? I've tried selecting it but cannot seem to apply it anywhere.


2. I'm not sure 90 degree increments will be enough for something spinning very fast (like a propeller). Basically, I have a section of time where the propeller is spinning at constant speed. But how do I add a section where it gradually starts spinning (from rest) up to constant speed?


Step by step explanations would be greatly appreciated, as I am a noob with the graph editor.