This week we learned how to use Animation bot and apply it into out workflow.
animBot is the most powerful toolset for Maya animators, used by more than 90% of the greatest full feature and AAA game studios. This are some of the features I have used:
For situations where you need to increase or decrease precise values to a key or attribute.
Nudge selected keys to the left or right.
Tip: if you go to an empty frame and Nudge Left Right, the next right key will snap to that frame.
Nudge commands move keys around. You can nudge selected keys or even all keys existent in the scene.
Store key times from selection, to be pasted later.
That’s the classic Tween Machine taken to a whole new level.
Based on traditional animation techniques, with this one you can create precise inbetween keys, first pass breakdowns and save hours of work by basically not dealing with animation curve tangents.
Selection buttons to help selecting chunk of rig controls.
It’s meant to be a quick and simple way to organize and select stuff in your scene and despite of not being a picker substitute, if you don’t have one it will do a pretty decent job.
Copy (store) the animation of selected objects.
You can then paste the animation in the same or another Maya session, to the same objects, other objects, other channels and even to another namespace/character.
Transfer animation to a fresh new scene:
I after started my animation with a monster rig. I have constrained some proxy to better visualise the silhouette and movement of the body of the character. I have imported a reference footage for the animation, blocked the poses using stepped keys first and splined them afterwards. This the final playblast.