MB Tutorial Part 60: The Dynamic Editor Video Lecture | A Complete Course: Motion Builder - Professional Skills

in this video we're going to take a look
at the new dynamic editor feature inside
of MotionBuilder 6 this is an awesome
new way to control your animation curves
by adjusting the interpolation between
your key frames the best part about the
dynamic editor though is that it allows
you to control multiple keyframes at
once without having to go through the
tedious task of jumping into your f
curves window and adjusting things one
tangent handle at a time which can
obviously from animators experience take
hours days years it's just a TD in
Mullaney it just takes forever so what
the dynamic editor is going to do is
allow you to change these on multiple
keyframes simultaneously to begin let me
go and open it up and show it to you
here's the dynamic editor now I am in
the editing layout so it's going to be
available here next to my asset browser
and before I really start talking about
anything within it let me bring in a
character and do just a little bit of
simple animation on it i'll use the
ever-present mia and here she comes
looking good as ever and we'll jump down
and make her selectable let's grab her
left foot and i'll just play with that
for a minute we don't quite need this
many frames so i'll jump down to say
about oh maybe even half that will say
about 30 frames and we'll begin by
placing a single key on her left foot
and i'll jump up here to frame 30 and
i'll just move her foot into the air and
then we'll come about halfway down and
I'll pull her foot back so we have kind
of a right now a very linear motion well
not really okay that her ankle was in
the way it looked linear I was just
staring at the trajectory so we have a
sort of a direct motion flowing from the
ground up and then forward now let's
take a look at the dynamic editor and
how we can start examining these curves
and start adjusting our interpolation
without really having to touch our F
curves at all for starters I'd like to
take a brief look at the user interface
of the dynamic editor first off we have
the ability to control either the trial
all of the translation or rotation keys
place on this object so we have T and R
XY and Z and you can use these filters
to switch off whatever it is you don't
want to use say we just want to control
translation find switch off rotation is
no longer being calculated you can also
choose which axis
or accys you'd like to control say again
for example if we just want to pick on
maybe translate why we can switch off X
we can switch off z notice however
though once you have only one axis
selected you can't switch that off you
have to have at least one axis selected
at the time now over from this we have
our selected or keying mode area which
allows us to affect either just the
selected object in this case the left
ankle effector or whatever our current
keying mode happens to be right now our
keying mode is set to full body so right
now we would be affecting keyframes on
the full body character so that far our
icon or button is basically just four
characters exactly so if I switch over
to body parts you'll notice the switches
to body parts and selection well this
part Gray's out and we just have
selected which if you're using anything
but characters this is what you're going
to see all the time which I'll be
demonstrating here in just a few so from
here we'll move down and take a look at
the status area this shows you what a
keyframe you're currently looking at or
what frame you happen to be on now
something of interest is the status area
has a selection priority that you need
to be aware of because if you're not
aware of it this can really lead to some
headaches down the road the way that you
select the keyframes that you want to
control really changes how the the
status area works for example if you
jump into your f curves window and do
not think for a moment that the dynamic
editor in any way replaces your f curves
window it's a supplement to it it is a
way to expedite the process of tweaking
your your interpolation it is nothing
else it's not it's not there to help you
move keyframes around it's not there to
help you change timing or anything like
that it's just about interpolation so
you will still be using your f curves
your dope sheet and so forth so if I
step into my F curves area and I select
a key like so you'll notice that in here
inside my status area we have F curves
and we have frame 15 so it actually
tells us we've selected a key inside the
F curve window and we grab the key frame
that is a sitting at frame 15 there are
several
front levels of this priority there are
selections made in the dope sheet their
selections made in the F curve window
their selections made here in your
transport controls and then there's the
current location of your cursor if I
have a key selected in my f curves
window any selection that I make inside
my transport controls is completely
irrelevant notice that my status area is
not updating as I make this selection
right now the selection the F curves
window is taking precedence if I
deselect here inside the F KERS window
and then make a selection here in
transport controls we have selection 15
to 30 which is exactly what I selected
here in transport controls furthermore
if I were to move my cursor around
you'll notice it's currently ignoring
the location of my cursor whereas if i
were to deselect everything in my
transport controls we switch over to
cursor it tells us we're at frame 10 and
noticed that the dynamic editor is
currently completely grayed out right
now there's nothing I can do with it
until i move the cursor over a keyframe
now we can edit the values for that
keyframe at the location of the cursor
so it's just something to keep in mind
about the selection order of how the
