ALMOST SOLVED
Hello everyone,
so i'm using the default T-Rex character. I want him to enter the frame from the right, turn towards the camera, and then hang around. Easy enough: I use the template animations as follows: Run + Run and turn left + Idle. The character has a rotation value of 270 degrees, otherwise the T-Rex would walk straight to the camera instead of entering the frame from the right. Good.
Now I want the exact same thing but with him entering from the left. I repeat every step yet with a rotation of 90 degrees and use "Run and turn right", followed by idle. And here the funky bit starts.
I have the auto motion align set to position and rotation. But the dude suddenly aligns himself backwards, meaning he doesn't take the previous clip into account but instead rotates around so we see his back. No kind of manual aligning (right click -> align -> root etc) set him straight. This is frustrating beyond belief.
Then I found the "Motion Direction Control" by right-clicking. That very window had the "rotation" checkbox unchecked. i check rotation, click align, and now the Rex is facing the camera. Dandy. But now, no matter what alignment "bone" I choose (root, right foot etc), he is either offset half a meter into the air, or into the ground. This happens to me quite often, along with other inconsistencies that drive me mad. I had been animating in Blender before so i'm accustomed to the aligning process and offsetting the character etc. In iclone, if one function does not do what you expect, there's simply no accessible way to account for that. I.e., why can't I just drag in some animation, right click on it in the timeline, and enter a position / rotation offset without having to deal with keyframes 'n all.
Possibly, i'm missing some key functions here... so I'd be very grateful for any advice regarding the fixing of alignment issues like those.
Thanks a bunch in advance!
EDIT: The Motion Direction Control turns out to be the one and only way to offset a character's position and rotation without creating keyframes. When I switched to this tool, I had the transform gizmo enabled, meaning that I expected this very gizmo, upon moving, will create a keyframe. Hence, it took me a while to figure out what's what. I found in the manual that this tool has a totally different purpose... but there ya go. In any case, this thing stills creates bugs and weird results, but i'm at a point where i can (almost...) live with the hack. cheers...