Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

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vealti
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Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by vealti »

I'm animating my project on 2s and have the keyframe interval set to 2. I also have bone dynamics driving some animation for hair which is still animating on every frame instead of 2s. Is it possible to constrain the movement of the bone dynamics to 2s?
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Greenlaw
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by Greenlaw »

I don't think so. Dynamics don't generate keyframes so I don't think you can step them. Maybe if there was a script to bake the keyframes, you could do that first, remove dynamics, set the keys to Step and then delete every other keyframe. Sorry, I'm not aware of a script like that though.

A quick-and-dirty trick we use at work is to render the scene as normal, and then in After Effects we apply Posterize Time and lower the frame rate. (i.e., dial 24 down to 12 fps, or whatever.) This way we can instantly get the results on twos, fours or whatever we want while preserving the original playback frame rate. It's a blunt instrument though because, depending on your settings and how you animated the scene, the effect won't necessarily retain the key poses.

But if you're animating on two's, this probably doesn't matter. Just set it to 12 fps and you'll get your Moho dynamics playing back on two's at 24 fps.
vealti
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by vealti »

Thanks for the info Greenlaw, I was afraid that would be the answer. I'll take a look at the AE method. This is a test project so not super critical if the dynamics don't work exactly as expected. Next time I'll probably take a different approach for the hair.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by Greenlaw »

I like to use dynamics occasionally, but I generally avoid it for hair. It works but it also tends to look like you're using dynamics. (To see what I mean, look at my animated titles for HLF.)

IMO, hair animation looks better if you manually keyframe it or set up Smart Bone Actions for it (which is basically automating your manual keyframes.)

If it's for long hair, Sketch Bones works great too! I use this for hair, tails, capes, etc. Sometimes I use it for rigging eyebrows! For wavy organic animations, Sketch Bones is easy to set up and fast to animate...not to mention, a lot of fun. :)

Hope this helps.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:25 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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synthsin75
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by synthsin75 »

Maybe have one dynamic bone that is also a smart bone controlling the hair. Then the hair smart action can be animated on twos.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by Greenlaw »

Oo...that's a very interesting idea. Great suggestion Wes.
vealti
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by vealti »

Great suggestions! Thanks.
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TheMinahBird
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by TheMinahBird »

Just asking out of curiosity, is there a script that bakes keyframes by any chance?
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synthsin75
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by synthsin75 »

TheMinahBird wrote:Just asking out of curiosity, is there a script that bakes keyframes by any chance?
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 32#p173732
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 76#p173676
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TheMinahBird
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by TheMinahBird »

Thanks!
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TheMinahBird
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by TheMinahBird »

synthsin75 wrote:
TheMinahBird wrote:Just asking out of curiosity, is there a script that bakes keyframes by any chance?
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 32#p173732
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... 76#p173676
What if you wanted to bake the bones but not the points? So like you have an animation but you want to make stepped inbetweens for it?

Sort of like this script but for the actual skeleton? Not points?
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synthsin75
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by synthsin75 »

Won't work to bake bone dynamics, but you might try this: https://sites.google.com/site/synthsin/ ... ects=0&d=1
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TheMinahBird
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Re: Constrain bone dynamics to animate only on 2s?

Post by TheMinahBird »

It does exactly what I was asking! Thanks so much!
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