status area works pay close attention to
this also of particular interest is the
appearance of asterisks next to this
number anytime you notice an asterisk
anywhere inside the status area that
means that you have a key frame or
you're working with a keyframe that is
not currently snapped to a frame so if i
were to drag this keyframe just slightly
off the axis you'll notice it still says
we're working on frame 15 but it has an
asterisk to denote that we're no longer
directly on frame 15 itself and if we
look here in our transport controls will
notice there is one keyframe that's been
moved slightly off to the side so if
you're a real stickler for keeping all
your keyframes snap to frames watch out
for these these asterisks all right
we'll go ahead and undo that a little
bit not undo too far let's go ahead and
redo some of that and let's move on from
here next to this with the trajectory
and curve area pretty much focuses on
our representation areas in here so I'll
talk about those next we have to
representation areas for our animation
curves and trajectories what these are
is basically a normalization curve an
interpolation interpret
tation that's probably the best forward
I'm trying to like you can't really use
interpolation because that's what we're
talking about this is like an
interpretation of what your animation
curve is doing this is where it's easy
to get confused the first time you look
at the dynamic editor because this will
not always look like your animation
curve exactly for example you'll notice
here if I switch over to curves real
quick and I'll talk about the
distinction between curves and
trajectories here in a moment Maya curve
representation here on the left side of
my representation area appears to be a
curve that slopes up and then slopes
right back down currently we have the F
curve frame 15 selected which does
anything but just slope up and go
straight down the shape is not not quite
like that that's irrelevant what this is
showing us is sort of a representation
of the behavior of this keyframe not
necessarily the shape of the curve
itself so if I switch back on trajectory
for example trajectory is going to show
you how quickly we are entering and
exiting this guy this keyframe if I I'll
talk about the sliders here in just a
minute a lot of the way the dynamic
editor works everything is kind of
interconnected so if it feels like I'm
jumping around bear with me we're gonna
get to the whole thing if I increase the
velocity at this keyframe notice that my
trajectory dots get closer together here
at the top so we're actually slowing
down we're moving very fast into this
keyframe and then slowing down as we
enter it then slowly leaving it and
speeding up as we exit and I can reverse
that as well so that we're we enter it
very quickly and so on if you switch
over to curves what the representation
area is going to show you is the shape
that the curve would need to be to
maintain that exact same type of
behavior sort of the fast and fast out
sort of behavior so these are the curve
and the trajectory will not always be
the same shape as each other and they
won't always be the same shape as your
animation that's going to take some
getting used to if you're not used to
playing this kind of thing once you get
past the idea that this is merely a
representation of keyframe behavior than
all is good and you're going to start
really flying and falling in love with
everything the dynamic editor can do for
you now that said moving on as you've
seen we have trajectory and we have a
representation of your enemy
curve on the left-hand side we simply
have the slope up and slope down on the
right-hand side we have the a or b area
now set a setting a is going to give you
a curve that slopes down and then
plateaus at the bottom so it's going to
come down and flatten out even if your
animation curve does not do that what
this is showing you is the behavior of
your key frame if your animation curve
did do that it's the kind of thing you
would be looking at in that kind of
situation this would be very important
let's say if you're animating a
character walk cycle for the characters
translate y where you need the Y the Y
translate to bring the foot down on top
of an object not pass through the object
but stay planted directly on it you'd
have the ability to take a look at that
curve and see if it's going to offer
this kind of support you need next you
have the B style of curve and I'll
switch off a just to show you this now
this is not necessarily the best
representation of this curve but what
the the B curve is going to show you is
a curve that ascends and then plateaus
and then continues to ascend so it's
going to go up flatten off and then go
up again the type of curve I have right
now has no way for that sort of effect
to happen I would need multiple
keyframes in order to have that sort of
behavior but again this would be useful
say for the forward translation of a
foot when entering a walk cycle where a
foot needs to come forward and then stop
moving and stay planted for X number of
frames then continue moving forward
again later on and even it again just to
reiterate even if your curve doesn't
necessarily have that shape this this is
just a way for you to cross-reference
and see what the keyframe would look
like if it were in that kind of
situation meaning you won't always be
using this and don't worry about that so
moving moving from here we have several
different ways that we can calculate
this curve we have been a we have TCB
the attention continuity bias controller
kind of old but still used a lot out
there we have a continuity and we have
linear keyframes to demonstrate these
most easily i'm going to go ahead and
get rid of our character for now so it
won't save this and i'll go into my
