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Problems with NLA tracks.

DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
edited January 2014 in Carrara Discussion

Today, I am irritated on a track NLA !
I do not have the practice with this trick, but the manipulators don't want to work, the “undo” do not function etc… How does one make to recover the keyframes of a track NLA to have them in the normal tracks ?
Thanks.

Post edited by DUDU on

Comments

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    I must add that it is an animation carried out in Poser and imported in PZ.3.
    I erased part of the keyframes to modify a part of this animation, but nothing functions…

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,249
    edited December 1969

    To convert back into keys on the frame, select the figure, go to NLA tab, "Load data from clip"

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,249
    edited December 1969

    Also note that you should never delete the first key in the "0" time frame. For this reason, many of us like to set our timeline to begin at the 1 second mark. This leaves the 0 position all the way to the left, and our added keys begin at 30 when using 30 frames/second. This makes it possible to actually eliminate the first key of the added animation - something you cannot do if you added the keys at frame 0.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    Thank you for these tips Dart.
    Are the problems referred to above known by other users or am I the only one ?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,249
    edited December 1969

    I am not sure that I fully understand the problems - but, no... you're not alone. All animators in all software run into issues that we wish we didn't. Here's the thing with NLA clips: If any joint is animated and therefore added to the clip, when the clip is used, that joint is locked from further animation - at least as the clip acts by default. I am still unsure of what all we can do with clips - as I only use them to store keys in a format that Carrara can load and use.

    ► AniMating in Carrara is an article that I wrote a while back in the old forums, and brought it back to this one, where I discuss some of the methods I used to get aniMating in Carrara. It really makes use of aniBlocks, but can be helpful for many other methods as well. But what I really got accustomed to is to make motions for say, the hip down, and save that to a clip. This leaves the torso, head and arms free for me to move around within the animation. And techniques like that. While this brief description might make it sound time-consuming, I really found it to speed up my work flow - simply because it was easier for me to get what I really want.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    Here, I perhaps found the cause of the problem of manipulators which do not react in the edition of clips NLA.
    When I transfer my character in an empty scene, all function normally…
    I from of thus deduced that it is an internal problem with my computer (not enough RAM).
    I have all the same the problem of “Undo” which does not function, when I edit some keyframes or another thing in a track NLA, the function “Undo” does not work, I think that it is a bug, and you?

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,249
    edited December 1969

    When you speak of manipulators not working with an NLA, I'm wondering if that's what I was mentioning earlier: If a joint is controlled by the NLA Clip, the clip will lock that joint from further control. evilproducer may have found an exception - an IK controling target helper object, which over rules the clip.

    So In that problem, I think that might be working as expected.

    This is why I was mentioning making clips that do not have any control over joints that you want to control manual. In the article I've writeen, and linked to above, I talk about loading in animation files, and then selecting all but at frame zero, and deleting them, from certain body parts. For example, I'd load in a walk cycle, then delete all keys for both arms, all the way through the hierarchy, and the head. The neck is now still going to get locked into its animation if I make this result a NLA clip. But the head and all parts of the arms will be free for me to pose throughout the animation. This works great for looping the walk cycle and having the character look right and left - looking around, as he or she walks. Another example would be to leave the arms free for holding a gun or bow or....

    The undo thing I'm not sure. Some things are said to have no undo - but I think those might be plugins - as far as I know. If you're talking about edits made to an NLA clip, I'm not sure if undo is supported for that either. I have not been so keen on editing from within a clip. Instead, I try to load the clip data onto the figure, as I've mentioned earlier, and tweaking it from the whole timeline without being red. Then I just create a new NLA when I'm done.

    Mixing and m,atching various NLA clips made for different body parts can be fun and rewarding. It sure makes for an easy method of recording motion data within Carrara. Inside the NLA Clip dialog we can select and deselect anything we want, making it useful for creating multiple clips for different portions of the body.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited January 2014

    Yes, your reasoning is certainly correct but here, the same clip used in a complex scene is not (easily) éditable while this same clip in an empty scene with only one character, is easily éditable.
    My conclusion is that's a problem of RAM (in my case).
    But the system of NLA clips is marvellous to make a collection of various animations.
    It is comparable with the clips “Animate” of Studio, but in more advanced.
    Thank you for your answer.

    Post edited by DUDU on
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