All language subtitles for 04-08-01-Mech space switching - Body

- [Instructor] In this video,

we are going to work on
the body secondary motion

using space switching.

We will work where we have left before

with our base body motion done.

The hips are slightly rotating.

We will start by working on the body part

of the character.

To help yourself,

you can go into the armature option,

viewport display and
display the names and axes.

Screen controller axis will
help us kind of guessing

which axis we need to use
when working with aim space.

Let's press Control + Tab

to switch back to object mode

and I will press then
Shift + A to add an empty.

To make sure that we see
the empty whatsoever,

we will go into the
object option of the empty

and we will activate
in the viewport display

the in front option.

Finally, to be sure

that we are not selecting
the different parts

of the robot,

we can disable the selectability

by clicking the mouse cursor icon.

If you can't find it,

make sure that it's
enabled in the filter menu.

We will start by working
on the up and down motion

of the body.

So with my empty selected,

I've added a copy location to it.

The target will be our MECH Armature

and the bone will be the body controller.

We can set the baking frame range directly

during the baking.

But to make our life easier,

I will set the end of
the animation to frame 72

since our cycle goes from
frame zero to frame 72.

Then pressing Q to
access my quick favorite,

I will choose bake action.

You can access it by pressing F3

and searching for bake

and I advise you to
create a quick favorite

since we will use this
command all the time.

Enable visual keying,

clear constraint and press OK.

Now we do have animation
that are for our empty

following the motion of the body.

With all its curves selected,

I will press Shift + E and make it cycle.

From there, we need to use this empty

to constraint the body
controller of our robot.

Select the armature,

go back into pose mode, select the bone,

go into the bone constraint,

add a copy location and source the empty.

Now I can get out of pose mode,

select the empty and when I move it,

the body follow.

In the graph editor,

I will offset the animation by two frames.

That should be enough.

So now we get our follow-through animation

of the body.

While I like the timing,

I feel that the motion is a bit extreme.

So I can go back onto the armature,

go into pose mode,

tweak the influence of the
copy location constraint

and cut it in half.

This way we keep our
follow-through animation

but with less influence,

meaning that we have less
amplitude in the motion.

So it's a matter of tweaking

and testing whatever
value fits your animation.

When I'm happy with the
motion, I will bake it.

With my bone selected,
I've pressed the Q key

to access my quick favorite

and choose bake action

and I will check the
Override Current Action.

The body controller is
no longer a constraint

but it has written all
the keyframes needed

to have the same animation.

We will now use aim space

to add a bit of rotation to the body.

First, we need to align the empty

to the body controller.

To do so, you can get rid of
the current animation curve

but it's not mandatory.

What we need to so is
to add a copy transform,

source the armature

and source our body controller.

Then in the 3D view,

we will press Control + A

and apply the visual transform.

From there, we can get
rid of the constraint.

We now need to offset the empty.

So I will use the local space axis

and as you can see, I need to move forward

onto the y-axis.

The further you will move the empty,

the less influence it will have

because we are using
location to drive a rotation.

So for a given up and down motion,

the further I am, the
less rotation I will get.

So this is something you
will have to play with

to get used to.

In our specific case,

we don't really care since
we can move the empty

after we have baked its motion.

But to bake it, we need to
make it a child of the body.

So I will add to it a child of constraint,

source the armature,

then source the body bone,

click the set inverse option
to reset its position.

It now follows the body

and I can press Q to bake the action.

From there, I can select all the curve,

press Shift + E and make cycle.

For the time being,

I will only display the Z location curve

and I will jump onto the
controller of my body,

go to the bone constraint

and add a dump truck constraint.

As a target, we will source the empty

and we can see the body flipped

and that's perfectly normal

since the y-axis is pointing backward

in its positive direction.

To fix this, we simply need

to choose the minus y-axis as the track.

I can now press Control + Tab

to get back into object mode,

select the empty and
play with the z curve,

so I will frame the curve

and I will offset it
by two to three frame.

And we now get a bit of rotation

in our follow-through motion

and that's very cool.

What will be nice too

is to add a bit of side-to-side motion.

So I will head up to the x location curve

and I will offset it by only one frame

to keep it very subtle.

Again, it's a creative process.

If you want more left-to-right motion,

it's up to you to increase
the offset of the curve.

But since the weapon are
attached to the body,

I feel like we may not input
too much left to right motion.

So from there, I can bake
the action on the body.

For the time being,

then I will always create keyframes

on all the transformed channels,

including the scale that we don't use.

So we can get rid of those.

I'm pretty happy with
the body motion results,

so I will now work on the hips.

We have already animated
it a bit previously

but now I'd like to add a bit

of follow-through in its location

and also in its up and down rotation.

Let's repeat the process.

With the empty selected,

I will go to the constraint
and add the copy location.

I will source as the target the armature

and as the bone, the hips bone.

If you can't find it, it's
just further down in the list.

From there, we can press Q
to access our quick favorite

and bake the action of the empty.

Then select back the armature,

go into pose mode and with
the hips bone selected,

go to the bone constraint

and add a copy location constraint

and source the empty.

From there, let's exit pose mode

by pressing Control + Tab,

select DMT, select all its curve,

press Shift + E to make it cycle

and now I can select the Z location curve

by isolating the other ones.

And just offset it by a couple of frames.

Now again it's a matter
of taste and choice.

I feel like the amplitude

of the up and down motion
is a bit too extreme,

so I will get back onto the hips bone

by selecting the armature,

going back into pose mode

and in the constraint panel,

I will reduce the influence to 0.5

and double check how it looks.