asset browser and let's go under
elements i'll bring in a sphere
this is I'm very proud of this fear I
modeled it in Maya myself more details
on my resume so there's my sphere and
let's go ahead and do some real fast
animation to this so we'll start off
here at frame 0 we only need about 60
frames so again I'm using the Maya key
set so if my keys don't necessarily
coincide with what you're using just use
whatever key set you're used to I'll hit
the S key to place a keyframe will come
over here to frame 60 you'll move to the
other side of the field and press s
again here at 40 L keyframe here at 20 L
keyframe and mating backwards now we'll
get frame 10 will move up and press s 30
move up press s 50 move up press s so we
have this lovely waving up and down
motion that through this demonstration I
will turn into a nice-looking bounce
using the dynamic editor now to begin by
default we have been a style
interpolation mode so i'll begin by
demonstrating everything that the beg a
mode has to offer and then i'll show you
the other interpolation modes as for the
most part i have a pretty strong feeling
you'll be using veggie most of all so
under the bed a settings we have the
ability to switch between two
interpolation options we have Auto and
user auto is the default setting when
your key framing inside a MotionBuilder
this is going to adjust the
interpolation handles of a keyframe
based on its neighboring keyframes so if
you make a maybe two keyframes that are
close together in time that very distant
apart in value are going to get some
really drastic changes in your
interpolation handles where with user
those interpolation handles are not
going to be affected by the neighbors
they're going to stay right where they
were you'll industry in general you're
going to be using a user only when you
go in and tweak the handles yourself or
when you make your own custom
adjustments auto is going to work in
most cases anytime that it doesn't of
course you have the ability to swap it
right here additive is an option that
again is on by default and what this is
going to do is allow you to take any
changes that you make here inside the
dynamic editor and add them to the
current value of the tangent handle as
it stands
now instead of putting them in a more
relative style fashion this is on by
default and for the most part you're
going to leave it on down from here we
have the ability to reset any changes
we've made I'll talk about that after we
make some changes so let's move down a
little bit to these awesome controls we
have done here first off we have the
power to break or unbreak our tangents
I'll begin at the middle here and then
I'll work my way left and right right
now my tangents are unbroken so I have
continuous tangents from left to right
if I choose set discontinuity left we
get this sort of curve and if you didn't
notice the curve change shape let me
move over here to a keyframe where we
have in and out tangents this is instead
of just an out tangent excuse me while I
stutter for a moment and we'll go ahead
and press this so now you can see that i
have taken both of my tangent weights
and i've placed them in a discontinuity
fashion pointing them back toward the
first keyframe if i were to do the same
thing for the right we flip it back the
other way i can also flatten out either
side and since my tangents are unbroken
we just flatten out the whole thing if I
break my tangents I can do either one of
these independently so for example now
if I set discontinuity left we point the
tangent handle back at the original key
frame if I do discontinuity right we
points it to the next one and we now
have a very linear style of animation
here in this area so let's go ahead and
unbreak those and I'll flatten those
back out and let's start talking about
some of the sliders we have down below
first off we have auto this is going to
allow you to change the angle of your
tangent handles as you work so if you
just come in and start sliding you'll
notice they get this sort of seesaw
effect on your handles now a couple
things I want to point out first off by
default these sliders go from negative
100 to one hundred but that doesn't mean
you're in any way limited you can set
these to any value you want if you
wanted to you could come in and set this
to say 500 and it's going to drastically
change your animation curve you also
notice that my projector is changing up
here in the viewport so as I slide this
it jumps right back down to its locked
value now we also have the ability to
reset this so if we play
any sort of strange value here we have a
small reset button it looks like a zero
here if I click either left or right
resets right now both sides will reset
because right now the odd the autos are
linked for these two attributes I can
unlink them switch this off and now i
can adjust each side individually so
boom boom like so so you pull both of
them up get like some sort of a really
weird hiccup in the top of my bounce so
I want to blink and then again I can
link these back together and you'll see
them start to slide now they are going
to try to maintain their offset from one
another meaning that let me go ahead and
reset them back to their default values
before I relink them notice when I drag
the left tangent to the right the right
tangent moves to the left and vice versa
they kind of have an opposite effect of
one another so that you get this nice
fluid see-sawing motion that's set up by
default if I unlink them and make any
kind of an offset and then relink them
that offset will be maintained notice
when I drag down to negative 100 here
I'm up to positive 1 55 over here this
can lead to some pretty wild values if
you don't pay attention to it so if you
ever run into a problem with that let's
say things are working great on one side
but one side maybe up to five or six
