Take Manager

In my current project I’m using Cheetah 3D’s Takes system for camera positions, so here are some rules I’ve figured out.

• If an object has at least one Keyframe, the Keyframes can be changed in any take without effecting the other takes.
So one stationary camera with one Keyframe can be placed in a different position/rotation for each Take.
For spline tracked camera action you need to Key the spline and the track Position of the Spline Tracking Tag.
You can even animate Bezier points by Keying Points of the spline.

• If an object has no Keyframes, changing it in any take, will change it in all takes.

• A new Take will inherit the state of all objects at that Time/Frame.
If an object isn’t visible at the Time/Frame that the New Take is made, it won’t be visible in the new take.

• A New Take will not have any Keyframes.
 
:unsure: There may be some buglet hidden in the take manager.

:oops: I am currently modelling a process where the same take (with some modifications) is repeated for various conditions. On splitting / merging I discover that some F-curves are severely garbled. In some cases the curves even show a time reversed loop where the F-curve goes to frame (eg) 40, then makes a U-turn back to frame 30 and then proceeds normally.
* Possibly, this renders properly and just draws a faulty spline. I did not test that and just fixed the key-frames. Also possible, that this only turns up under very specific circumstances, maybe a keyframe untidily placed by 1/30th of a second, a spline tangent going the wrong way or whatever.
:sick: If I can replicate the problem, I will post a screen shot.
 
For this example I used a simple rigged character, jumping like he just won the lottery.

I simply duplicated the take, and within that take I rotated a few keyframes to get the second sequence.
But you could change it into something completely different and make the take longer or shorter if needed.

guyjump1.gif
guyjump2.gif
 
For this next exercise I'm trying to create takes in a linear fashion.
In other words the last position in one Take is the first position in the next Take.

Take one is walking, take two is a transition from walk to stop and take three is a high jump.

For studying my characters jump moves I used Cheetah's four panel view option.
Cheetah lets you position the Perspective view differently for each pane.
I also added a camera to follow the jumper with a Parent Constraint Tag.

jumpstudy.gif
 
Here's another tip:
If you haven't customized you're Cheetah 3D window layout, check this out.

When viewing F-curves of keyframed objects with very small position changes,
it helps to expand the F-curves view vertically.

The first pic is another custom layout I use a lot.

Cheetah window 01.jpg


Cheetah window 02.jpg
 
My first Take is a walk in place cycle of
two steps that I can render and loop in PS.

It's a loop so remember the last frame is the
same as the first and needs to be trimmed in
either Cheetah before rendering or later in PS.

My idea is he walks a bit and stops when he comes
to a "ravine", and looks around and then jumps across.

That means the next Take is a transition between walk and stop.
To make the new take from the original, go to the last frame.
Or the first frame if you already trimmed it for looping.

Then right click in the Take panel and choose New Take.
If you want to start the next Take from the middle of the
walk cycle, go to that frame before choosing New Take.

Since there are no keyframes in the new Take, you
can rewind to frame one to start the next sequence.
 
There are some further considerations when using IK Targets.

Although all my Takes use IK Targets on the feet,
only one of them uses IK Targets on the hands.

For the other Takes I use the "Remove" selection from
the IK Handle Target pull down menu to disable the left
and right hand Targets before switching to another Take.

The IK Targets are keyframed folders and they retain keysframes.

Interesting note, when you switch to another Take
the keyframed folders keyframes don't show up,
but are still retained and show up when reassigned.

The Walk Cycle doesn't use IK Targets on the hands
so that the arms swing with the body movement.

Walk-cycle.gif
 
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