I will test at 0.5

and then increase it a bit around 0.6

and since I'm quite happy with the result,

I will bake the action

by pressing Q, bake action

and overwrite current action.

We can now refine the
rotation of the hips.

So I will go back to the empty

and hide all the curve
and get rid of them.

Add onto it a copy transform constraint

and then in the 3D view,

I will press Control + A

and apply the visual transform.

We can see that the hips

are pointing forward
on their local y-axis.

So I will move the empty on the y-axis

but first, we need to
remove the constraint.

If you want, you can also
enable the axis display

of the empty.

That should help you to
figure on which axis you have

to offset it

but again, it's the y-axis.

We now need to make it
a child of the hips,

so we will go to the constraint,

add a child of constraint,

source the armature, source the hips bone

and don't forget to click
the set inverse button

to reset its position.

Then we can bake its action

and with all the curves
selected, press Shift + E

and choose make cycle.

I will now use a tracking constraint

to make the hips rotating

but since we have already animated them,

rotating from side to side,

instead of a dump truck constraint,

we will use a locked try constraint

and rotate around the x-axis of the hips.

With the rig selected,

I will get back into pose mode,

select the hips, go to the bone constraint

and add a locked track constraint.

I will source as a target the empty

and we want to point on the -y-axis

and rotate around the x-axis.

With this constraint, we
will only have the rotation

around the local x-axis of the hips,

the up and down rotation.

We can go back to object mode

and select the empty

and offset the Z location
curve of the empty.

This will create a slight
follow-through animation

of the hips.

I've used a 223 frame of offset.

As usual, you can choose
the offset you want.

You can choose the influence you want

and then just press Q

and bake the action onto the hips.

As I'm done, I will get
rid of the scale keyframe

because we don't need them.

From there, let's move onto the head.

We will repeat exactly the same workflow.

First, select the empty,
get rid of all the curves.

Then add to it a copy location constraint,

source the armature, then
source the head controller.

Then press Q and bake
the action on the empty.

Then go back onto the armature.

Select the head controller.

Go to the bone constraint,

add a copy location, source the empty,

go back onto the empty,

make all the curves cycling

by pressing Shift + E, make cycle

and then you can offset the curve

to get the follow-through motion.

So in the case of the head,

I prefer to offset the z-axis only

because I don't want to create
too much left to right swivel

of the head.

So I will reset the offset of the curve,

then select only the Z curve

and offset it by two or
three frame later in time.

Then I will select the x location curve

and I will offset it by only one frame

to get a bit of delay
or follow-through motion

on the left to right axis

but not as important as the up and down.

Try not to overdo all
those follow-through motion

or your robot will
really look very clanky.

So it might be a look you are aiming for

but if you want to make it robust,

don't overdo all those
follow-through motion.

When I'm happy with the
timing of this follow-through,

I can play with the
influence of the constraint

to reduce the amplitude of the motion.

So it seems I was happy
with an influence of 0.6

for the head motion.

So from there, I will get into pose mode

and press Q to bake the action

of the copy location constraint

onto the head bone.

Now, we will switch to aim space

to add a bit of rotation.

So I will select the empty,

get rid of all the curves,

add a copy transform constraint.

As a target, I will choose the armature

and the head bone.

Then in the 3D view,

I will press Control + A
and choose visual transform.

Get rid of the constraint.

Offset the empty on the y-axis.

Then we need to add to
it a child of constraint.

So I will select it, go to the constraint,

add the child of, source again our rig,

the head bone controller.

Set inverse to reset its position

and bake the action of the empty.

Now the empty's following
the motion of the head.

Now we can select the head,

add a dump truck constraint,

source the empty

and then flip the bone constraint

to the -y-axis.

I will select back the empty,

make all the curve cycle

and isolate the Z location curve.

I will offset it by four frame

to get enough amplitude of motion

but now what I'd like to do

is to smooth the curve.

We will have a smoother
rotation of the head

that will looks way heavier

but will also make the
robot look more robust.

If you want to have more
amplitude in the motion,

what you can do is switch
the curve editing pivot point

to bounding box and
scale it on the y-axis.

This will slightly increase
the up and down motion

of the empty and the rotation of the head.

Now I will try to spot these
little bounds in the curve.

You can then duplicate one of the keys

or add a key manually

and to get a smooth result,

I will select all the keys,

press V to set them to auto clamped.

From there, it will be pretty
easy to smooth the curve.

We just need to get rid
of some of the keys.

Just keep the keys that
are on the extreme.

Since our handle are
all set to auto clamped,

whenever we get rid of a keyframe,

Blender will automatically
try to keep the curve

as smooth as possible

without changing the extreme values.

So from there, you can
try to simplify the curve.

You can edit it, moving
the keys a little lower

or a little higher if you
want a bit more motion.

Just make sure that the
curve cycle on 72 frame,

meaning that the very first

and very last keys must be the same

and don't be afraid to fail.

If you fail, you just
need to rebake the curve.

So with this process,

you can be very creative for free.

So from there, what I wanted

is just to add a very
subtle left to right motion.

So I've slightly offset
the X location curve

of the empty so that the head

is dragging a bit left to right.

I used like one or two frame offset.

When you're happy with the result,

as usual, select back the armature,

go back into pose mode

and with the head bone selected,

just bake the action

and then clean any keyframes

that is unwanted, like on the
scale channel, for example.

I hope you're getting more familiar

with the space switching process.

In the next video, we will
do all the remaining pieces

of the robot the same way.