Using Align Features
The sliding issues happens from time to time when you assign motions to a character by either applying motions from the motion library, or from puppeteering motions by the Motion Puppet. Sometimes, the transition between two motion clips can also have this issue.
Cartoon Animator provides two features, Align and Align Whole Clip, to help you solving this problem.
The sliding issues that happen often after you apply motions to a character are:
- Foot Sliding.
- Pivot Sliding.
- Hand Sliding.
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Apply a motion (in this case, Dance) to a character.
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Link the character to another object in the scene. Play back to see the
result.
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Open Timeline (Shortcut: F3). Click the Motion button of the character to show its motion track.
You will see that the motion clip is stored inside the track.
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Make sure that there is another clip before this one (you may move the
clip backward, a default clip in the first time frame will be
auto-generated).
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Right-click anywhere on the target clip, select the Align Whole Clip and pick one of the
commands from its sub-menu (in this case, the Right Leg).Note:
Because the Align feature requires a target to align to, make sure you have a clip prepared prior to the clip for aligning. Otherwise, the feature will be disabled.
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The body part (in this case, the right foot) within each frame of the entire clip will be aligned based on the position of the foot
in the end frame of the previous clip.
The foot before being aligned
The foot after being aligned
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Play back to view the result. The right foot in each time frame is thus
aligned without influencing the entire motion clip.
In addition to align the whole clip, you are able to align a body part in a clip to the final pose of the previous clip. This act avoid a sliding issue before the later motion starts.
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Apply a motion to the character along a path.
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Go to a latter time frame after the walking finishes and apply any one motion template (in
this case, ballet).
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Both feet hop as soon as the character starts to perform the latter
motion.
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Right-click anywhere on the later clip, select the Align and pick one of the commands
from its sub-menu. In this case, the Left Leg.
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The left leg position in the entire later clip is aligned to the
ending pose of the previous clip in order to remove the sliding issue between these two clips.
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Drag the blending range of the latter clip to connect to the previous one to prevent from sudden change of the poses.
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Play back to see the result.
- Always do the alignment before change the blending zone to prevent from unexpected result.
- Please also refer to the Blending Motion Clips section for more information.