hundred I've seen it happen all you have
to do is unlink your two values reset
the both sides and link them back
together and you're right back to the
default behavior so there's your auto
for adjusting the angle next we have
weight and it's going to be really
obvious what this does let me go ahead
and tilt my auto off to one side now
again just like above with auto we have
a linking ability here so when I adjust
one side of this the other side will
adjust as well and as I drag the weight
up we're simply increasing the value of
the tangent weights very very cut and
dry also notice though that velocity
down here on the bottom is coming along
with us I'll talk about velocity here in
just a second just like with auto we
have the ability to unlink and lengthen
or shorten only one tangent handle if
you like or reset them both and link
them back together to get any sort of
default behavior that you miss let's go
ahead and I'll reset my auto
velocity is going to allow you to
control the speed at which you enter or
exit a keyframe nothing more it's very
very handy feature because sometimes
especially for beginners out there when
you're playing with with animation
curves maybe for the first time or maybe
you just haven't been playing with them
very long just changing the velocity of
a tray of a particular trajectory can be
a little difficult so here you have a
slider to handle it for you you'll
notice as I increase the velocity we're
adjusting the tangent weights to
increase how how quickly were speeding
out of this key so right now we're
moving a lot faster from what from and
then into this case we're slowing down
as we enter it and then we can set it so
that we we speed up instead so these are
linked together and of course you can
unlink them just like anything else as
you adjust weights the velocities will
come along by default don't let that
deter you you can move them
independently from one another but they
will try to maintain that offset so just
keep that in mind so that's really about
it for bez a style control if you set
this to something really strange and you
get lost confused and you just tell
yourself you know I want to go back to
the way it was when I first opened the
dynamic editor no problem you have the
reset functions over here on the side we
can reset angular parameters which is
like our auto parameters reset weight or
velocity or just reset everything so
we'll reset it all and we're right back
to the the original curve that we had a
second ago so let's move over to some of
the other interpolation modes we have
tension continuity bias for those you
that like to use the TCB controller it
is here and then full effect and as you
can see we can adjust our tension
continuity or bias I'll go ahead and
reset those we have continuity curves
which will hold a keyframe value until
the next keyframe so you can see
upstairs and my viewer in my trajectory
we go up we hold a value and then we jam
down real quick and you can tell this to
to hold the current value or to hold the
next value that it finds so you have a
double control over when you want that
snap to occur and finally you have
linear style which is just simply a
constant rate animation from one key
frame to the next that you can just set
with a single setting here let me go
back to bed J and we will reset
everything back to normal and let's take
a moment and just adjust our sliders to
turn this into a more natural looking
bounce as quick as we can without having
to touch our F curves at all however I
will leave my F curves for y translight
open just to show you what's going on
just so you can see the feedback live
here in the view so I'll begin here at
frame 0 we don't want any weight on that
so I'll grab my way to slider and just
bring it all the way down will do that
for all of our ground-based keys so I'll
jump up here to frame 20 no wait frame
40 no wait and frame 60 no wait and
already we have a much more
natural-looking bounce than we had now
if I play back through that so you can
get some nice feedback it'd be nice to
have a little bit more of a lofting
effect as the ball goes up into the air
so very quickly i'll drag forward to
frank 10 and will increase the weight
and it looks like again you see my autos
a little bit offset not a problem i'll
just go ahead and unlink everything
reset those back to zero and relink so
now my auto is nice and flattened out
i'll pull my weight back to about point
five five and then i'll increase my
velocity so we're going to kind of go up
really fast will slow down as we hit the
crest of that jump and then we'll drop
down nice and fast too I'll do the same
thing in the other key frames here will
slide up to 30 will bring wait up to
somewhere around point five five bring
the velocity up just a little bit more
and finally here a frame 50 will do the
same thing and really with that we're
already done if we rewind and hit play
Boing Boing Boing we're all set so in no
time at all I managed to do something
that would have taken at least a couple
of minutes using animation curves
because I wasn't just changing translate
y if you look really close and it may be
a little difficult to see after the
videos encoded I have also adjusted my
translator X as well there's a very
slight waver in this curve that allows
me to slow down as I enter and leave
each jump something that would have been
kind of tedious to do one keyframe at a
time using this animation curve so
really that's going to show everything
that I wanted to demonstrate
in this video the dynamic editor is an
excellent way to adjust the
interpolation of your key frames it may
be a little difficult to get used to it
first but give it a chance it is
definitely worth your while and it will
greatly enhance your animation workflow
so I hope you enjoyed this video thanks
a lot