Non-Linear Animation: Animating with the Trax Editor in Maya 4.5 and 5
By Brian J. Immel
Modifying Clips
1. Once you have created the animation and converted it into a Clip, you may find that this animation is not as appealing as you originally thought or that you may need to tweak it for another reason. You can go back and edit the original keyframes using the Graph Editor.
2. To modify the Clip’s data, select the Clip and go to View > Graph Anim Curves. This will open up the Graph Editor and load the Clip’s data into the window. It may be necessary to hit the f key to focus on all the keyframes in this window. From here, you can simply push and pull the keys around as you see fit and watch the changes by scrubbing through the Time Slider or hitting the Playback button.
3. When you load the clip into the Graph Editor, you will see the Character Set (little blue guy) followed by the name of the Character Set. Under the Character Set, you will see the Clip, followed by the name of the clip and all the attributes therein.
Note: you will notice that the animation curve(s) of the Clip that is being modified not be the length of the Clip if you have rescaled it. Don’t be alarmed by this. You are editing the original data of that Clip, not the Clip that is being used in the Trax Editor.
Exercise: Edit the keyframes of a Clip
1. Open the file called run cycle.mb. You will open a file with a run cycle where the feet don’t properly meet the ground.
2. Select the clip labeled clip13 and go to View > Graph Anim Curves.
3. The Graph Editor will pop up and load all the attributes that were used to create the animation. From here you can select and edit any and all keys as you see fit to rebuild/edit the run cycle.
- With the Graph Editor open, you can delete and add as many keys as you need.