 Stockmoves Tutorials:
Chapter 3 - SoftImage Importing more Stockmoves data
3.1 Theory
Each time you convert a .UMF file to a scene file of the package of your choice, a new hierarchy gets created. But the nice
thing is that all the objects in this hierarchy have the exact same naming.
What that means is that once you have connected your skeleton to the Stockmoves data, you can import new animation data very
quickly. We'll show you how to do it in the following sections.
3.2 Softimage 3D (get from library/animation)
First of all, get your scene from the last tutorial, or another scene that you've setup with the Stockmoves data constrained
to the skeleton of your 3D character. If for some reason you don't have a scene like that just load up a scene with the
Stockmoves data and imagine your beautiful 3D character.
Now select the Stockmoves data in branch mode. Click on Motion>Get>From Library>Animation and pick another
animation file. That's how easy it is to apply new animation data!
3.3 Softimage XSi (animation mixer)
For Softimage XSi, the route to take is pretty much the same as with Softimage 3D, but the Animation Mixer module gives
you a lot more possibilities.
First, start with a scene that contains Stockmoves data constrained to a skeleton and 3D model. For this tutorial we will
load up a Stockmoves scene and leave it up to you to imagine or create that beautiful character.
Go to File>Import SI|3D Scene/Model.
Step into a Softimage database containing a scene that you converted with the umf2soft convertor and import a scene.
Importing the scene
Select the Stockmoves hierarchy in branch mode, and bring up an Animation Mixer and hit Update.
The animation mixer
What we first have to do is store the animation that we now have.
We want to store only the function curves that we need, so we need
to mark them. Open the "marked parameters list" by clicking
on the arrow at the right bottom of your screen:
Marking parameters.
We only want to store the Local Position and Orientation function curves, so select those from the list that appears.
Just Local Position and Orientation
Now, to actually store the F-Curves, click Action>Store>Marked Parameters - F-Curves. (Note that the animation gets
removed from the character if you play or scrub the animation. That's OK.)
Storing the Marked Parameters Fcurves.
Right click a track in the Animation Mixer and select Load Source and select the Action that we've just stored.
(StoredFcvAction if you left it to the default name.)
Applying the action
The source should now appear in the track. You can loop or stretch this file if you want to, but we'll leave it as is
for now.
The action in the animation mixer
If you want to load up more sources, you don't have to import them. You can get them directly from the .ani files in
the ANIMATION directory located in the Softimage database. Just go to a blank area in a track, hit the Right mouse
button, and select Load Source>From File.
Getting more action from files
Now pick another .ani file from another converted Stockmoves scene and it should appear in the track.
A second action in the animation mixer
Here's a sample of a little sequence that was done in less than 5 minutes
click to download an mpg |
