Expert: Russell Calabrese - 3/21/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Russel, you had promised me that you would check with your associates how eases could be given to your animation in Maya graph editor and please if possible arrange for maya files of animation and send them for  studying i want to know how i can add snap to my animation because no matter how hard i work on my animations they somehow have that slight floaty feel

ANSWER: Hi Yogesh,

Sorry for the delay but my friend Mike just started again at Dreamworks and is quite busy.

YOUR QUESTIONS-

1. can you break up graphs in maya graph editor to give cushioning to
individual moves of character

2. according to how i know cushioning or slow in is done in maya,you get
into graph editor ,select the key and click on  weighted tangents and adjust
the graph.please tell me if this is the proper way of giving slow-in to your
animation

3. i would appreciate it if you send me any of your maya animation file for
studying or else can you send me a video explaining proper ease in in maya
       my poses are most of the times good enough but when it comes to give
cushioning or slow in to animation i falter
       i am looking forward to hear from you at the earliest

4. i would like to know how you give eases to your animation in 3d and how
detailed should be your first pass of blocking in 3d animation and please
tell me where i can post my animation reel for your critique

5. you had promised me that you would check with your associates how eases
could be given to your animation in Maya graph editor and please if possible
arrange for maya files of animation and send them for  studying i want to
know how i can add snap to my animation because no matter how hard i work on
my animations they somehow have that slight floaty feel

MIKE JONES' ANSWERS-

1-5) To get a slow in, the spline line of the graph must be going almost horizontal into the key. A totally flat line will kill the motion so it must gradually reach the flatline right before the key. A slow out is the same, just coming out of the key. You do NOT need to weight the tangents to get this and weighting them could be what is making it falter.
Go back to the basics. Make sure that all your attributes, ie: trans x,y,z,rot x,y,z, etc, are keyed on the same frame for the key(s).
Then you can look at the individual curves of the spline in the graph editor to see which attribute(s) you need to do the slow in on.
HOWEVER, you must key frame breakdown poses before you do any slow in or slow outs. You CANNOT hope to get nice animation
letting the computer do the breakdown and inbetweens. If you are doing this, it is the main reason your slow in is faltering. This is probably why
the animation is floaty too.
So... act out your animation and time it out. Then keyframe your poses at the frames you think will work and go into your graph editor and change all of your
animation curves to step. Shoot a playblast to look at the animation poses because watching it play in the time line is not frame accurate. If you think the timing
is right, change the animation curves to spline and look in the graph editor to make sure none of the curves have gone whacky. adjust the curves by using the tangents, not weighted, to make smooth curves. Then go and keyframe your breakdowns and perhaps add in your overlap through the breakdown poses. Go back into the graph editor and adjust the curves. This is when you push the slow in and outs, but it should already be most of the way there from the breakdowns.
Good Luck.

Mike Jones
&
Russell Calabrese

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Russel and Mike,
         Thank you very much Russel and Mike for your guidance about eases.I have come up with more queries.I would really appreciate it if you answer them.

*Can eases be part of your first pass?If not,when you should put them in?
*I read Keithlango's tutorial about favouring.But i am still unclear about how you should give favours when you have 2-3 breakdowns between key poses?
*I know to push your animation to the next level,you have to adjust the splines in graph editor properly.But in my case,once i put everything on spline filter or smooth mode,i virtually don't tweak the splines.So what should be done after spline filter stage to better your animation?
*How do you decide when to use keyframes for eases and when to tweak the curves to achieve eases?
*I have asked this question to many people but i have not got satisfactory reply to it.Apart from using stretch and squash.invisible anticipations etc.,how to give snappy timing to your animation?How should be the spacing?You have to give ease-in or ease-out at the end of particular move of character for snappy timing?I am talking about animation like that of funny character in Ice Age for example.  

Answer
Hi Yogesh,

You just have to keep tweaking the animation until it looks right to you. There are no answers for this. Some times I'll work over and rework a scene until i think it looks great. Sometimes I just have to hand in the work the way it is when the deadline is up and hope on the next project I figure out a better way for better results. Some times wht I think looks weak looks great to the person I'm doing it for. It's a very subjective area you're going to here.

Russell